Tuesday December 9th, 2008 @ 2:53 PM
Filed under: Ear
i got a 4th hole in my lobe about 3 months ago and it was doing fine for about 3 weeks and then it started to bleed and crust alot. i has continued to bleed and crust every day since, i’ve been cleaning it 6% hydrogen peroxide (Which i have used on every one of my other piercings and it’s worked a treat) but this time it isn’t working.
i’ve seen my piercer and she’s just told me to continue with the peroxide and give it time.
all my other piercings have stopped bleeding and crusitng within three months (including my vertical industrial) so i’m a bit miffed about this one!
I don’t wear steel as i have a reaction to it, so I have a titanum BCR in.
Hydrogen peroxide is a skin irritant. It’s great for cleaning sloughy wounds buit will irritate the crap out of a fresh piercing. You are lucky that you have been fine with it in the past. Try twice daily seasalt soaks and don’t turn the jewellery.
+8 / 8 votes 
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Posted by Tiff Badhairdo | Permalink | 5 Comments
Tuesday December 9th, 2008 @ 2:41 PM
Filed under: Ear
About a month ago my ear lobe skin started getting dry. I told myself that it would go back to normal in a few days, but it never did. I clean my ears daily with Dove Soap (Non-Perfumed) since I’m allergic to what my piercer gave me (Baxedin). I have no idea why I have this and I’d really love for everything to go back to normal without closing my lobes.
Below are some pictures.
http://i37.tinypic.com/1zph89i.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/2zp4e82.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/2ry33bt.jpg
Can anyone help?
Thanks,
Sean.
Ooh deary me. OK, well, it would help to know what jewellery you wear. It could be that your ears don’t like your choice of material. I would ditch the soap for now and just clean with warm water when you shower etc. Try massaging with a little cocoa butter or vitamin E cream/oil or try Holey Butt’r. It’s no secret that Holey Butt’r is my prefered lobe treat.
Also, as you pinpointed the time that this started to occur, have a think and see if you changed any of your products during that period, including jewellery. Feel free to shoot it with us in the comment forum below.
+8 / 8 votes
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Posted by Tiff Badhairdo | Permalink | 6 Comments
Tuesday December 9th, 2008 @ 2:30 PM
Filed under: Ear
So I have had my left ear pierced for at least 3 years, and I never wore an earring. I started gauging it a couple of months ago, and it’s at a 4g now. I am pleased with it, but I want to pierce my right and do the same, to make it match. I don’t want to “wait 6 weeks”, so is it okay to start right after a week or so, or should I wait the whole 6 weeks?
I am trying to be polite here, but questions like this make me want to pull what little hair I have out.
You should wait at least four MONTHS before you start to stretch a fresh earlobe piercing. So, you have stretched from a standard ear piercing to 4g in only eight weeks? My friend, you have the world wide web at your disposal. if you do a little research you will see that you are going about it the right way to do damage to yourself. I suggest you dedicate an evening to using the search function on your browser and see what gems it throws up. As you aren’t even prepared to take your piercers advice regarding a six week wait, which in my opinion is far too soon anyway, I deeply doubt you will take my advice of waiting four months. Please, prove me wrong. If you want instant gratification, then get pierced at a larger gauge to start with but please, heed my advice with regards to healing time and stretching.
+31 / 35 votes 
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Posted by Tiff Badhairdo | Permalink | 12 Comments
Sunday December 7th, 2008 @ 12:36 PM
Filed under: Ear
hi,
i got my rook pierced about a month ago, and it was doing fine up until a few days ago where i noticed this bump near the top hole.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g247/city__noise/IMGP4017.jpg
is this hypertrophic scarring / keloiding, or something else? at the moment i’m doing sea salt soaks twice a day for 10 minutes, as recommended by my piercer, and haven’t been touching it or sleeping on it. there’s not really any pain either, and the bump isn’t very noticeable when looking at it, only when you take a photo and zoom in, as it’s hard to see due to the location of the piercing.
what should i do?
It’s crusting up alot and yes, there appears to be formation of hypertrophic scarring there which is most likely caused by irritation. Now, it’s hard to tell from the picture as I cannot see where the piercing exits but the possible cause could be that the jewellery you have in there is a little too short which will prevent the piercing from draining properly. I would suggest seeing your piercer as they will be able to tell you whether or not you need a slightly longer bar and as it is a young piercing it’s best to get them to switch it out for you rather than purchasing a sterilised bar and doing it yourself. Good good on the seasalt soaks - make sure you use a very mild concentration (roughly 1/8th tsp to 200mls water).
+4 / 4 votes
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Posted by Tiff Badhairdo | Permalink | Comments
Sunday November 30th, 2008 @ 10:57 AM
Filed under: Ear
I am not new to piercing, but I am unsure what to do for the latest one. It’s a helix, did it 4 days ago, seemed to be going fine but last night and this morning it bled quite a bit during the salt soak. The water in the shot glass became red.( hot water twice a day for 10 min.). Should I stop soaking it?? What should I do?
Please tell me…
Thank you!
It’s not uncommon for fresh cartilage piercings to spot-bleed during the first few days, and you should DEFINITELY avoid soaking it if it is still spot-bleeding, otherwise you’re just encouraging it to bleed more. Soaking a bleeding wound in hot water is a pretty well-known way to prevent coagulation, but it’s surprising how many people don’t make the connection to apply that to a bleeding piercing. 
It’s ok to give salt soaks a miss at first, especially if they’re doing more harm than good!
+9 / 9 votes
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Posted by Lori St.Leone | Permalink | 12 Comments
Sunday November 30th, 2008 @ 10:50 AM
Filed under: Ear
Brr! Winter’s coming to New England again, and I’m not sure what’s best to wear in my stretched lobes. Steel? Stone? Silicone? (My lobes don’t seem to like wood for long periods of time.)
How can I give my piercings some cold-weather TLC?
Thanks very much!
When I lived in Alaska, I always liked wood or horn jewellery in the wintertime! Wood does dry out quickly in dry, cold weather, so keep your organics well-oiled to keep your ears happy. Otherwise, why not try out silicone? Out of the options you’ve listed, that seems the least likely to chill quickly to me!
+4 / 6 votes
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Posted by Lori St.Leone | Permalink | 6 Comments
Saturday November 22nd, 2008 @ 10:16 PM
Filed under: Ear
Okay so i bought PTFE Thread Seal Tape and i taped around one of my plugs like 5 times just to start off with. I lubed up the plug and popped it in with no force at all, but then about an hour later i went to twist the plug because I do that from time to time after stretching and it wouldn’t twist. I tried to take it out, but the plug was stuck. I could not get it out and so by this point I was freaking out thinking i bought the wrong tape or something. I got it out and ripped the tape off and popped it back in but im confused.
Basically what I’m asking is.. is this normal? did i buy the wrong tape or something? should i have waited longer?
few things could’ve been cause of the issue:
You may have wrapped it too much from the giddyup. Maybe your lobe just wasn’t ready for that much of a bridge to fill in the gap.
So maybe you should’ve waited longer or maybe you should’ve used less tape.
Also - please dont rotate (o twist, or pull) your body jewelryl. It doesn’t have to move freely in the tissue and few people’s do.
Teflon tape though soft and thin isn’t smooth like glass or steel and to force it back and forth on your delicate lobes!
+12 / 12 votes
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | 3 Comments
Saturday November 22nd, 2008 @ 10:11 PM
Filed under: Ear
I have 4 piercings in each ear starting at the lobe and ending right before the cartridge starts. I’ve had these piercings for 8 years now with no problems until recently. My problem is with the 3rd and more-so 4th hole closest to the cartilage on my right ear. It’s REALLY hard for me to rotate the CBRs and is quite uncomfortable when I do. All of my jewelry is 316L stainless steel including the CBRs. I’ve replaced the jewelry hoping maybe that would help, but the problem still persists. What should I do?
316L stainless steel is crap metal for body jewelry and not mean for wear under your skin. That could be why it’s causing you problems.
Secondly, why are you rotating your jewelry? You don’t need to do that.
+5 / 21 votes 
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | Comments
Saturday November 15th, 2008 @ 3:04 PM
Filed under: Ear
I’ve had my ears stretched for a while now and I keep getting this build up on the tunnels I have in. I try and keep my ears clean but they also give off a slight smell. Is this common? What can i do about it? Thanks.
That build-up you get is a collection of skin oils and dead skin cells that collect on your jewelry. Just like the skin cells die and slough off the rest of you body, they do the same thing with stretched ears. Generally the bigger the lobes, the more build-up because there is more surface area of skin. The smell that goes with that build-up is normal…albeit potentially gross.
You have a few options:
The easiest is to simply wash your lobes and your jewelry (assuming it’s steel, titanium or stone) each day. It doesn’t take much effort or much time.
Another option would be to change to some sort of a natural jewelry, such as horn, bone, wood, bamboo etc. These material are more porous than steel, titanium acrylic, glass or stone and will therefore absorb some of the oils and skin cells, reducing the amount of build-up and the therefore the smell.
Depending upon the size of your lobes, and how well they stay stretched, you could try not wearing jewelry while you sleep. This will allow the tissue to breath and dry out at night, helping to reduce the build-up.
You could try massaging your lobes with something like Emu Oil or Holey Buttr stretched lobe creme. These types of products can help increase the overall health of your stretched lobes, which will often reduce the amount of build-up you get.
Best of luck!
+14 / 16 votes
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Posted by Derek Lowe | Permalink | 4 Comments
Tuesday November 11th, 2008 @ 2:57 AM
Filed under: Ear
Quick question about stretched earlobes:
Does the hole continue to get larger and larger with time? (yknow, due to gravity and age and all). If this is true, how long would you suggest til one start considering gradually wearing bigger jewelry? Is this common?
I stretched my ears probably about 1 or 2 years ago to about a 9/16″, and have been wearing quartz/natural stone plugs since. They seem to be getting loose, and sometimes they slide out while I’m just here infront of the computer.
What you’re describing is the actual correct way to stretch your earlobes. Slowly, gradually and with no force.
The tissue WILL relax over time and allow for the next size jewelry to slip in with no trauma. This is the reason some people choose to use PTFE tape to help bridge the gap between sizes!
+8 / 8 votes
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | 4 Comments
