How to Properly Care for a Belly Piercing
It's got to be the most popular place to get a piercing second only to the ears. Yet the details on what to do once you've got a belly button piercing are fuzzier than my favorite teddy bear. I've run the gamut of tricks and tips, and decided I couldn't be the only one wandering aimlessly through the land of confusion without a map. If you've been wanting to get your belly button pierced, or have it pierced and don't know why it wont heal, this should help
Things You'll Need:
A pierced belly button
Surgical steel ring or belly jewel
A shot glass
Table or Sea salt
Antibacterial Soap
A clean towel or washcloth
Patience
Step
1
Expectation: It's important to know what you've just gotten yourself into. A belly button piercing is one of the hardest piercings to heal, and takes the longest. Some people can heal in as fast as two or three months. For others, it can take up to a year. If your piercing artist tells you a couple weeks, forget it. Not going to happen. Know that this will take a while, and you'll have tons more patience as it gets further into the healing process.
Step
2
Resistance: After you've gotten your belly button pierced, your natural inclination will be to mess with it. Spin the ring, or tweak the jewel, pull on your tummy so you can see it better. DONT. You've just had a piece of metal shoved through
your
skin
where metal was not supposed to go. It's a wound, and needs clean conditions to heal properly. Each time you tug on it you aggravate the edges of the wound. The more you leave it alone, the quicker it will heal. The only time you should mess with the piercing is when you clean it.
Step
3
Endurance: The first week of your piercing will be the best you'll have during the healing process. The skin is smooth and clear, you can wear those short tops that show off the new decoration. You might want to take pictures now, so that in two months when you're tired of messing with it, you can look back and see how killer your tummy will look when it's all said and done.
Your piercing will require attention every other day if not every day. It wont take long, fifteen minutes at the most, which includes prep and actual cleaning. For some you'll just be able to add a short routine to your shower, for others it'll take that extra step. Don't fall into the same trap I did: Oh, it's been long enough, I don't need to care for it every day, every two or three days should be plenty. Nope.
Step
4
First Two Weeks: Wash the piercing every day, once in the morning and once before bedtime. Use only antibacterial soap, like Dial, and make sure you have a clean washcloth each time. Wash your hands thoroughly with the soap, then rub a good lathering of soap onto your fingertips, and thoroughly clean your piercing. Get the sudsy stuff into your actual belly button; clean the ring itself; clean the skin around the piercing. Last but not least, get the ring nice and sudsy, then spin it thru the piercing to get the soap down into the wound itself. Don't worry, it wont sting. Not even a little bit.
Time to wash it off. With luke-warm water, lean over the sink and cup the water onto your piercing. Be sure to spin the ring again so you rinse out the wound. PAT it dry, and make sure you've got any excess water out from inside your belly button. Now that you've got everything clean and dry, don't twirl or mess with the ring anymore. Total time? Five minutes or less. And yes, this can be done in the shower.
Step
5
Weeks Three thru Final Healing: Now comes the tedious part. You can drop the washings down to just once a day, like during your shower or before bedtime. Just make sure you do it at least every other day. Remember that this will last for at least a couple, if not several months. If you keep a daily routine and don't mess with the piercing, you shouldn't get any infections. Just keep the routine, and it should heal fine.
Step
6
That Extra Step: A lot of piercing artists recommend the shot glass method. If you get bad crusties, or have a minor infection, the shot glass method will help get rid of the bacteria, and set your healing back on the right track. If you've got extra time, I highly recommend using this method every day in place of one of your cleanings as a preventative measure.
Take a shot glass and pour about half a teaspoon of table or sea salt into the bottom. Add hot water to dissolve the salt, and stir to ensure proper disbursement of the solution. While the mixture is cooling off (to luke-warm) grab a pillow and a clean wash cloth, and arrange them on the surface of your choice.
Once the solution is ready, take the shot glass, and leaning over at the waist, line up the bottom rim of the glass just underneath your belly button. Quickly place the rest of the shot glass over the piercing, surrounding it. If you remain leaning over during this process, you wont have any spillage, and it will suction to your tummy.
At this point you can stand up, and go lay down on your back. Wait five or ten minutes allowing the solution to soak into the wound. Once your time's up, stand up, and reverse the process. Lean over, remove the shot glass by pulling away from the top of the piercing first, and empty the glass into the sink.
Check your piercing for any oozing of pus or fluid. If there is any, squeeze as much out as you can, and wipe it clean. Be sure to rinse the salt solution from your piercing, and pat dry.
Tips & Warnings
In the first couple of weeks it's possible the piercing may develop dry skin and crust over. If this happens, use A&D ointment, just the tiniest drop, and lightly lubricate the piercing holes. Be sure to clean it thoroughly before doing so.
If you see a little bit of white or offcolor crusty bits on the ring itself, and you don't have dry skin, don't be alarmed. It's the result of your body trying to heal itself, and producing extra fluid to flush the wound. Just be sure to wash off the crusty bits from the ring before you clean the wound by twirling it around inside so you don't tear anything.
Be sure to wear loose clothing and shirts that have breathable material for the first couple months. Tight clothing can restrict the blood flow and irritate the piercing.
For the first couple weeks, try to sleep on your side. If you tend toward sleeping on your tummy, then prop a pillow on your side so you don't roll over.
Try to get the piercing during the winter, so you don't miss out on swimming. Chlorine can irritate the wound and cause infection. If you do go swimming, or take a dip in a hot tub, be sure to immediately clean out the piercing.
Don't swap out your ring until the wound is fully healed. Anything less than surgical steel can flake or cause infection inside the wound, which can cost you the piercing.
A lack of attention to your piercing can result in severe infection, swollen skin, redness, pus, the list goes on. If the infection is bad enough, it can even cause the metal to rip itself out of your skin and cause a tear. OUCH. Take the fifteen or less minutes a day to keep the piercing clean, and it'll last you your whole life.
It's important you have a dry belly button - excess moisture can cause bacteria to grow.
Your piercing will go through phases: for a while it will look clean and have an even skin tone. Then it will get a little red, appear aggravated, have a crusty edge on it. It's alright. Don't panic unless it gets seriously red, tender and sensitive to the slightest touch, and starts to ooze thick, yellow pus. IF this happens, go to a piercing artist and have him/her help you pop the infection and clean it.
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