Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:25 PM
Hey, I had my lip pierced (16 gague) in early July and as I’m looking at new jewellry to buy, I’ve noticed that most of what I want is in 14 gague. I keep reading references to stretching the piercing, but nothing that says anything specific on HOW. Is there a page I’m missing, or what?
This is my first ever piercing (other than my ears) so if I’m asking something completely stupid here, please let me know. =]
–Tori
The size difference between a 16g and a 14g is only about half a milimeter, but can be tough to stretch depending on the jewelry you’re using.
A piercer would be able to gently slide a long insertion taper which will very gradually spread the piercing open to slide in a 14g instead of forcing a blunt 14g post straight through.
It’s quite easy to stretch and probably won’t cause you much, if any, discomfort.
0 / 0 votes 
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Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:24 PM
Hey guys,
I had my eyebrow pierced a few months ago, took it out just recently, and it closed up. I would like it re-pierced on the same eyebrow, but there is still a little bump under the skin like you would have from an earlobe piercing. It doesn’t hurt and it was not infected…just wondering if there’s any harm in getting it redone in the next couple months or so. A friend of mine is a piercer and says that is okay, but some other people are advising against it..
If you’re leaving a good two or three months before repiercing, you shouldn’t have a problem having it repierced in the same area.
0 / 0 votes
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | Comments
Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:20 PM
Filed under: Nipple
I got both of my nipples pierced August 27th, 2009. As of today, it is September 19th, 2009. So they have been pierced for about three weeks now. The healing has been going fairly well, although I feel that my left nipple is struggling along a bit more than my right nipple, and still has pain from time to time and seems to crust up and ooze a lot more than my right nipple does. I’ve noticed that it appears to be pierced a bit deeper than my right nipple, slightly out into the areola. I also have some concerns that perhaps the barbell is too short. Since I’ve had these concerns, I was thinking I should stop by my piercing shop where I had it done, and have them evaluate it. However, I also trust BME as a highly educated source of advice and information so I thought there was no harm asking here while I wait to visit my piercer.
I included a composite picture so that you could see what I’m dealing with. I’ve also drawn some arrows and dots to illustrate my concerns. The white dot represents where I feel the nipple actually ends on my left breast, and where… perhaps… the barbell should have emerged from. I am not a piercer, though, so I defer to whatever advice you may have to give.
Is this simply a matter of “leave it be?” Or a matter of getting a longer barbell? Or, is the advice to remove the left barbell and eventually redo the left piercing? As I said, it appears to be coming along… but it has good days and bad days, whereas the right nipple seems to have mostly good days.
If the advice is to insert a longer barbell, should I do that immediately, or wait a specified number of weeks?
As for my aftercare, I used antibacterial soap just the first week, and every week thereafter, I have been doing one 10 minute sea salt soak per day with inverted disposable cups at the rate of 1/4 tsp of sea salt per 8oz of water. After soaking, I rinse in the shower and gently clean any leftover crust with a new and clean q-tip. I try to avoid moving the barbells more than I have to, and I never spin them.
While I think the left piercing looks like it was pierced a wee bit deeper on the one side, I don’t think it’s that big a deal at this point.
I do think you could benefit from slightly longer barbells though.
I wouldn’t suggest antibacterial soap. Just give them a nice hot water rinse twice a day in the shower just before you get out. If you’d like to irrigate with saline that’s fine, but I wouldn’t apply it with Q-tips as they can leave little fibres behind.
0 / 2 votes
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Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:17 PM
Filed under: Ear
I have three standard lobe piercings in each ear; two sets were gunned and one set was needles. They are the usual 20ga holes you wear regular “fashion” earrings in.
I want to get high-quality jewelry to wear in these holes full-time. I prefer stud-type, not hoops, and I would like it to be a good-quality metal. My absolute ideal would be 20ga titanium labret studs, but such a thing either doesn’t exist or is extremely hard to find. I have found 20ga CBRs, including titanium ones, but I just cannot find anything remotely stud-like.
Would any type of nose jewelry, which is often found in a small size like 20ga, be suitable for ear piercings? I prefer not to size up because I want to be able to wear “fashion” jewelry on special occasions. I’m actually thinking about nose bones - is there any possibility they could be worn securely in earlobes? What do you recommend?
There are several jewelry companies who make tiny-gauge implant grade jewelry for earlobes!
Check out Neometal!
You may also consider stretching your ears up to a 16g - which is still plenty small enough to wear costume jewelry in (many gold butterfly back studs are 16-14g)
at a 16g you’ll have all kinds of options for gemmed labret barbells, cbrs, circular barbells without stretching your ears up too much that costume jewelry would just hang out of.
+3 / 3 votes 
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Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:13 PM
Filed under: Ear
YEAH, I GOT IT LIKE 3 DAYS AGO,
info:
-16g SSS- (SOME NUMBER I DONT REMEMBER) cbr
-(im american so they didnt use a catheter needle)
-and FREAKIN’ ITCHY (well off and on, like it randomly decides to get itchy then it goes away then it comes back.
im using a spray-on saline solution to clean it.
- i got a true daith so its kinda hard to see the entry and exit but theres no inflammation or any visible irritation from what i can tell (with two mirrors and a flashlight)
-one little wierd thing:
when i got it i didnt feel any pain. just a little pressure, thats it. (is this a problem? because i hear theyre supposed to actually hurt.)
———————-
3 QUESTIONS:
WHY didnt I FEEL ANY PAIN?
WHYZ IT SO FREAKIN’ ITCHY?
HOW CAN I SOOTH THE ITCH BESIDES MOVING THE CBR AROUND?
Pain is personal to everyone. Chances are you have a higher pain tolerance and this piercing just didn’t cause you a lot of discomfort.
Fresh piercings are often kinda itchy while your piercing begins to heal. With swelling coming up and down it causes changes in the skin - stretching it up and relaxing it - and that can cause a prickly, tingly feeling. The salt in the saline can be a tad drying and lead to some itchiness as well.
Do not move the CBR around. That will irritate the crap out if it. If it itches, give it a little rinse off in warm water.
+1 / 3 votes 
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | 1 Comment
Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:12 PM
Hi,
Have you ever heard of a Hafada piercing that has created a keloid? My scarring process is quite bad, and most of my wounds end up creating keloids (real ones, according to my dermatologist), but I would think a scrotal piercing would not have those issues.
Thanks!
If you are prone to actual keloid scarring it doesn’t matter where on your body - if you wound the tissue, you are at risk of a keloid scar.
+2 / 2 votes
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Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:07 PM
Filed under: Nose
I got my nostril pierced yesterday by a reputable piercer and wanted to make sure that from the get-go I was taking care of it properly. The aftercare instructions I received included applying a saline solution twice daily (and whenever the piercing may have been exposed to dirt, sweat, etc.), soaking it in hot water at least once a day for 10 minutes (and stated that the more it was soaked the better off it would be), and other than that to just LITHA. I was wondering if distilled water was a necessity or if I would be fine just using tap water for the hot water soaks? Also, how many times daily should I soak the piercing? Thanks in advance.
Piercers tend to have very differing aftercare, unfortunately.
I think you’re on the right track with your current regime. Here’s where I differ:
-Rather than soak the piercing in hot water, I tell my clients to stick their nose directly under a warm running faucet for about 5 minutes. This still encourages circulation and drainage from the piercing site, but with a constant flow of fresh water.
If you’d like to irrigate the piercing out with saline after that, go for it!
For the same reason piercers suggest not to submerge fresh piercings in bathtubs is the same reason I don’t like the idea of sticking a body part into a cup of water.
As far as the distilled water thing goes, depending on where you are: sure. Where I come from has some of the best tap water in North America.
Remember that there aren’t a lot of regulations for bottled water - so whereas the water may be treated and distilled and whathaveyou, the bottles rarely have a standard as to how they’re handled and treated beforehand.
0 / 0 votes
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | 1 Comment
Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:05 PM
Filed under: Nose
Hey, I have already searched the Kaos jewelry website for a place to ask a question, and there isn’t one, so I thought I would try here! =) Their website is full of information about wearing kaos plugs in lobes and cartilage piercings, but no where else on the body…
I am in the process of stretching my septum piercing (Probably stopping at a 6 or 4 gauge). I know that they don’t advice you to stretch with kaos jewelry (in ears), so I’m not using it to stretch my septum either. BUT, I am just curious if kaos jewelry would be alright to wear in a septum piercing once it’s healed? Thanks in advance!
You’re right in not wanting to stretch with Kaos, but lots of people find Kaos silicone eyelets and plugs to be very very comfortable in septum and large gauge nostril piercings! It’s nice stuff!
+1 / 1 votes
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | 1 Comment
Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:00 PM
Filed under: Ear
Okay well first things first, excuse me for the bad picture quality, I don’t have a camera!
So, I got my ears cut from 3/4 to 1 1/8 about a month ago, and yes we did end up removing a bit of skin that we didn’t plan on removing but as far as I know, that hasn’t done too much damage. I got them cut to redirect, blah blah, I’m sure whoever answers this will know why people get their lobes scalpelled.
Anyways my left lobe, the one in the picture, ended up a little overcut so my artist put in a suture that night.
Well, since about the first week after I had them cut, both have developed blowouts. I talked to my artist about it and he says it’s from the thicker part of my ear getting stretched and sort of turned inside out and will go away once I start up doing massages again. I believe him and trust him but just want to make sure that makes sense to you guys! Do you agree that it will go away with time and massages?
Also, as you can see in the picture there is a white spot in the top of my lobe. I’m scared it’s cartilage! My piercer hasn’t really given me a straight answer as to what it is but says it will go away.. I can hardly see it when I take my plugs out for cleaning, and it doesn’t seem any more sensitive than the rest of the still open area of my lobe. What do you think it could be?
And my third concern, the stuff that I believe is lymph that’s coming from them smells so god damn awful. Literally I took my plugs out and cleaned them (the plugs, not my lobes) 25 minutes ago and they smelled already RIGHT away. I’m not really sure if the lymph and dead cells and all that good stuff that always comes from piercings is always this stinky or if I’m only noticing it because it’s in a larger concentration so close to my nose? and it isn’t like normal plug funk buildup but has the same smell. Is this normal for cut lobes?
I’ve been on a strictly sea salt soaks only aftercare routine, other than taking out the plugs and cleaning those(the plugs, NOT my ears) with dye free and fragrance f
oooh…that ear does not look very happy.
If the piercer who cut your lobes just cut a slit straight up, or back without removing any tissue - they did it wrong.
You need to remove a tiny piece (especially with as large a jump as 11/16 - 1-1/18″!!)
If that’s the way it was done (just cut straight up or back in a single slice) then it’s highly likely that you’d have large pieces of tissue blowouts. Those will have to be removed as well.
There’s a very good chance that that white bit is exposed cartilage. If it is, you’ll probably want to have a professional (not the guy you saw initially) to have that patched up. That will cause you serious discomfort. I have no idea how a single suture to close up a length of cut would work… I have a bad taste in my mouth about all of this.
As for the smell - pretty normal with large healing wounds. Make sure you’re keeping the area very clean and keeping your hands off it.
+4 / 4 votes
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | 1 Comment
Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 2:56 PM
Filed under: Nipple
Im getting really frustrated with my vertical piercings, got them done approx 2 years ago and they are still not fully healed. The right one is mostly there i believe, still gets stuff on them everyday though,crusties and/or a little bit of scabbing now and again.. i clean this off everynight with warm water. The Left one is not so happy though, its been a bit of a problem since the day i got it done, its a little deeper than the rite one as well. This one has a bump next to the bottom hole, it gets flared up and quite sore from time to time, its got a thin scaley skin on top of it… i can pretty much always feel that the piercing is there throughout the day,little pains here and there kinda thing.. This one tends to bleed with the slightest aggrivation as well… 
- Note that when they were done, the piercer put waaaaay to short barbells in! I got these changed after much pain and the ball ends sinking in and making craters in my skin, Since i had recently changed over my monroe piercing to bioplast, i asked if this was a good idea for my nipples as well, she said yes. was this rite? They seemed fine for the first while, but lately seem like they barbells are still kind of short for the peircing… -
As for care, all i have been doing is cleaning them off every night before bed with warm water, and using a gentle soap around the area and rinsing them off when im in the shower. I try to bug them as little as possible…
I knew what my doctor would say, but i asked him the other day what he suggests and he said to “Take Them Out Immediately!”, when i voiced my concern about taking an angry piercing out, he said to do it anyways, and see how they heal up… i asked if there was anything i needed to use specifically, and he said no, just take them out, and if they dont heal, come back….. this doesnt seem rite to me … not to mention i do kinda wanna keep them.. but i am willing to take them out at this point if they arnt going to heal….
Sorry for the Novel to read…. ANy suggestions at this
Don’t wear bioplast. That stuff is garbage.
While my advice does not supercede the advice of any medical professional, my personal opinion is this:
If you think you need longer barbells in your nipple piercings - go get ‘em!
Vertical nipple piercings tend to be a bit fussier than horizontal ones depending on the shape of the breast and can often run into issues with swelling.
You piercer may have miscalculated the length of the barbells still as well as the size of the balls themselves.
Keep up with your aftercare regime. Sounds simple enough! Although I’d do the soap around the surrounding area FIRST and then flush the piercings out withs saline later.
0 / 0 votes
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | Comments
