Earstretching.net

Well I got a 6g dermal punch about a week ago. The piercer put in a taper and sent me home and told me to leave it in for a week.

So a week later I took it out and rinsed the hole with sea salt and I put in a metal tunnel. I washed my hands with antibacterial soap and I cleaned the tunnel with it as well, dried it off and put it into my ear and I'm religious about cleaning around the tunnel with the solution the piercer gave me.

My 2 questions...

How long must I keep the tunnel in for before I can switch jewelry?

Do I need to keep taking the tunnel out to clean it and the hole?

Dermal punches really aren't good for lobes because they remove tissue that you'll wish you had when you get to larger sizes. Punches are mainly for cartilage and things that are difficult to stretch. But you've already had it done, so I guess that doesn't matter, haha.

Why did they put in a taper? Did they stretch it more after it was punched? Tapers aren't suitable jewelry for any healing piercing or even a new stretch, so it's good that you switched to the tunnel.

Instead of using antibacterial soap to clean piercings, it's really best to soak them in a mixture of sea salt and water. Use no more than 1/4 teaspoon sea salt per one cup hot water, and soak your piercings for 5-10 minutes per day. Some people just prefer to leave their piercings alone and rinse them in the shower. Honestly, infections are very rare in piercings so you really don't want to over-clean them; it can be drying and cause irritation. What's in the solution your piercer gave you? If it's a saline solution like H2Ocean it's fine to use, but if it's something with harsh chemicals, avoid it.

You'll probably be healed enough to change the jewelry in about 8-12 weeks. That's to change to jewelry of the same size, not to stretch. If you plan on stretching any bigger, wait around 6 months.

It's not necessary to take out your jewelry when cleaning. Actually, it does more harm than good as you're disturbing healing tissue. Piercings prefer being left alone; make sure you never remove the jewelry or even twist/move it at all during the healing time.

He did the punch then he inserted the taper I guess to stretch it. I hated wearing that thing, I could feel it rubbing against my neck the whole time. It felt so good to take it out and put in the tunnel.

I don't know what the stuff they gave me is, it's just normal cleaning solution for piercings.

I'm just really paranoid about infection, I swab it twice a day, I try my best not to touch it but I'm always afraid of something flying in or around there.

I just took it out again today which I probably should'nt have but I wanted to clean it and the tunnel again.