How to know if a piercing is infected? In this article, I’m going to discuss how to tell if a piercing is infected.
Table of Contents
Infections Are Not Common
The first thing we’re going to start off is by letting everyone know that infections are not as common as you may think.
People might be like, “Oh damn, he didn’t just say that.” I just said that. A lot of times when people see piercing bumps and they’ve never seen that before, they automatically assume it’s an infection. Guys, don’t jump to conclusions too soon. It’s good to be concerned, but at the same time, don’t overwhelm yourself.
Visit The Piercer
The first thing I highly recommend you do is go visit the person who actually did the piercing.
You’re gonna be like, “Molly, well, I don’t really like them, and they don’t really answer my DMs or my phone calls.” Well, maybe you shouldn’t have gone to a person that doesn’t give about you. And if the person who did it isn’t responding or isn’t being much help, go somewhere that’s known to be more professional, maybe a little bit more caring and whatnot.
Please visit someone and have them double-check. Because the first thing you need to know about piercings being infected is you want someone who knows what they’re looking at and someone with experience to tell you whether it is or not.
After you get your first opinion, it’s always good to get a second opinion. Just be very mindful that when you’re visiting other piercers, they normally like to say that the other piercer didn’t do a good job just to turn you, the customer. It happens all the time, so just be very mindful.
Try to go for someone who’s very honest and open about the situation at hand, not just trying to convince you that everything’s messed up and they should remove it and redo it. And then you earn a right to be their customer. So, just be very careful. That happens all the time. It’s more common than you think.
Visit A Doctor
After you get a decent and honest second opinion, the next step would be to go visit a doctor to absolutely put the nail in the coffin because no one is more accurate than the doctors.
As much as a piercer might know the situation at hand, no one knows better than a doctor, period. A lot of times, you might be asking a piercer and being desperate to get an answer from a piercer, but the best answer you’re probably gonna get is a doctor.
One thing that doctors do is they like to just remove the piercing right off the bat because that’s the source of the infection. And they like to prescribe stuff.
So, if you’re going in and expecting to hear this bad news, just be expected to remove the piercing and be on antibiotics or something like that because that’s what doctors normally like to do. They’d like to remove the piercing and then just put you on antibiotics or any kind of medication just to completely get rid of the issue.
If you don’t want to give up your piercing, then you’re gonna have to be extra careful about cleaning it and doing certain things the doctor’s gonna recommend.
Because I love to hear your story so much, please comment below your piercing infection stories or possible infections or if you thought you had an infection. Just write your life story in the comments below, guys. We just love to read your stories. Comment below your possible ear-piercing infection story.
How To Tell If A Piercing Is Infected In 5 Ways
Right now, the entire reason you read this article is to learn about how to tell if a piercing is infected. And these are some things I’ve noticed from my experience. It can be totally 100% true, but this is from my experience, what I’ve noticed, and what I’ve done with all the clients I’ve worked with for 6 years, I have a good understanding of what infections typically look like. But if I’m incorrect or you want to add on stuff, please comment below. I’m very open to always learning and expanding my knowledge. I will share with you 5 tips on how to tell if a piercing is infected.
1. Green Pus
How to tell if a piercing is infected? The very first thing is green pus. Green pus is the very first sign of infection because normally clear or whitish pus is more normal. It’s more irritation-based.
Green is when you have a problem. It’s all done. Green doesn’t mean go; green means you are. So, if you have green pus, more than likely, you have an infection.
In 6 years of doing this, believe it or not, I’ve probably seen green pus maybe a handful of times, literally a handful of times. So most of the problems that people come in with or are concerned about are very irritation-focused. It’s just irritated; it’s red, it’s swollen, but it’s not infected.
It could get there, but it’s not there yet, you know what I’m saying? So green is like, you’re done, buddy; you have an infection, sorry to tell you.
2. Odor
How to tell if a piercing is infected? The second thing is odor. It smells like doo-doo and body odor and all kinds of bad smells. If you have a very bad odor where your piercing is, more than likely, there’s an infection. If you ask how do I know if it smells bad, just smell yourself or have someone smell you.
Believe it or not, people ask questions like that, just smell yourself or have someone smell you. It’s not that hard. It’s very obvious when there’s an odor on your body, like your breath sometimes.
3. Pain
How to tell if a piercing is infected? Number three is pain. If you have a lot of pain somewhere, maybe you should go see someone because a lot of times what could be happening is your piercing jewelry might not be long enough, and all you got to do is most likely go and get it extended, or you just have a very bad infection, and you need to be looked at by a doctor or piercer. So yes, pain is one of the big things whenever you have an infection.
4. It Looks So Bad
The 4the tip on how to tell if a piercing is infected is if it looks so bad a doctor should probably see it. A lot of times, people ask me how do I know I have an infection. By simply looking at it.
If you look at it and you’re like, “This does not look pretty,” more than likely, you should go see a doctor, and they’ll confirm if you have an infection or not. So, check in with the doctor or just, it looks so bad a doctor should look at it. That’s what I’m trying to say.
5. Your Other Piercings Didn’t Look Like This One
Point number five is your other piercings didn’t look like this one. A lot of times, people will be like, “Well, I’ve had my first lobes pierced and my rook piercing there, or my lobes never did that.” Well, clearly, earlobes and upper ear or rook piercings are very different.
So obviously, what you’re going to experience with your earlobes and your rook is going to be vastly different. But in terms of overall experience-wise, it’s a good gauge, especially if you have multiple piercings, to get an idea.
If your other piercings didn’t really act like this, and this one did start acting weird, it’s like that child in the classroom that’s constantly making sounds and being annoying. Something’s wrong with that kid, so you need to go get that checked out or send that kid to therapy because that kid needs to be checked out.
Conclusion On How To Tell If A Piercing Is Infected
Those are the five things about how to tell if a piercing is infected. This is all experience-based. Not everything I’m saying can be 100% true. Obviously, consult with a doctor; they obviously know best. But this is just based on my experience and what I’ve observed. Just from experience, people always ask this question, so I want to share something about it.
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