On the same thread, navels too. Careful of sunning yourself, exposing the midriff and burning the navel. Careful of sun creams which can get into the piercing and clog it (more a problem with a surface piercings I'd say).

Good call on this thread Phal

That's interesting.. I always thought heat didn't really affect piercings (apart from the whole swimming pool part).

climate definitely affects piercings--it affects your skin, your health, your habits, and the way you need to take care of them. Consider it one part of a holistic approach.

The amount of humidity or aridity probably has a more direct effect than heat. Perspiration, and the need to clean it away, add moisture. Too much moisture can adversely affect your skin and your piercings. (Ever have navel rot from not drying it properly?)

The other point is that summer is probably not the best time to get a piercing, because of all the water-based recreational opportunities. Swimming pools, oceans, and other bodies of water are potential infectors. Sweat, sun lotion, and sand are irritants. It's paradoxical, because a lot of people think of getting piercings at this time, because they can show them off better (navels in particular). Better to wait until fall, and then they are nice and healed by the time the next summer rolls around.

Kudos Cloud. I usually avoid getting pierced between June and labor day because of the swimming. I want to get pierced next week when I visit Phal and PDBSG but now that I live at the beach and plan to be there a few times a week I am torn.

The cold affects piercings and the heat can make them sweaty and gross very quickly.

I always tell people who want a pretty navel piercing for the summer to do it at the very end of summer (got mine at the end of my last beach trip for the year 7 yrs ago) and by the time next summer rolls around it should be mostly healed if not done because you get a nice 9 month stretch to heal it.

Huh, well I wish I had read this about 36 hours before now. I JUST got my nipples pierced. I thought I was doing so well trying to reason everything out in advance.

Anyway, about mid-August we usually take our son for a trip to the waterpark for his birthday. Waterpark water = multiple icky and nasty things we don't even want to know about! I'm wondering if one of the waterproof bandages would be the way to go or if I should get some of the waterproof wound tape. Is there something else I should use or would that suffice?

As soon as I get home I will do the whole schpeel washing and saltwater rinse just to be sure.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Tegaderm occlusive bandages Angel. Put those on over the nips and just keep an eye on them to make sure you don't get moisture in them.

And don't go nutso on the soaks, but if you have a sweaty day definately make sure to soothe the piercings with the soak.

^^^ Tegaderm occlusives for the win. You should be fine- like KiTty said, just bring some back up and change 'em every so often.

It's a lot easier to cover up nips than some other piercings.

And on the navel piercings:
If you're laying out/in the tanning bed and have a CBR in your navel...your exposed navel piercing WILL get hot, and it will burn you!
Speaking from a friend's experience; she was tanning in a tanning bed and had a CBR in, and when she went to put her clothes back on she pulled her shirt on and the CBR shifted and burnt her a little! Not much, but enough to leave a little mark...and scare her half to death!
And about the swimming...I've gotten pierced 3 times in the summer (navel in 2004, nostril in 2006, septum in 2008) and have always swam, and have never had any issues. I mean, I haven't swam in anything but the pool in my backyard (no lakes, no public pools etc). So could the swimming thing be on a case-to-case basis? I've always cleaned my piercings really well after swimming though, so maybe that's it. Maybe it's on a case-to-case basis with the swimming? (Or perhaps I am just lucky!)

wow BipolarBeauty - your friends navel experience in the tanning bed sounds scary! I'm glad I don't have to worry about that.

Me too!

I always swim with my new piercings. In Croatia, sea is very clean and it only helps you to heal faster. It's like swiming in SSS and my piercer strongly recomends it. All my piercings that I've done in summer healed two times faster then the other ones done in winter.
But I would never swim in public pools or lake or other seas that are not so clean as here.

Wow and all this time I though the chlorine in the pool water and the salt in the ocean might help the piercing

I had my left nipple pierced march 16 2008 which makes it about 4 months new now.

My biggest concern is the peircing still seems to put out some type of fluid that gets hard and crusty around the ring. It;s not a huge amount but I notice it alot in the mornings I was thinking I might need to get a pure white gold ring rather then the surgical steel that I have in now??

Next issue I went to Dallas Texas about two weeks ago, and well it was 100 degrees after being there 24 hours I noticed a pimple type bump on the side of my nipple right next to the piercing, which obvoiusly was filled with puss..YUKE!!!....Well I tried my best not mess with it and after a few days the bump went down but I was able to squeeze a small amount of puss out of it a scab formed and a few days after that it went away and you would never know the thing was there......BUT today I notice it looks like the same thing is happening?????

Just wondering if anyone has delt with anything like this and if switching to a pure gold ring will help?

^^^

No, switching to a gold ring will likely make it worse. Nipple piercings take up to a year to heal. If you were to switch anything, I would suggest pure titanium.

I don't know if the bump would be caused by heat or not. Perhaps the sweating is blocking skin pores, initiating a pimple?

Keep in mind that chlorine evaporates rapidly, meaning that the levels in a public pool may not always be up to standard.

Phalaeo, Thanks so much for the info...I will switch to a titanium ring ASAP, I'll let ya know how it works out.

I guess when the piercer told me to wait 6 weeks before I tried to take the ring out I assumed that meet 6 weeks healing time.
Other then the pimple type bump I mentioned does the tiny amounts of what I'll call fluid that get hard and crusty that seem show up in the morning seem pretty much normal???

That is normal- everyone gets crusties, and you will likely get them on and off through the healing process which should last a year. Make sure you do not go changing barbells (or rings) too often- The titanium one that you choose should stay in for the rest of the healing.

So are public pools etc. OK after the first 6 weeks, or is a longer period required?
I have no intention at the moment (I took this into consideration before getting my piercings last week) but wouldn't mind going to indoor public pools later in the year.

o .
im a pretty good diver.
like springboard diver, and im getting my helix pierced on my birthday. im at the pool everyday. im only willing to take off a afew days. is that ok?

PiercingsAreAwesome wrote:

o . im a pretty good diver. like springboard diver, and im getting my helix pierced on my birthday. im at the pool everyday. im only willing to take off a afew days. is that ok?

No. In fact, you REALLY don't want to risk an infection with a cartilage piercing. Infections in cartilage and lead to disfiguration of the cartilage. Ever heard of cauliflower ear (http://www.ghorayeb.com/Cauliflower_Ear_360x265_20April05_008.jpg)?

If you aren't able to dedicate at least 6 weeks to healing your piercing then do yourself and your body a favor and don't get a piercing. Its just not worth blatantly disregarding all advice because you're "only willing to take off a few days."

Switched to the titanium ring and WOW almost over night things got better, still get the "crusties" but nowhere like I did before...overall the entire piercing looks 100% better

UPDATE: well thought the titanium was the way to go....well probaly still is......i figured everything looked good and well ended up swimming at a freinds pool over the week (dumb ass that I am) and by saturday the bump just to the left of my nipple piercing reappered dont really hurt at all just swells up like a pimple and get puss & blood in it....Just dont make sense how it develops. it's alomost like there is some type of a open pocket under my skin in that area, otherwise I would think the puss would be coming directly from the piercing hole
This is what it looks like...THIS MIGHT BE GROSS TO SOME BE CAREFUL

http://img529.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nip002sg9.jpg

http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nip005tb4.jpg

any thoughts would be greatly appriciated...thanks

almost looks like it was pierced too deep?

Ya know something, I think your right. I meet a girl at a club one night about 2 months ago and the first thing she said when she saw the piercing was "wow thats way deep" at the time I didnt think much about it because I wasnt having any real issues with it.
Got a tat about 2 weeks back and asked the piercing girl what she thought and her response was "ya its kinda deep but shouldnt be a problem" then she went on to say that she has scene piercings on guys that deep before, she thinks it's because there isnt as much for the piercer to grab onto.......I dont know what to think

my mum had a similar experience to the sun bed one but in a sauna, she burnt her lobe but managed to get it out before it caused any damage. she almost sharted when it happend though lol

Ohhhh the sharting wouldnt have been pretty...lol

lol nope, but being my mum, she would have found it hillarious if she did. she would be where i got my sense of humour from and im mild in comparison lol

sounds like you have a very cool mamma!!!

i got both of my nipples done during the summer and not thinking i went to the lake with my kids i was fortunate and nothing happened as soon as i went home i cleaned them real well and my piercer suggested to me to keep it clean and use paroxcide a couple times a day and wash again after doing that and i did and mine are fine. needless to say i avoided the lake and i still took my kids to the water parks i just made sure to keep them extra clean when i got home.

ya that's normal mine did it for a while and it goes away on it's own my piercer says it's normal and when it's completely healed it will go away and that time frame depends on how fast you heal, but he said when it's gone i can change jewlry so that's what i did and no problems. the fluid that turns to crust it just annoying is all.