I'm stickying this Cloud

Can I go and retrieve your old post on salt soaks as well? Copy and paste it into here, or if you can find it or something, it was one of the best threads we've had.

I missed you posts, I'm so happy to see you back.

Great post, great advice, as per usual.

That's my specialty--pontificating from on high.

Just remember to take anyone's advice, mine included, with a grain of salt.

Rather literally on your opinion on salt soaks.
Speaking of which, I've read through your message and think it's all spot on, so I'm gonna copy and paste it to here.

Cloud on salt soaks:

Kat Attack, I appreciate it very much, but -- no one will ever read it here! Can we have a separate sticky for sea salt soaks? Or maybe rename this thread and reverse the order? The instructions on soaking are probably more important than my little lecture about aftercare.

I'll reverse the order, Don't want to have too many stickies

I tend to research everything and when it comes to healing piercings I agree with most even though they vary on some things. I have also read procedures from some piercers that make me think for them that breathing being a natural function is a good thing.
Do your homework and do not be afraid to ask why do you want me to use such and such. You are the one who will suffer from bad advice.

My nipple and clithood piercings are about 3 years old now, maybe 3 1/2, and are long since healed. I still remember mixing sea salt in little dixie cups, propping the pillows up on my bed and holding the cups over my nipples for the soak. I never had any issues with infection and they healed wonderfully. As did the clithood piercing (same method used).

Showering daily, and using just a normal soap to soap the rings and turn them, then rinse, worked as well with no drying out from anti-bacterial soap. Just keep it clean and let them 'breathe' often (no bra or underwear) periodically during the day. (And no, I don't mean outdoors *L*)

Sea-salt and warm water and daily cleansing - excellent regiment!

The current thinking is that turning is harmful to the delicate healing skin inside the piercing; so--no need to turn, and especially don't force them to turn. If they turn by themselves, fine.

Hi Cloud!

I have gold rings through the nipples and the piercer told me to make sure the "crusties" (that sounds awful doesn't it?) had to be removed first and that they had to be turned so that the skin didn't stick to them. Has that changed? I never had any problem turning mine, but made sure they were wet and cleaned (did it in the shower) before they were turned.

- El

yeah, that advice is outdated for new piercings. There's really no danger of the jewelry sticking to the skin. But since yours are healed, it's fine if they turn; you just don't need to turn.

Thanks Cloud!

Oh god, the amount of well meaning advice I've gotten!
So annoying!
But I'm still struggling with a nose piercing bump and I cannot find sea salt anywhere. Still doing hot soaks and compresses though. And using 15% tea tree oil overnight. Is that ok?

I guess you'll let us know. Can you find regular table sale with no iodine? You can use that if you have to .

Kosher salt (or koshering/coarse cooking salt) would be the next best thing over sea salt, so long as it doesn't have any anti-caking compounds such as sodium ferrocyanide which can irritate the piercings. Its impossible, or nearly so, to find regular table salt without these anti-caking compounds added.

On the Tribe video for sea salt soaks of eyebrow and nipple piercings the mixture given was 1/8 tsp sea salt to 8 oz of water. I have always been told it was 1/4 tsp sea salt to 8oz water.

I think it's 1/4 tsp. If the mixture is too weak, it won't have the same effect.

Okay. I have had my nipple piercings for just over a month now, and they were doing pretty well I think. I managed to bump them decently a couple times, and it hurt a little, but I didn't notice any bad after-effects. I had the normal, little bit of bleeding, little bit of bruising, but it went away relatively quickly. I've been getting the oozing stuff (it didn't start right away), but its all been white or nearly white, nothing green like they have said to watch out for, and nothing alarming really, just not that pretty when its not cleaned off.

I have stainless steel (i'm not sure on the gauge, but from what I've read I'm hoping 10, but I'm thinking they're 12 maybe, just because I have "under developed nipples" as stated by my piercer.. what can I say? I was a late bloomer..) barbells that are straight, not curved. The piercings are at angles \ / <-- like that, and I love them, in fact it feels like I've had them WAY longer, just because they feel like a natural part of me.

I guess I should get to my question.. recently, about two days ago, I noticed a white-ish bump along the upper hole of my right pierce, its hard to explain the placement, but where it is partially in the pierce and partially out. Its small, just slightly red around the area, and I pressed on it a little and it didn't seem like something anything would ooze out of without putting some effort into it, but it sort of has a pimple-like look. I've been doing the normal regime of sea salt soaks with warm, nearly hot water and cleaning thoroughly in the shower. I bought H2O ocean for clean-up in between seas salt soaks, but the sprayer clogged so on occasion I use a Q-tip in warm water to clean gunk off the balls. I use very gentle soap that is unscented as I have fairly sensitive skin.

All that being said, does anyone know what might have caused this bump-thing. I tried doing a search in the site with similar problems and it looked like one guy changed to Titanium and it briefly resolved the issue, but not permanently. Does this sound like something that will resolve itself, or is there a special treatment I should do. I've seen mention of Tea Tree oil for bumps etc, but this sounds like a bad idea for nipples, especially female nipples.

What do you recommend? Should I see a piercing professional, (if you are one, would a picture help with advice?) should I keep on trucking and keep an eye on it? Its just something that's been worrying me some lately, and I wouldn't mind gaining some peace of mind one way or another.

One more thing, so I can tell the boyfriend this mainly. Having his hands near my nipples, not so smart for them as they heal, right? Could they be if they were just washed with antibacterial soap (thoroughly) and he touched gently, i.e. no pressing, pulling, or pinching ?

Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you!

(Pretty lengthy for a first post, huh?)

About to make it lengthier. In the shower, when washing them, I usually press the lower ball to my skin (after cleaning outer gunk of course) and do the same with the upper ball a couple times to get the soap through the piercing and do the same with rinsing to make sure it is all out of the piercing. Is this okay? It doesn't really hurt at all or anything, but after reading the "No Turning" thing I thought I'd ask.

Alright, ACTUALLY done this time.

I appreciate you taking a ridiculous amount of time to read this, and thanks in advance for any thoughtful replies that may come my way.

AcmK

I have a healed septum piercing and I also have a cold.
I want to take the barbell out because it has gotten sore, but I am concerned that if snot/drainage got into the open piercing it could cause infection, is this wrong?