Pierce Your Ears at Home

Pierced ears enable you to wear a variety of earrings to enhance your physical appearance. While it’s best to get your ears pierced by a professional at a doctor’s office or piercing salon—particularly if you’d like a cartilage piercing—it is possible to safely pierce your ears at home. By sterilizing your materials, performing the piercing, and caring for your piercing properly, you can ensure your home piercing will heal well and look attractive.

Steps

Sterilizing Your Materials

1. Wash your hands. Before starting the piercing process, scrub your hands with antibacterial soap. Be sure to clean under your nails, and lather your hands for at least 60 seconds with the soap to remove any harmful bacteria or dirt.
   • If you like, you can also wear disposable medical gloves to perform the piercing. You can buy these at your local drug store.
2. Clean your ear with 3% hydrogen peroxide. Wet a cotton ball or Q-tip with 3% hydrogen peroxide solution and clean the front and back of your earlobe. Be sure to clean the area completely, including where the lobe meets your neck. If you perform vigorous exercise during the day, it may make sense to undertake your piercing project after a shower, so the skin is relatively clean from excess sweat.
3. Sterilize your needle in alcohol. Use rubbing alcohol or vodka to sterilize a sewing needle. Alcohol with a concentration weaker than vodka (40%) is not advised. Pour alcohol into a small vessel, such as a shot glass, and submerge the needle completely in the solution. Let it sit entirely submerged in the alcohol for at least one minute.
4. Sterilize the earrings that will be in the new piercing with alcohol. It is best to use stud earrings in surgical-grade stainless steel, as this is less likely to cause skin irritation than gold or silver. You can buy these earrings at a local mall or online. Pour rubbing alcohol or vodka into a small vessel, such as a shot glass, and submerge the earrings and their backs completely in the solution.

Performing the Home Piercing

1. Dot your ear for the piercing using a surgical marker. If desired, you can mark your ears ahead of time to perfect the position of your piercings. Buy a surgical marker, which is sterile and intended for piercings, online. Then, looking in a mirror, place a dot on each of your ears where you’d like the piercing to be. Examine your dots in the mirror to ensure the piercing locations are even on each earlobe and pleasing to you.
   • Traditional ear piercings are through the center of the earlobe with a margin of at least ¼ in or ½ cm between the piercing and the edge of the ear. That said, everyone’s ear is a different size and shape. Use your personal taste to determine where you’d like your piercing.
   • Ear piercings through the cartilage are more complex with longer healing times. These are best performed by a trained professional for optimal results.
2. Numb the piercing site with ice. If desired, you can numb your earlobe with some ice before piercing to decrease any discomfort. Handling ice can be messy, so put some in a clean surgical glove and tie a knot in the end. Place against the earlobe for up to 5 minutes.
3. Pierce your ear with the needle perpendicular to the skin. In front of a mirror so you can see what you’re doing, press the sterilizing sewing needle through your ear, until the first half of the needle exits the back of the earlobe. Leave the needle in place (so half of the needle will be on each side of the lobe) while you reach for a sterilized earring.
4. Insert the earrings. Grab the sharp portion of the needle at the backside of your ear and begin to pull it through. As you draw the needle through the ear, follow the needle’s path by pressing your stud earring’s post into the hole at the front of your ear. This will ensure you don’t lose the new hole you’ve created. Close the new piercing by putting the back of your earring on.
   • Repeat this method on the other side.

Caring for Your Home Piercing

1. Clean any residual blood with a Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol. If your new piercings bleed a little immediately following the piercing, dip the tip of a clean Q-tip into some rubbing alcohol and clean any crusted blood away by wiping gently around the perimeter of the stud. Do not loosen or remove your new earring while doing this.
2. Avoid removing the new earrings for six weeks. In order for your piercing to heal properly, you should not remove or change out the jewelry from your new piercings for the first six weeks. Even if your piercings become infected, your jewelry allows drainage from the area. Removing jewelry of a piercing that is infected could cause bacteria to become effectively sealed inside the piercing without a way to drain.
   • If you suspect your piercing is infected—it will leak green puss and will be hot to the touch—you should see a doctor right away for an assessment.
3. Clean the new piercing with saline nightly. Each night use a Q-tip dipped in saline, which you can purchase at a local drug store, to clean around the edges of the piercing. Use the tip to wipe around the stud in a circular motion, twisting your piercings gently through one 360-degree rotation. This will remove any natural crusting that occurs as the piercing heals.
   • Do not apply an antibacterial ointment, such as Neosporin, to the area, as these ointments are not intended for puncture wounds.

Warnings

• Avoid swimming for the first week after piercing your ear.
• Don't use a safety pin, as it is too short and cannot be drawn through the ear.
• If you are squeamish, it can be helpful to have a trusted friend perform the piercing.
• Do not handle your piercing with unwashed hands during the healing period.

Things You'll Need

• Antibacterial soap
• Shot glass
• Rubbing alcohol or vodka
• 3% Hydrogen peroxide
• Sewing needle
• Cotton balls
• Q-tips
• Stainless-steel stud earrings
• Saline

Sources and Citations

See also

• Take a Tragus Piercing Out
• Gauge Your Ears
• Stretch an Ear Lobe Piercing
• Treat an Infected Ear Piercing
• Get Your Ears Pierced
• Care for Newly Pierced Ears
• Heal Cartilage Piercing Bumps
• Close Gauged Ears
• Safely Pierce Your Own Ear
• Not Be Scared when Getting Your Ears Pierced

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What links here

• Pierce Your Ear with a Safety Pin
• Put Earrings In