what? why?

stretching mah ears.

ah.

You don't really have to soak them unless the skin is broken.

The salt is mainly a very mild antiseptic, but just regular cleaning should be enough if the skin is intact.

Which it should be. If you break the skin while stretching, you're doing it wrong.

I got a 8g piercing exactly a week ago, im not sure how much longer i should do the soaks.

and how long i have to wait before i can take these tunnels out.

Oh shit, keep soaking it if it's a new piercing.

I thought you were stretching an existing piercing.

yeah that's nuts. I would work your way up They sell ones that are like a cone so you can just slowly grow it

I can't imagine going straight to 8 like that

wasn't too bad, I might upload the piercing video tomorrow.

the needle was obviously pretty big....

April you're actually not supposed to wear tapers. It causes the hole to stretch unevenly, plus they're usually acrylic.

Acrylic is porous, so it allows bacteria to grow in it. Glass or surgical steel is the way to go.

Or wood, actually. Interestingly it actually doesn't allow bacteria to grow anywhere near as much as acrylic does.

But it's still porous so if you don't remove it regularly I'd imagine your skin would grow against it uncomfortably

mine were steel

i had a glass one too but that was when i started just to get it to open a bit

Yeah, you aren't supposed to use wood unless your ears are completely healed.

had glass ones for the most part. I take them out every day when I shower to keep them clean, and I haven't had any problems.

shrug I stuck safety pins, paper clips, pens, pencils, whatever was lying around in them

never had any problems

I have been wanting to stick 9mm shell casing in mine. They're 00, which is about 10mm, so they should fit just fine.

The brass would probably discolor my ear, though.

worn safety pins.

getting the packs of mini sized coloured ones from JoAnn's.

oh yeah those are fun but I've never tried the mini ones in my ear, I'd think it wouldn't be wide enough to fit around the love

*lobe...

puts the little ones in the upper pair, their closer to the edge.

ahh makes sense

*they're; but yeah.

s'all good

I think my ear may be infected

Oh no!

rubbing alcohol!

or pop into a Claire's for some of their ear care stuff.

Don't use alcohol. It will sting like nobody's business, and it will retard the healing.

Just use salt water more regularly. Basically, whenever you think about it.

^

Also, you're supposed to change your pillow cases and sheets regularly while they're healing up.

I never did, but I never had problems with infections either.

theres a little swelling above the piercing and its been there the last five days, but it doesn't itch or hurt when i touch the piercing.

and its not oozing anything , so dunno if its infected or just a little swollen since its fairly new, but my other ear is 100% fine

did you sleep on it funny? could be a little irritated

That could be the case, ill wait it out a few more days and see what happens.

swelling is normal it's probably okay

It could be just a little extra tissue.

The needle doesn't actually punch a hole as much as it cuts a c-shaped incision. It pushes the skin that covered the hole out of the way.

The larger the hole, the more pronounced this is. That's probably what you're feeling there.

So ive come to the conclusion that it is indeed just extra skin...no sure what to do now though....