Whether you are thinking about getting your ear lobes pierced or you are considering something more exotic, you will find that the jewelry that you choose has a lot to do with how well things go. Body piercing involves puncturing your skin and creating an open wound that then needs to be encouraged to heal around a foreign object. The more you know about good body jewelry, the better off you will be when it comes to healing your piercing without infection or rejection.
What Can Go Wrong?
There are two main reasons to choose the right body jewelry when you are getting pierced. The first reason is infection. If you are wearing jewelry that you are allergic to, you will find that the piercing will swell and redden. It might constantly itch, it might produce a lot of pus and it might lead to scarring. The second reason to choose high-quality jewelry is that it reduces the chance of rejection. For several reasons, poor jewelry can migrate; as the body heals, instead of growing securely around the jewelry, it starts to push it out. This can lead to scarring and toughened tissue where the piercing should be, making re-piercing a pain.
Find a Good Piercer
The best way to get great body jewelry and to get a good piercing experience is to find a good piercer. Look for good reviews online, and visit the shop before you decide on it. We talked with BodySparkle Body Jewelry about this topic and they added, “Make sure that they use single-use needles for their piercings, that they either get their jewelry sealed or they autoclave it before inserting it, and that they use new gloves for every piercing.”
Avoid Jewelry Kiosks
While many people think of jewelry kiosks at the mall as the best place to get pierced, the truth is that you are far better off at a specialty shop that works with body modifications. Kiosks use piercing guns instead of single use needles, and there is no way to sanitize a piercing gun. According to the New York Times, an outbreak of an antibiotic resistant strain of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa was traced to a piercing gun.
Materials
When you are looking at jewelry for a piercing, it is in your best interests to stick with the most non-reactive materials around. Surgical steel is the preferred jewelry for new piercings, as it is extremely unlikely to cause a reaction. PTFE jewelry, which is a synthetic material that has some flex to it, is a good choice for piercings that are prone to rejection.
Depending on the type of piercing you get, natural materials like wood and stone can also be used, though unless they are treated properly, they can lead to infections that start in miniscule cracks on their surfaces. Titanium is another good choice, and it comes in a wide variety of colors.
Shapes
Different piercings require different pieces of jewelry. For example, if you are going to do a surface piercing, like a nape piercing, you should not use a straight barbell. Instead, a staple-shaped barbell or a barbell with a flexible shaft is essential. Some shape of some piercing jewelry is going to be determined by your preference or by your piercer’s experience. Nipple piercings can use either barbells or rings, for example.
When in doubt about the shape of the jewelry, defer to your piercer’s expertise. After the piercing is healed, you can often swap in the jewelry that you wanted in the first place.
Good Cleaning Helps
No matter what kind of body piercing jewelry you use, remember CNN states that piercing care is an important part of healing a piercing. Do not touch the piercing unless your hands are utterly clean. When you shower, apply a small amount of antibacterial soap to the area and rinse carefully. Watch the wound to make sure that it does not seep or bleed after the initial piercing is done.
Getting a body modification is something that requires a lot of thought. Consider how the jewelry that you purchase can affect the way the healing process goes!