Aftercare

The best way to clean your piercing is to rinse it thoroughly under a direct stream of warm running water. Yes, that’s really it. We recommend doing this at the end of your daily shower, which allows the steam to soften any debris or “crusties” that may have built up on the jewelry and makes it super easy to rinse away. Be sure to pay extra attention to drying the piercing thoroughly on the front and the back, and attempt to keep wet hair off of it with bobby pins or by tying it up. You can use either a blow dryer on the cool setting or a clean paper towel to dry your piercing, but be sure to pat, don’t wipe. Excess moisture is a major cause of irritation, so never skip drying. Avoid getting any kind of soap or moisturizer on your piercing.

Crusty build up, some on and off bleeding, itching, redness, swelling, and dryness are all normal parts of healing. Removing your jewelry can cause it to close IMMEDIATELY, so keep your jewelry in unless you’re ready to permanently retire that piercing. Even fully healed piercings begin to shrink within minutes. You do not need to remove the jewelry to clean anything.

We expect the area to remain swollen for several weeks, and we recommend having shorter jewelry put in most piercings a few weeks to a few months after being pierced. This is called a downsize. Not all piercings need to be downsized, but if there’s extra space on your posts, be sure to set up a downsize appointment ASAP.

Fresh piercings heal from the outside in, so remember, it takes a lot longer for piercings to heal than it may appear from the outside. Everyone’s body will heal differently and it can take upwards of a full year for all of the damaged cells to fully regenerate and form a completely healed piercing channel, and complications can arise at any point during that process, so be patient, diligent, and always reach out if something feels off or you have any questions or concerns.

Don’t touch your piercing! Don’t twist it, play with it, or pick stuff off of it. This is the number one cause of complications and irritation.

-Don’t sleep on your piercing. This can cause major irritation and migration. For ear piercings, a travel or hemorrhoid pillow can be a great solution if you’re a side sleeper, as sleeping with your ear in the hole will relieve all of that pressure and help protect your piercings!

-Do not submerge your piercing in any body of water, pool, or bathtub for a minimum of eight weeks. This will expose your piercing to a ton of bacteria, putting you at risk for major infection.

-Do not use alcohol, peroxide, tea tree oil, or any sort of ointments. This will all cause severe irritation and can even result in chemical burns.

-Do not change your jewelry prior to your piercer’s recommendation.

-Avoid q-tips, cotton balls, or anything that may leave fibers behind. These can get tangled on the piercing and even find their way inside the piercing channel, which is super uncomfortable and causes a lot of irritation.

-Don’t listen to your friends. We know they mean well, but there is a huge amount of misinformation about body piercing floating around out there, and unfortunately it’s uncommon for someone to have accurate information unless they are a reputable body piercer. If you have any questions at all, please reach out either by phone during business hours or by email at pierceme@cowpok.com for assistance.

Hopefully this helps clear some things up and ease your mind, but if you still need help, please book an appointment for us to check out your piercing in person! We recommend booking this service as a jewelry change, which allows roughly ten minutes for a piercer to chat with you about what’s going on, totally free of charge.

We never, ever turn away emergent situations (such as unexpected severe swelling or embedded jewelry) at our door, so if you’re in pain and need urgent assistance, please just come right in at your earliest convenience so we can help you out any time between noon and six Monday through Saturday.

Irritation bumps are caused by irritation (naturally), and irritation can be caused by a whole bunch of things when a piercing is healing. Some of these things, like hormonal changes, immune responses to illness or stress, or rapid changes in weather are outside of your control and may resolve themselves over time. There are some other common irritants in your control that you’ll want to make sure you rule out first though:

Moisture - You should keep healing piercings as dry as possible during healing. When we see irritation bumps underneath large pieces of jewelry or behind the ears, it’s often due to excess moisture either from wet hair sitting on it for extended periods of time or just not drying thoroughly enough. After showers or compresses, you’ll want to pay extra attention to drying the front, back, and underneath the jewelry. Our favorite method for this is a blow dryer on the cool setting, or a clean paper towel also works great as long as you’re gentle and pat, don’t wipe. Avoid using cloth towels around your piercing as they’re more likely to snag on your jewelry, resulting in more irritation and sometimes even lost jewelry. Never use cotton swabs or pads, they’ll leave fibers behind that end up getting tangled in the piercing channel. It’s also imperative that you keep fresh piercings out of pools, lakes, oceans, and hot tubs for a minimum of 6-8 weeks.

Hair and Skin Products - Do not use soap. Do your very best to keep at least a dime sized area around your piercing completely clean of any lotions, oils, or hair products. If you’re finding this difficult to avoid often, a great option is either sterile saline spray or saline wipes to use after you apply any products to the area, just be sure to dry the area thoroughly afterwards as discussed above. You should never, ever treat an irritation bump with any kind of oil, soap, or ointment.

Touching/Physical Irritation - Back in the day, it was common advice to twist your jewelry so skin wouldn’t “grow over it”, however this was actually a myth born from low quality, ill fitting jewelry and in reality you should never touch, twist, play with, or pick stuff off of your piercings. You should also avoid sleeping on your piercings and, in the case of ear piercings, avoid contact with cell phones on that side. Hands and phones are both ripe with bacteria that can cause some pretty gnarly irritation or even infection, and the jostling itself will also cause irritation. Travel or hemorrhoid pillows are awesome for healing ear piercings, because resting your ear in the hole will relieve all of the pressure that will irritate your piercing!

Nutrition and Hydration - We’re not doctors and we’re not nutritionists, we don’t have a piercing diet or anything like that, but piercings heal better when your body is functioning at full capacity, and drinking plenty of water and eating enough food plays a huge role in that. Stay hydrated and sparkly! Keep in mind that piercing flare ups are common when you’re sick, pregnant, or otherwise working with a strained immune system, even in well healed piercings.

Wait until you visit a piercer before you make that call.