Body piercings can instantly make you look more attractive. The way you carry yourself says a lot about you. Similarly, when you get a body piercing, it becomes mandatory to take good care of your piercing and follow proper hygienic practices to avoid an accumulation of bacteria and protect against infections. If you have tons of questions and doubts in mind before deciding whether you should go for a body piercing, this article is written to provide you with proper guidance. After extensive research, we have shortlisted a few commonly asked questions regarding body piercings along with the answers. So let’s get started!
Commonly asked Body Piercing Questions and Answers
1. How painful is it?
Body piercings are a bit painful but the pain goes away with time. At first, you may feel like somebody is pinching a hole inside your body. But once the piercing is done, the pain diminishes completely. However, if you develop a habit of unnecessarily pulling or playing with your piercing jewelry, it may cause pain and discomfort due to the stretching of the skin around your piercing.
2. When should I expect it to heal?
The healing process typically depends on how you take care of your piercing. Cleaning it regularly along with the jewelry and making use of a skin ointment can do wonders to expedite your healing process. The healing of your piercing varies according to the body part it pierces. The average expected time to heal the body piercing according to the body parts is as follows.
- Lips – 6 to 8 weeks
- Cheeks – 2 to 3 months
- Tongue – 4 to 6 weeks
- Nostril – 2 to 12 months
- Septum – 6 to 8 weeks
- Eyebrows – 6 to 8 weeks
- Earlobes – 6 to 8 weeks
- Navel – 6 to 12 months
- Genitals – 4 weeks to 6 months
- Cartilage – 2 to 12 months
3. What would happen if I don’t clean my body piercing that often?
Your body piercing will require a good cleaning regime where you can use saline water (salt and water solution) to clean your piercing as well as the jewelry around it. If you don’t clean it regularly, the bacterial buildup can form around your piercing that can create further complications such as a pimple or a piercing bump, and even an infection. To prevent serious issues, you should keep up with a good cleaning ritual for your body piercing.
4. When is it safe to change your jewelry after piercing?
To prevent any sort of infection, you need to let it heal for some time before changing the jewelry. Ideally, your piercing should take a minimum of 6 months to heal. After 6 months, if there’s no sign of piercing bump or pimple or infection, you need to check the condition of the area with piercing. If it appears normal and there’s no occurrence of bleeding or bruise, you can choose to replace your starter jewelry with a new one. However, be sure to select a piece of jewelry that is made up of non-allergic material.