by Carlee Tibbs

Created on: October 03, 2010   Last Updated: October 10, 2010

The most difficult part of getting a new piercing is the after care; in order for your new piercing to successfully heal in the minimum amount of time, you will need to take care of it properly. If you don't, the piercing will either take much longer to heal or you will increase the chance for your new piercing to migrate or even fail.

Hopefully, you went to a reputable piercing establishment, where it was done in a sterile environment by a professional. It has now been minutes - or hours - since you’ve had your piercing done and you’ve gotten over the adrenaline induced high. It’s time to consider what to do now you’ve had that shiny new object placed into your body.

First of all, you shouldn’t be touching it. A new piercing is essentially an open wound; if you had a big hole in your arm, you wouldn’t be poking your dirty fingers into it, would you?

Also, do not rotate or pull the jewellery through the piercing; doing this is like picking at scabs. The inside of the piercing is called a fistula and as your new piercing heals, the fistula will form tiny little scabs, which will “stick” to the jewellery. When you rotate or otherwise move the jewellery in the piercing, you are ripping off all of these tiny little scabs. When you pick at normal scabs, they take longer to heal and are more likely to become infected. The same will happen to your lovely new piercing. Your jewellery will not get stuck in one position if you don’t rotate it every day; think about any normal scabs you get on any other part of your body; they eventually drop off of their own accord and don't stay there for the rest of your life. This is the same for piercings.

You’ll need to keep it clean. Although there are various cleaning products available for new piercings, the most recommended product to use is a saline solution, which is cheap and very easy to use.

A saline solution is a mixture of sea salt and boiled water. To make it, mix one quarter of a tea spoon of sea salt (which can be bought in most supermarkets) with 300ml or half a pint of just boiled water and stir. Before you use it, make sure the solution has cooled down; you want it to be as hot as you can stand it but not so that it burns the skin around your new piercing.

To use the solution - after washing your hands thoroughly - get a clean q-tip and dip it into the solution. Gently roll the q-tip around the site of the piercing in a clockwise direction. Do this for

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