Industrial piercing problems?

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Wednesday July 23rd, 2008 @ 9:07 PM

Filed under: Ear

Last week i got an industrial ear piercing. Today i noticed that down the outerside of my ear my skin has become very rough and almost scaley. The worst part is down my lower lobe which i thought was a bit strange. My ear has also been getting extremely hot and painful. I know that with a new piercing there is pain too be expected but is this thing caused by my industrial piercing or a different matter? Also i have been spraying my ear with a spray given to me by the piercer.

Thankyou.

I would suggest you go see your/a piercer as soon as you can.

My guess (and that’s all it is, since I can’t actually see your ear) is that you either have the beginning stages of an infection or there is something going on related to the size of the jewelry and/or the angles of the piercing.

While a true infection isn’t the most common thing with a piercing, the fact that you said the piercing is rough and scaley as well as being hot and painful, leads me to think an infection is a definite possibility in your case. An infection in a cartilage piercing is not something you want to let get out-of-hand. The nature of cartilage tissue allows infections to spread rapidly and also can make them difficult to deal with. Your piercer may not be able to tell you if you have an infection per se, but s/he should be able to rule out the other likely culprit…jewelry size/piercing angles.

If the barbell in your ear isn’t long enough to accommodate swelling which can occur and/or the angles of the piercing are off, causing the jewelry to put excess pressure on the piercings…you may get reactions like you are describing. In some cases, if the pressure is too much, it can trap lymph and other things your body tries to push out of the piercing, actually resulting in an infection.

If your piercer determines that all appears to be fine with the jewelry and placement, I would suggest you go see your doctor right away. If your piercer tries to tell you that what is happening is normal for an industrial piercing…they are full of crap…go to the doctor. Some soreness, a slight bit of swelling and a bit of redness are perfectly normal for an industrial. Scaley, roughness and throbbing hot pain are not normal.

I can’t comment on what your piercer told you to spray on your piercing without knowing what it is.
Best of luck.

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