Before having you or your child’s ears pierced, there’s a lot to consider. From location to the ear piercing device and even choosing from the piercing earrings, here’s what you need to know about before getting an ear piercing.
- Choosing a Location
No matter what your age, ear piercing is an important event, and many people choose to celebrate the special time with friends and family at a retail store that offers ear piercing. Others prefer the quiet and privacy of a doctor’s office or beauty salon. Luckily, advances in ear piercing equipment have made it possible to have your ears pierced safely in any of these locations, leaving you free to choose the location that best meets your needs.
- Understanding the Ear Piercing Device
Whether the piercing is for you or your child, safety and sterility come first. With several ear piercing choices available, it’s important to understand the difference between each of them. As you shop for an ear piercing location, ask what ear piercing system they use.
Here are the most common:
Hand-pressured piercing instruments, like the Inverness System, that provide a quiet, gentle, and accurate piercing using a fully-encapsulated, sterile piercing earring.
Spring-loaded piercing guns that are loud and pierce the ear by “shooting” the earring through the earlobe.
Hollow needles or “cannulas” that remove a core of flesh to pierce the ear. These are most commonly used in body piercing parlors.
- Choose the Right Earring
The most exciting part of the ear piercing process is getting to choose your piercing earring. Whether this is your first, second or even third piercing, your piercing earring will need to stay in place during the entire healing period (6 weeks for an earlobe piercing and 12 weeks for cartilage).
4. Safe Healing
Ear piercing aftercare is just as important as the piercing itself. For safe healing, remember to keep your piercing site clean and always wash your hands before touching your earring or cleaning the piercing site.
Cleaning
It’s important to clean your ear piercing at least three times a day using an aftercare solution formulated for the care of pierced ears. While cleaning, turn the earrings one full rotation. More details and tips for safe healing can be found here.
Ear piercing healing times are determined by the type of piercing you have:
Lobe Piercing – Leave piercing earrings in the ears for 6 weeks. Do not remove the earrings during this period.
Cartilage Piercing – Leave the piercing earrings in the ears for 12 weeks. Do not remove the earrings during this period.
For the first 6 months after your earlobe piercing has healed, you should not go without earrings for more than 24 hours or your piercing may close. For cartilage piercings, it’s best to wear earrings 24/7 to prevent your piercing from closing.
We hope you have found these tips to be helpful. For more information or to find the Inverness Ear Piercing location nearest you, visit our store locator!