AboutBrian Skellie Expertise I can answer questions in regards to and not limited to: jewelry safety, specifically material, shape, proportion, and related issues; aseptic technique and sterilization as it applies to piercing safety; ethical issues of technique and bedside manner; the aftercare and recovery process for piercings.
Experience
Past/Present clients
Tens of thousands of one on one client experiences. http://www.piercing.org/ Body jewelry design and safety expert: Member ASTM committee F04(www.astm.org)
Member AAMI (www.aami.org)
Research advisor and educator for the APP for over a decade(www.safepiercing.org) teaching advanced studio setup, sterilization and equipment management, freehand piercing, aseptic/sterile technique and much more.
Distributor for SciCan StatIM sterilization and cleaning products. http://www.piercing.org/statim/
Expert: Brian Skellie Date: 6/17/2008 Subject: job doesn't allow peircings and I've only had it for a month...
Question I got peircings in the cartalige of my ears done aboout 5 weeks ago, but my new job doesn't allow peircings there so I have to take them out for work. The first day I took them out I noticed that the backs are swollen and little bit of swelling in the front. We used an at-home peircer from Walmart to do the peircings, btw. I showed the swelling to my sister, and she said it was normal. I've been having to take the peircings out and put them back in every day, which is very painful, and I'm starting to get fluid coming out of the peircings when I take them out. My sister advised me to just let my ears heal over and wait until I don't work there, but I don't want these bumps to stay, and I doubt the peircings would be in the same spot, so it'll look really weird.
So what can I do (other than quitting my job!) to help my ears out since I'm inducing all this trama to them by removing my jewelry daily? And if I do have to let them heal over what can I do for the swelling?
Answer We use titanium threadless barbells that are fleshtone anodized titanium disc ends on them to disguise as shown at http://piercing.org/shop as an option to keep them while you heal for the first 6 months or longer.
If not, you'll need to let them heal most likely as your sister suggested. Once the irritation is gone, your bumps should shrink as well, and you can later re-pierce in the same spot precisely by a professional so that it will be nice.
