Get Your Ears Pierced
Ear piercings can be difficult and/or slightly painful. This article should help out with getting your ears pierced, but make sure you research the piercing first.
Contents
Steps
Standard usage instructions
- If the person has the following medical conditions, do not perform ear piercing without checking with a doctor: HIV, hepatitis, inflammation of the ear, epilepsy, skin disease or disorder, diabetes, open wounds, cuts or abrasions in the area, moles or warts in the area, circulatory disorders (high or low blood sugar), or a predisposition to keloid scarring.
- Move hair away from both ears.
- Wash hands.
- Get ear-piercing gun ready. (Do not touch starter studs with bare hands.)
- Clean ear lobes with alcohol swabs (and, optionally, Sting Ease Medicated Pads). Allow lobes to dry.
- Mark the piercing site on each ear lobe with a surgical marking pen. Clean with alcohol swabs and redo if necessary. Do not use any other type of pen or ink.
- Using a mirror, confirm that the marks are even.
- Place ear-piercing gun on your ear where you would like to pierce.
- Squeeze the trigger. (It is impossible to pierce slowly.)
- Release the trigger slowly.
Ear Piercing After Care
- Do not touch your ears with unwashed hands.
- Clean the new piercings three times a day, and also after swimming or washing hair. Be careful when using perfume or hair spray. Then turn your earrings slightly in both directions, and also backward and forward, to prevent them from adhering to the ear. Make sure they are not too tight, are not pressing on the ear, and are not embedded in the ear.
- Do not remove starter stud for 4-6 weeks, or 8-12 weeks for cartilage piercings.
- For the next 6 months, only wear high-carat gold or surgical stainless steel earrings. For the next 6-12 months, always wear some type of earring to avoid holes closing.
- Starter studs should be left in the ears of infants for at least 8 months to prevent the hole closing overnight due to growth.
- If any allergic reactions last for more than 24 hours, consult a doctor. In case of ear cartilage piercings, remove the piercing jewelry as well as consulting a doctor.
Tips
- Keep calm when getting them done.
- When you remove the earrings clean your ear first!
- Don't remove earrings during your healing.
- Clean your ears 3 times a day to prevent infection.
- Avoid wearing long, dangly earrings for approximately 6 months after the piercing, as they can actually stretch the piercing, if worn for a long time.
- Try to have this done by a proper jeweler. If you're having it done by a gun, ensure it's sterilized beforehand.
- Do not rush to take out your earrings after you pierce your ears! You should leave them there for at least 2 weeks to avoid infections.
- Put alcohol swabs to clean your ears before you pierce them and not to get infected.
- Don't worry about the "pain" just go in and get it done! It takes 5 seconds and you will regret it if you don't do it!
- Use ready-mix saline solution if possible.
- Make sure you sterilize your ears with cotton balls at least twice a week.
Warnings
- Mall shops will pierce infants, while many professionals require you be at least 16. Some, however, will pierce lobes of anyone old enough to say they want them and seem responsible enough to take care of them, perhaps as young as 7 (with parental permission).
- Your ears can get infected, so take care of them!
- If you have sensitive skin, be careful when choosing earrings from stores like Forever 21, Claire's, Icing, and other cheap jewelry stores. Cheap metals can infect sensitive skin on the ears, and on some people can turn them green!
- Do not pierce your ears yourself. Go to a qualified piercer at a registered body piercing studio.
- Do not use 'guns'. These cause a high level of damage/trauma to the ear, are known to increase chances of cross-contamination (because, no matter what those piercers at Claire's will tell you, they cannot be fully sterilised after each use, and are likely to have touched another person's body, or even their blood), and are almost always operated by someone that has had as little as a day's practise before doing it on a living, breathing person... whereas piercers at body piercing studios have taken full courses and trained for more than three years. Don't risk your health for the sake of money.
Things You'll Need
- Adult guardian (if under 18, or 16 in the UK)
- Knowledge that the place is clean and trustworthy
Related Articles
- Choose a Body Piercing or Tattoo Studio
- Care for Newly Pierced Ears
- Treat an Infection in Your Ear Caused by Your New Earring
- Make Hanging Earrings
