Cartilage piercings?

Hello friends.

I'm interested in getting a helix/cartilage piercing about half way down my ear, but I'm super scared about keloids/ear collapse/being paralysed. Does anyone have any experience/information about these things to calm me down?

You've got the right idea already, you know the dangers, and you're asking advice.. Maybe take that a step further, and talk to the piercer you would probably go to? Collect information from the sources, they're the ones that do this day after day, they can tell you what to expect, and probably how to avoid the problems. And talk to people who have had both successful piercings and problematic ones, maybe sign up on a body mod forum? That should be full of amazing information as well.

Well it's still definately in the planning stages, and it's unlikely my parents will let me any time soon...but I just want to know everything I can before I even mention it. Thanks for the suggestions Lisabeth, I think I will read some body mod forums

Meh, I have one halfway up that I did with a safety pin, and quite honestly its the most well-healed of all my cartilage piercings. Make sure you DON'T GET IT WITH A GUN; I have two from a gun, and its been like three years, and they still don't feel all the way healed. I think one is through a nerve. So yeah, don't do that.
Also, definitely clean it twice a day. Nothing special, just ear care solution. The piercing people usually give it to you. If not, contact solution is the same thing

kaylalane wrote:

Also, definitely clean it twice a day. Nothing special, just ear care solution. The piercing people usually give it to you. If not, contact solution is the same thing

So, like a saline? That's good to know for my future cartilage piercings..

Yup. Its all the same stuff.

make sure your piercer knows what they are at!
my industrial has a massive keloid on the bottom hole because the chick was inexperienced. :[

another way to clean it is with unsented anti-bac soap!
take a little squirt of it in the plam of your hand, add a drop of water and mix it together with a q-tip. then use the bubbles from that to clean your piercing.

What happened with your keloid? did it go away? Is there a scar?

What did you use for you keloid? salted water or a cream?

i got my cartilage pierced in about that place like 2 years ago, with a gun, and its been absolutely perfect. just make sure you clean it properly and dont mess with it too much while its healing

Sea salt soaks are amazing for healing piercings. They're not expensive, and easy to make. Make sure you buy sea salt, and not just table salt. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING. haha.

Mix 8 ounces of warm water for every 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt. To "test" your sea salt mixture, it should taste about as salty as tears. They're usually recommended to be done two to three times a day for the first two weeks you have the piercing and then gradually stepped down after that. Each "soaking" should be about 5 to 10 minutes. You can make it in a shot glass, and just stick your ear in it, or dip a cotton bud in the soluton and hold it to your ear, whatever is easier.

Hope that helped. ^_^

Also, that magic shit in a bottle Claires gives you after they pierce your ears is awful. Don't use it, if you have it.

ok, i had a keloid once and i didn't know what it was so i stabbed it with a sewing pin and then squeezed. it went away but i was probably lucky ahha.

have nothing to add except for yeah, clean it! and no touchies.

Jess, don't worry too much, helix piercings are relatively fool proof.

Your ear isn't going to collapse. As long as you go to a reputable piercer who doesn't use a gun and with sensible jewellery.

Clean with a salt solution twice a day. One quarter of sea salt dissolved in a cup of boiling water. If you're too lazy for this, you can buy pre mixed saline solution from most piercing studios or use contact solution if you have to.

I've never heard of anyones ear collapsing from a standard helix piercing done professionally...only way thats gonna happen is if it got really infected and screwed up..even then you would be able to spot the infection fairly quickly and get anti-biotics..theres no excuse for piercings getting to that stage.

In terms of keliods, most of the time when people say they have keloids what they actually have is hypertrophic scarring.
Keloids are more serious and short of surgery theres no way of removing these.
Hypertrophic scarring isn't serious..Just wee lumps at the side of a piercing. Some people are prone to them and some aren't. I get them on almost every one of my piercings within the first few months of healing. But you can't see any scarring at all once they're healed.

As long as you continue to clean the piercing regularly then they usually disappear themselves. If its filled with fluid you can use a hot compress or witch hazel or tea tree oil on them to dry it out. Make sure if you're gonna pop anything though that its throughly cleaned afterwards..Fluid bubbles are just full of white blood cells which have trapped bacteria, so you don't want the bacteria getting back near you..

If it weeps fluid and the fluid is yellow/green or smelly at all then its infected and you need a course of antibiotics. Even then, keep the piercing in and just keep it clean and take the medication and it'd clean up fine.

If once its healed you still have a lump of scar tissue you can remove it using hydrogen peroxide (although you need to be careful not to burn the healing tissue)

This is probably way too much info than you need..but was just trying to show that theres really not that much that can go wrong with a helix..and anything that does go wrong there is a solution for..plus piercing professionals and doctors who are always happy to give advice.

actually, the keloid is still there. : P

Thanks SO much guys, that was great...i feel heaps better now. Now I just have to convince my parents...

With my parents when I wanted my belly button done when I was 15 I printed out loads of info, researched all the best studios and read enough so I was positive I could give a good answer to any question.

My mum was like "ok, your a bit lame and you've spent far too much time on this. do whatever you like as long as I don't have to look at it."

Gill I've been told from countless sources not to use guns on cartilage piercings... that's so weird that you heard otherwise haha!

I like needle piercings better anyway. When I get my lobes done again and when I get my helix, it's needle all the way. Heals so much faster IMO, plus it's easier to clean with a ring in it.

Haha, shit, thanks for noticing that Jade..
I totally meant "doesn't use a gun"...
guns are bad bad bad.
thats what I get for trying to write bigass posts at 12:41 am when I haven't slept in 2 days..sorry!