Taas kilay

I apologize for the title, I really can’t think of anything better.

Anyways, I replaced my brow-ring after 2 weeks. I’m aware that it usually takes 4-6 weeks for this piercing type to heal, but I felt compelled to for a bunch of reasons.

After I initially had this piercing, I’ve been to other tattoo shops just to look for alternate jewelry [for when it heals]. On one occasion, one person got a bit hostile [verbally] as soon as I gave her the name of my “piercer.” She had told me to change the temporary stud immediately (take note this was 3 days after it was pierced so it was far from healed) as it was not “safe.”

This turned my GF off; because why on earth would someone put a fellow artist down even if they don’t agree with their methods? But nonetheless, what was said made sense, because they were all health-related issues. Who knows, maybe she was really concerned about people’s health. Still, slammin’ on a fellow artist is not cool in any situation. But the concerns definitely were valid and stuck with me the rest of the day.

These concerns were confirmed when I was researching on the web about aftercare for body piercings, and found out that almost everything my piercer had said was wrong. And apparently as far as health/hygiene/safety was concerned, he’s not up to par what every piercer should be doing for their client’s health.

• My piercer recommended alcohol and betadine, makes sense right? Apparently it’s wrong! Alchohol, betadine, hydrogen peroxide, etc. are aggressive disinfectants. While they do clean the wound, the wound becomes too tender and will heal at a much slower rate. The only thing they suggested right was saline solution.
• I was informed that it would heal in two weeks. The truth is that while your milage may vary, the accepted minimum is 4 to 6 weeks.

Other little [or big, depends how you look at it] concerns also cropped up the more I learned about all this shit (I admit, it’s my fault for not researching thoroughly before getting the thing)

• The initial jewelry used for my piercing wasn’t titanium or surgical stainless steel. I guess I was just too impulsive and had it done anyways. Looking back, I wouldn’t have minded paying more if they had to use quality materials/jewerly to use for the initial piercing (in fact I wish they insisted on it). After all, the healing process is the most important stage, so it should’ve been standard operating procedure to have bio-friendly jewelry on-hand. The fact that they don’t have the “approved” material in-store should’ve raised a red flag right there. But that’s all in the past.
• The gauge used was not standard, it was on the thin side, plus they used a straight stem, a combination of which, while unlikely, COULD lead to migration (meaning the piercing itself might move outward since it’s pushing against the skin all the time, so it tends to be pushed outward)

Actually, saying my piercer wasn’t “good” maybe is too harsh a statement, he’s pretty talented and well known. I guess the best description of the situation I could give is that he’s probably more of a tattoo artist than a piercer – know what I mean? He’s definitely got the skilled hands to do any body modification [I guess]. But probably isn’t that concerned about the specialization on piercing (if there’s such a thing).

You can probably have your piercing done by him provided you already have your own jewelry to use for the piercing… and are armed beforehand of aftercare knowledge. So you’d be literally just coming in there for him to do the deed (since he’s excellent with needles), otherwise you’re on your own.

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So there, I had to change mine (with great internal-debate) because the last thing I wanted was to see the day that the temporary jewelry RUSTS in my brow while it’s healing. Of course the trade-off is that I may have just delayed the healing process considerably (and possibly aggravated it, knock on wood).

I seemed to have pulled it off properly, the only concern I really have is the lack of “breathing room,” for it to heal. The new jewelry, while using a safer metal, has a shorter stem (10mm as against the 12mm of the temporary stud), and a bigger gauge (16g as against my initial 18g) and aftercare requires proper drainage (whatever secretions during the healing process must be able to easily drain out the holes).

I Just hope that it doesn’t get infected because of what I’ve just done. I don’t mind longer healing time since I’m now using a somewhat ok-as-a-permanent-stud stud, ¹ Since it’s now the correct metal (surgical stainless steel) the ideal gauge (16g) and stem type (curved) the initial one just looked awful and I couldn’t wait to change it.