When you get a new body piercing, lots of very well meaning but very wrong people are going to give you some advice on how to heal this. As I discussed in my guide to Piercing Healing Times there’s no miracle cure or product that will heal your piercing in six weeks or less – if they claim to, trust me, they are just trying to sell you something!

So, here is my matter-of-fact guide to body piercing aftercare, exactly as I will tell you it at your appointment.

Leave it the hell alone.

In the first instance, I always recommend starting with LITHA aftercare (or, Leave It The Hell Alone, sometimes also referred to as LIFA, but I will let you figure out that one yourself…)

LITHA aftercare does not mean abandoning your new piercing to thoughts and prayers. What it does mean is taking a shower each day, and at the end of your shower, taking a moment to mindfully rinse your piercing with the warm shower water. Nothing too high pressure, nothing too hot – just the temperature you would comfortably shower at. It’s important to do this at the end of your shower, as the last thing you do before getting out, so that it not only cleans your piercing, but also removes any residual soap/shampoo/body wash/other products you might have used in the shower.

The next step in LITHA is drying your piercing. This step is arguably more important than rinsing it thoroughly with the water. A wound that cannot dry, cannot drain, and it tends to get quite gross quite quickly. In addition, bacteria like warm, moist environments most to grow in. So, we really want to make sure we keep the area nice and dry. You can use a hairdryer on a cool setting for this, but if your hairdryer is a little bit older and maybe has built up some gunk on the inside, I’ll leave it your own judgement on if this is something we should be spraying into a fresh wound! Alternatively, fresh clean disposable kitchen towel can also be used to gently but thoroughly dry your piercing. If you have ear piercings, it’s also very important to thoroughly dry your hair after a shower too – there’s not point in diligently drying your ear, and then letting wet hair run all over it!

sterile saline

Sterile saline is a great product, and I really do like it. However, I do feel like it takes some practice to really nail down when to apply the sterile saline, how much to apply, and perfect it. If you do choose to use sterile saline, limit this to once per day, you’ll want to spritz both the front and back of your piercing, before thoroughly drying it (yes, sterile saline still counts as moisture!).

Sterile saline is great for people who, for whatever reason, do not take a shower every day, or perhaps simply don’t have one at home! It’s also great for people who feel like having that product and actively “doing” something to care for their piercing provides them reassurance.

Ensure that what you are buying is just sterile saline. I really like the brand Neilmed – I sell it in the studio, or you can buy it online, I try to ensure the prices are the same either way. Contact lens solutions and wound wash available from the first aid section of pharmacies are not sterile saline – the contain additional ingredients which make them super good for eyeballs but not so amazing for piercings, and they also are not in a container that keeps them sterile.

Downsizing

You will be advised at your appointment of when your downsizing date will be – but most piercings do require a downsize.

Downsizing simply means that we are switching out the longer labret or barbell you were initially pierced with for something shorter and better fitting, now that the inflammatory stage of healing is over.

Downsizing is very important to piercing healing. If jewellery is left too long – particularly in ear cartilage piercings – the excessive length can act as a lever whilst you are sleeping, causing the piercing to become quite severely off-angle and effect how it looks. The longer jewellery also increases the risk of snagging or catching your piercing, which can cause tiny tears and set back your healing process (it’s also really going to hurt!). As an added bonus, well-fitting jewellery is also less likely to snag, catch or otherwise find itself going missing – and no one wants to lose their nice jewellery!

Some piercings do require multiple downsizes, however you will always be advised of this clearly at your appointment.

What not to do

• Twisting your piercings should be avoided – in fact, I would advise you to only touch it with freshly washed hands to dry the piercing, and to occasionally check your attachments for tightness. The idea of twisting body jewellery is a hangover from how we used to perform piercings as far back as the Victorian age, when piercings were performed with a needle and thread. Don’t worry, things have improved quite considerably since the days of needles and thread!
• Homemade salt water solutions. We have all heard it – boil a kettle, add a pinch of salt, stir it, and somehow apply to your piercing. This might not have been the worst idea in the world ten years ago when sterile saline products were not so readily available, but it’s a pretty terrible idea now. Sterile saline used for piercing healing is isotonic, meaning it is the same level of “saltiness” as your skin – that’s 0.9%, a solution it would be damn near impossible to make at home. In addition, it’s not sterile. This type of aftercare is extremely abrasive and drying to your skin.
• Oils, specifically tea tree oil. This is an urban legend that just doesn’t seem to want to die, but applying tea tree oil (especially not sufficiently diluted) to your skin is actually quite dangerous – it runs the risk of a pretty adverse reaction, and of burning your skin. Tea tree oil is often used as a natural remedy to kill head lice – if something can kill head lice, we certainly do not want it to be on a fresh wound!
• Hydrogen peroxide – I mean, it’s really not something to put anywhere on your body, never mind on a fresh wound!
• Anything your mum used when you fell over and skinned your knee as a kid. This is going to include products like – antiseptics, antibacterial agents, Germolene, Bactine, TCP, etc. Perhaps not the worst idea if you skin your knees in a filthy car park, but far, far too harsh for use on a new body piercing.

If you have any questions regarding piercing aftercare not covered here, please do not hesitate to reach out to me on Instagram – @doingtheunstuck