I got my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd holes done with a gun.
I also got my cartilage done with a gone, because I was younger, and had no information about this 'gun theory' once-so-ever. My piercings are doing good except the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ones still have crusties, and blood coming out of them. It's been about 6 weeks (for the 2nd and 3rd) and about 12 weeks (for the First).....

What can I do about it? And is this normal?

I think I might be alergic to whatever I'm putting in my ears. But I have no clue what the type of Jewerly it is. I think I have really sensitive ears, so does this mean that I'll have to be careful when piercing anything? I'm thinking about getting my Labret pierced, so would I have to consider this?

It's not necessarily 'normal' because most people heal gunned piercings fine, but it's definitely somewhat common. It probably just means you have to be careful to use good quality jewelry. Surgical Stainless Steel should be fine, but if you're one of the few people who's so sensitive they can't even take that, then titanium would do the trick. Beware of the titanium studs sold at Claire's- they are only coated, and the coating could wear off in your ears and make it worse.

Clean the lobes regularly, do sea salt soaks and/or hot compresses, whichever floats your boat. Be sure to keep the stud backs not completely tight, but a bit away from the back of your lobe so that there's breathing room there. Don't twist them or change them.

If you're already doing those things and they're still pissy like this, go to a real piercer and see if you can switch the studs out for some small guage rings.

Thanks
=D

your ears may "crust" for a while. Take Socal's advice and do the sea salt soaks, and adjust the backs. Some people have longer healing times, not to mention issues with gunned piercings.
Also, don't change them just yet w/o seeing a piercer like she said.
Some people change their earrings out way too quick and thats only setting back the healing time! Not much to add that she really didn't cover except...
give your body some time. eat well, sleep enough. Healing multiple piercings at once is rough on it. And it takes a while longer than most people think for a piercing to really be "fully" healed. And if you end up sensitive to a certain metal this is somethign you DO need to take in consideration with any future piercing plans.

Thanks =D


So if I was to get my Labret pierced, what type of Jewerly would be best for that? Seeing as I *might* have really sensitive ears?

Interseting info. Any idea of the thickness of the coating?

I'd expect anyone buying claire's stuff to not wear it until the coating wears off!

TJ- I only know this from lobe piercings gone bad, done at Claires. BEing allergic to gold (wierd, yah, I know), I chose the starter studs that they claimed were titanium. Well, my ears kept crusting, kept bleeding, and one developed blister-like pockets of gunk, which came and went. I eventually decided to take them out, waited for one of the better days, and did so, only to discover that the coating on the posts had worn away inside my ears. The middles were a darker color, and the bits that still had the light 'titanium' color were flaky.

edit: oh yeah, the thickness question. It seemed quite thin, like maybe translucent-Bible-paper-thin or less, but I wasn't about to get out a micrometer and measure or anything. Sorry, I'm in architecture, and we consider 1/8" as 'within tolerance', so anything thinner than that is pittance to us!

Well you'd be going to a professional piercing studio, so they would be using better quality jewellery than that generally used at Claires. Ask for titanium (the titanium jewellery there would be better quality than at fashion stores). I don't know how bioplast/ quartz/ PTFE labrets would react in someone sensitive to metal, I'm sure TJ can shead some light on that for me:)

If you mention that you might be sensitive to some metals when you get pierced, the piercer will take care of you.

Wait till your ears are well healed too, adding another piercing to that lot might cause problems.
Let us know how you get on!

So Cal I had mine gunned a while back (not at Claires, it was some chain store in london), and something similar happened there!

The post appeared to be fine, whereas the evil buttefly back had lost it's coating entirely revealing copper! I had noticed a vivid green substance built up on it too (not lymph, it was powdery).

Needless to say I emailed the store to complain and was offered 9ct cold studs in replacement, along with a huge sorry reply (which I declined as I live too far away).

Well, this has really piqued my interest, so we went back to Claire's in Leeds City Plaza and asked.

Are your Ti pieces coated?
No, jewellery that is coated/plated is marked so.

We asked to see the equipment, forms, training materials and so on. The girl couldn't have been more open or helpful.

The guns are disposable cartridge types and the studs they use for initial piercings are sharp and are less than half a mill diameter. I would estimate that there would be little, if any, blunt force trauma involved in getting pierced with one of these. The design of the gun is such that there would be a squillion to one chance of any (as yet unproven to exist) fluid contamination occurring.

Their aftercare is a bit behind the times, but then we're talking about a huge corporation with slow moving wheels. They still recommend rotation and some dodgy cleaning spray, but then so do many 'real' piercing studios.

If anyone has known nickel/metal allergies they will not pierce them. customers are clearly shown the risks of a piercing and the importance of aftercare.

Training seems to be a lot more involved that what has been suggested in here. The branch we went to told us of their own training and practice on 'dummy' ears.

To be honest I was surprised at the attitude of the girl (not a manager, just a sales girl) and she was more than happy to bring up the poor aftercare points up with the manager. It would seem there is a reporting structure in place to bring things like this to the attention of management. she also seemed to take her responsibilities quite serious.

I'd be happy if my offspring got pierced there. I'd still try to get them to go to a piercing shop but I couldn't see anything at the shop we visited to warrant some of the more extreme claims that have been made on these boards.

When it comes down to it Claire's are the supermarket of jewellery. They offer piercing at an affordable level with reasonable aftercare. There is probably the same level or care that exists in some piercing shops, given that aftercare is not an exact science, us all being different. Claire's fulfils the same requirement levels as a Timex watch; affordable, reasonable quality, not what the queen would wear (maybe she does, I don't know). If you want to wear an Omega (I do, and it keeps time less accurately than a £5 quartz jobbie) then pay the money and look like James bond. Anyone who wear a Rolex and calls Timex watches crap is kidding no one but themselves. most 16-18 year olds are gonna want to copy their peers and pop stars and get a piercing that doesn't involve biochemistry, physiology and bacteriology lessons. nor will they want to go to a shop where the process is long, drawn out and resembles an initiation into a secret organisation, simply to get their ears pierced. Claire's fulfils a need, and does it reasonably well.

I've tried to base this post on experience and the gathering of information from source. I'm not in any way trying to say that Claire's is a paragon of virtue when it comes to body piercing, because they aren't a body piercing outlet. This is not meant to be the precursor to an argument over Claire's, I still haven't finished with them as their ar epoints I want to bring up when(if) they respond to my email. So to anyone wanting to get arsey about this post, not interested.

I'll post this in the Claire's thread as well!

All I have to say to that is that the Claires over there sounds better than the one I went to! All I have to go by is my experience- they said, "Do you want gold or titanium?", I said, "Oh titanium, I'm allergic to gold." and they certainly had no qualms about piercing me. And I've already posted the result, which is what causes me to warn people about the jewelry quality there.

My second holes have this odd color ooze coming out of it. It's somewhat greenish/yellowish, but I'm not going to go into detail about that. Do you think it is infected? I don't think I know much about what infected piercings look like, so could anybody tell me?

BTW, thanks to all of you for your help! You guys are seriously awesome.

This is, of course, one of the problems when dealing with multinationals. A McDonald's in the UK will be waaayyyy different to one you can find in California. But then I guess they'll probably be different state to state according to whatever local laws are in place. Trying to balance a 'nanny state' approach with a 'caveat emptor' one will mean there are differences in the way national/state based outlets work. I can only iterate what I've found out from the UK side of things. Legislative differences will also affect 'real' piercing shops and there have been enough posts passim to illustrate that the piercing industry still has a long way to go regarding standards. As with most 'free market' enterprises Claire's will aim for the maximum return for the minimum effort and basic adherence to legislation is all we can expect. There comes a time when the laws of diminishing returns kicks in and an industry prices itself out of existence. Maybe more of us need to go into more Claire's outlets and make our feelings known. Corporates, outwith legislative changes, are primarily led by customer demand/response. More people demanding better service usually gets their attention!

I found that post really interesting TJ! Thanks

I have never had a problem with my lobes pierced at Claires, but when I had my helix pierced there (a few years ago now) it has been troublesome. So maybe they've been trying to improve on their training and quality of jewellery since then.

I have 3 branches in my area, branch one was friendly informative and clean looking (it is my favourite).
Branch two was dark and dingy, the girls looked very unprofessional and didn't care if the placement was what I wanted or not, they asked me no questions and ignored me when I said I didn't like the placement (helix was pierced at this branch =/).
Branch three was as good as the first.
I have never been told that the jewellery at Claires was Ti, but I think was told it was Niobium (there are I think 3 price ranges, £6-£8 niobium, £20-£25 9kt gold, £30+ 18kt (?)depending on the stone in the stud ).

My point here is even in huge chainstores it can vary between each store and manager. Some stores I've been to have refused to pierce babies (unsafe because the child was struggling), others do piercings regardless and ask no questions.

The last time I was in a claires (I'm a sucker for cheap necklaces, bracelets, hair accesories etc), a girl was crying as she had been refused to be pierced, because she was allergic to some metals, and was being given directions to a local piercing studio, which they would visit later that day

diamond_eyes- yes indeed, green and yellow puss is one sign of infection. Some others are pain, redness, hotness, and any blistery pockets of fun gunk usually including puss and/or blood. I really think you should find a proper piercer and ask them about it if you're still having a lot of crusties, bleeding, and now green and yellow fun.

Oh no. Really? So I guess my ears are infected, =(. But I'm SURE I took really good care of them. I followed all of their instructions, so what went wrong?

Had your hair been getting caught around the studs?
Did you wash your hands before cleaning the piercings?

There's a million things that could've happened.
I'm sorry to hear it's not going so well, get yourself to a piercer/ doctor asap.

Also you said earlier "Might be allergic to whatever I'm putting in my ears"

Are you changing the jewellery already?

Or, if the green/yellow thing is the only symptom of infection, it may be the metal thing. Gold turns my skin green. If you're reacting to the metal, it seems plausible that a skin reaction could be tinging regular old lymph and making you think it's puss. Bottom line, get to a piercer and find out.

Yeah, my ears were secreting something greeny, but it was just because the backs of the stud were cheap metal. I switched them to my trusty sterling silver back and it's fine now

Also you said earlier "Might be allergic to whatever I'm putting in my ears"

Are you changing the jewellery already?

No. I changed my first holes, and I get blood reactions to different earrings. Like, right now I have different earrings in, and they're doing wonders for my first holes. Unlike other ones, when I have blood coming out of it. =\ (Possibly because of the Jewerly)

My 2nd and 3rd holes - I guess I'm 'allowed' to change them today, because it's been six weeks today. But I haven't changed them. Maybe I should change them though, because it might be the Jewerly that's doing this to my ears.


For my Cartilage I changed it after 1 week (I know it's not good) But it's weird. My Cartilage is doing better than all of my other piercings.

It's strange how that can happen isn't it?

Ah fair enough then, I'd say when you go to your piercer, ask him to change the jewellery to some titanium rings or bars, I wouldn't change them yourself yet, your ears sound pretty messed up (no offense!), and changing them yourself might just irritate them more.

I hope they heal nicely soon

My piercer isn't a guy, lol. She's a girl, but I got it pierced at a 'Piercing Pagoda'. That's where I got all of my piercings (For my Labret, I wouldn't go there. I'd go to a professional piercer for that) But it's funny.....

I got my Cartilage at a different piercing place (Still a Piercing Pagoda, just a dif. mall) And it's healed up great. My 1st, 2nd, and 3rd holes I all got done at the same place, and those are the ones screwed up. =\

Ahh, sorry .

Hmm, I'm sure she wouldn't mind helping you out though.

Read the Claire's Jewellery post, it's talking about the difference between stores, how certain managers bend rules and stuff.

How're your ears doing now?

As a person who is sensitive to metal (even titanium sometimes seems weird, but maybe it's just I've never had GOOD titanium) bioplast and quartz are WONDERFUL. Oh My Gosh. My transverse was really fussy until I put a bioplast bar into it (and it was pierced with Stainless Steel (circular barbell) then changed to a curved barbell when it wasn't healing up.) And I put a little bioplast bar in my eyebrow as a retainer and never had any problems with it once I did that.
As for quartz, I had a quartz retainer that I lost and loved it. Very smooth and comfy. And I have just bought another set (one for my transverse and one for my helix) and they feel so good.

So, as a metal challenged person, those are both EXCELLENT options.

My second holes were done by Claire's. The third ones were done by Piercing Pagoda. I swore I wasn't getting any more holes ever again. My ears looked like bejeweled grapes they were so infected. After that fiasco... (2002) I ended up getting a professional piercing for the first time. Strangely I haven't infected since. Different jewelry, different techniques for piercing and a whole different system for aftercare. What a difference. I tried to dissuade my co-worker from taking her daughter to get her ears done at the Mall. She said "No way! She's not going to one of those places to get that done." Her daughter is afraid of the noise of the gun. I didn't change her mind, but her daughter also didn't get her ears done. So that's something.

Oh yes... and Claire's gave me crooked frickin' holes. I'm really very sensitive about them being off. It keeps my left ear from being the absolutely most perfect wonderful ear. It makes me pout and want to set fire to all the Claire's stores.

Lady Draugr

Another thought I had...

I got my regular lobe holes at Claire's when I was 13. They're straight enough through the ear, but my lobes are different lengths/sizes whatever. so when it came time that I wanted to get my transverse done, my right lobe didn't have enough room under the original piercing to pierce it safely. so I just have my left lobe done transversely. now, for a regular ear piercing, they're fine. They're even across the face. they're straight. they healed just fine (though I didn't like the ear care solution they were selling at the time.)

I got my helix pierced at Wal-Mart and it wasn't quite on the mark I had requested, but it healed about as decently as could be expected from a gunned cartilage.

My eyebrow was my first "professional" piercing and it healed fine. It was done by an apprentice type guy and later when the "master" piercer saw it he was upset at the way his trainee had done it. My piercing by the "master" was my transverse and I was much more knowledgeable about piercings by this time and did SSS and all that good stuff. That piercing was the most irritable piercing I have had. It's also the last one I've had done for multiple reasons.

Woah. A piercing done at Walmart? I guess they really do 'have everything' there! =P


I've enver had any piercings done with a needle, does it feel any different than getting it with a gun? I was thinking about a needle going through the bottom of my lip, (I might be getting my Labret done) and now I'm getting cringes. Now that I think of it, I'm terrified of the pain. I know it won't be fatal or anything, and it's bare-able, but I'm a wuss when it comes to pain.

I totally wouldn't recommend going to Wal-Mart for a piercing. As far as I know, they have little to no training. Admittedly, I'm a cashier and don't work the jewelry counter, but ... yeah.

the needle is much better. My eyebrow didn't hurt at all, and my transverse was only painful because of the unusual angle and whatnot. Also, i think I might have been the first one that piercer had done despite the fact he talked big. But he took a picture of mine to put in his portfolio.

Well, my frenum was done crooked and they told me to use hydrogen peroxide on it three times a day. damn piercing shops, waht do they know!

The fact that chains all have the same name means we lump all of their outlets together and tar them all with the same brush. There have been lots of folks in here who have had good piercings done at Claire's and there have been lots of folks who have had some apalling experiences at 'reputable' piercing shacks. If every piercing shop had the same name and there was a single........ ah, what the hell, people will still make stuff up to suit.