by Bethan Jones

Created on: June 01, 2009   Last Updated: June 04, 2009

I'd like to start this article with an anecdote; an experience I went though a few years ago that gave me first hand experience of what happens when a piercer botches up your piercing, and what you should do.

A couple of years ago I decided to get a piercing done at the Cardiff tattoo convention. A piercer I had heard of by reputation was there, and having seen his work online and in various UK tattoo magazines, I thought he would be the best guy for the job,

The piercing went like most piercings do; a deep breath in, a slow breath out and a bit of pain. But when it came to screwing the ball on the piercing in my right cheek it seemed to sit very close to my skin, close enough that it didn't seem like there was any room for the piercing to breathe properly. In fact you couldn't see the stem of the stud at all. The piercer hemmed for a minute then said 'It's a bit short but you shouldn't have any problems.'

At that point I should have said something. Short bars or studs in new piercings are a bad idea because the skin around the piercing can swell up and take some time to go down again. You need jewellery that will accommodate that swelling and give the piercing time to heal. Jewelery that's too big can be downsized, but if it's too small it can cause problems. As I later found out. However, like an idiot, I didn't say anything. Instinctively I knew that something wasn't quite right, but instead of questioning the piercer I let it go, thinking that because he had more experience than me he'd know what was best.

Once both cheeks were pierced I looked in the mirror and was pretty pleased with what I saw. I was a bit worried that the balls were sitting very close to my skin, creating a bit of a dimple, but I decided to go against my instincts and trust what my piercer had said - after all he had been piercing for longer than I'd been getting them.

Not long after I'd had the piercing done though, I started to get problems with the right one; the one with the bar that my piercer had thought may have been too short. At first it was tenderness and swelling around the area, so I kept up the sea salt soaks and otherwise left it alone. But as time went on it got worse and worse; what looked and felt like a blister formed around the piercing and no matter what I did I couldn't get rid of it. Salt soaks weren't working and the worse the lump got the worse I felt about it. It started to affect my confidence as wherever I went I was aware of this slowly turning purple lump

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