2 month old piercings with Tygon: are they healing normally?
«« Eyeball Tattooing Chapped Lips »»
Tuesday November 11th, 2008 @ 3:11 AM
Filed under: Nipple
I got my nipples pierced about 2 months ago, 14g with Tygon. They’ve been doing fine for the most part– a little sore, and a lot of crusties, but other than that, they’ve been ok. But for the past few days, they’ve been really really sore and there have been more crusties than usual. Also, they smell really really bad and I’ve been doing a pretty good job cleaning and caring for them, so I don’t know where the smell is coming from. I moved the bars to the sides to clean the piercing and the bars kind of stuck to my skin and there was a pretty sharp pain. There’s a shooting pain going through the piercings right now and I’m not really sure what to do.
I guess my biggest question(s) are:
1. Is this normal for nipple piercings?
2. Does this have something to do with the Tygon? (since I guess Tygon is slightly controversial from what I’ve heard from different piercers)
Any help would be wonderful and greatly appreciated!! : )
I don’t think it’s normal to use tygon in nipple piercings, personally. After a month or two, the tygon must be switched out as your body begins to break it down causing (surprise!) crusties and weepy piercings, soreness, tissue adhering to the barbells themselves and a stench on them like grim death.
First off, see a piercer who is carrying implant grade barbells and have them fit you for a new (permanent!) set for your nipple piercings.
Secondly, stop moving the barbells to the side when your clean the piercing! Once you get some good jewelry in there you should see a huge decrease in discharge from the piercings.
Rinse any crusties off in running water and gently hold a clean cloth drenched in hot water on them for five minutes at a time. Some people like to do a little saline rinse which can help as well.
Don’t fuss over them too too much.
Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | Leave a comment | Trackback
Rate This Post
6 Responses to “2 month old piercings with Tygon: are they healing normally?”
I’ve had my nipples pierced for over four years now. They were done with SSS, and are snug but not too snug. They are by far my angriest piercings (the right one in particular). They don’t hurt all the time (not even close actually), but I know I’m getting sick when my nipples get mad
Kim on November 11th, 2008 at 2:01 pmWhat’s ‘tygon’ ?
Kitty Demon on November 11th, 2008 at 11:40 pmoh, man. i can sympathize with that pain. mine are fully healed and awesome with titanium anatometal in them, but skin will be skin and any time there’s a little discharge on the bar and i move them wrong and it gets pulled into the fistula….YOW. not good.
but jeezus, who the hell thinks it’s a good idea to put something in a fresh piercing that breaks down over time? especially in a long-healing piercing like nipples. that’s going to hurt like a bitch to get changed out.
AeChei on November 12th, 2008 at 6:41 pmKitty: Do a search for Tygon…You can search the internet or even search AskBME.
But simply put Tygon is a specific silicone hollow tubing that comes with ISO specs for bio-compatibility. They are used in a variety of specific things but the tygon that SHOULD be used is specifically for medical purposes. Temporary chest drainage tubes,etc.
Unfortunately a lot of problem is there’s a lot of speculation as to piercers/studios purchasing Silicone Tubing and not Tygon specifically. ie: to save a buck…Not only to save a buck but sheer ignorance on the piercers side, since hardly any do proper research into Tygon, PTFE, Metal types,etc,etc.
Kim: I say drop the “Surgical Stainless Steel” and go with some ASTM certified Implant Grade Titanium…Drop the zero and get with a hero!
Warren Hiller on November 12th, 2008 at 8:54 pmI’ve a similar problem with my cheeks. Pierced with PTFE, they’re now almost 2 years old, and though they’re healing fine on the inside of my mouth, there’s still noticeable redness and irritation around the outside - scarring and lymph discharge. I’d assumed I was just one of the unlucky people for whom cheek piercings heal with some difficulty, but perhaps the material might have something to do with the problem? I always thought PTFE was fine for healing/prolonged wear…
zenislev on November 13th, 2008 at 11:15 amzenislev: depends on who you talk to and the amount of research that went into learning about it.
It’s shocking to know that most piercers using Teflon(PTFE) or Tygon(Silicone Tubing) don’t even know the specific specs to look for to make sure its all safe (ie: the astm implant grade standards for PTFE or the ISO Specs on Biocompatibility in Tygon.)
They’re just taught to look for/use/buy PTFE and/or Tygon. They are NOT taught to only look for/use/buy a specific type of PTFE and/or Tygon.
Warren Hiller on November 14th, 2008 at 12:03 pmLeave a Comment