Long story short, I got a piercing in my upper ear (towards the top) in the cartilage back in late December. Now, there's this bump right beside the piercing. I've been able to take the earring out of the new piercing and the post is completely clean, there's no signs of infection in the piercing itself but I have this bump on the back of my ear right beside where the back piece of the earring settles. I'm keeping the earring and piercing both fastidiously clean.

I'm coming to Subeta because you guys are pretty piercing knowledgeable. Is this something I should be concerned by? And if it isn't, is there anything I can do to bring the little bump down?

Maybe it's scar tissue? I tried twice to get my cartilage pierced but it got infected both times, and I've got a bump from the last piercing.

Urgh, I hope not.

I'm no piercings expert. I've only got my earlobes pierced. But if there's no signs of infection I wouldn't worry? But if it's really bothering you, you can always call or visit the person that gave you the piercing and asked them about it.

If it persists, I'm going to see the doctor about it. It's not really doing anything besides chilling out on the back of my ear and making the earring feel snugger than it should.

I would recommend against taking the earring out again until it's 100% healed. Cartilage piercings are notoriously testy and take much longer to heal than people say. I have 2 (14 gauge) myself, done at the same time, and 1 healed in 10 months while the other took 15. How are you cleaning the piercing, and how often?

This 15-month healer had a bump as well that showed up a month after I had it done and lasted for a full year. If you've googled the bump, you've probably seen people screaming about keloids, but just ignore that. There are 2 main types* of commonly occurring cartilage piercing bumps:

-hypertrophic scarring: basically, you're moving the earring too much, it's getting caught on your hair/clothes, you're sleeping on it, and it's upset and a bump has popped up. It's scar tissue, it shouldn't bleed or ooze anything at all. Treat it with chamomile+sea salt soaks once or twice a day, and if you see no change in the bump, try treating it with diluted tea tree oil (basically a 50/50 mixture of tea tree oil and another oil such as jojoba oil), but be careful if you haven't used tea tree oil before because you may have a sensitivity to it and it'll just make things worse.

-boils: localized infection, it will most likely be slightly red, and may ooze blood or light yellow "pus" (I hesitate to call it pus because it's usually not very thick). DO NOT take your jewellery out and let it heal because this will trap the infection in your ear. This is what was ACTUALLY on one of my piercings, surrounding the barbell on the exit side of the hole. I tried soaking it, I tried oils, I tried antibiotic and steroid creams, hell, I even went to the dermatologist (who thought it was a keloid l o l honey no, scar tissue does not leak) and had a steroid injection straight into the bump and it did nothing. Finally I got pissed and just decided to leave it the hell alone, a month or two later the bump got a little bit bigger, popped like a zit all on its own, scabbed over, and healed perfectly flat. I haven't had any trouble with it since.

In summary from my cartilage piercing experience, for my next one, I would just get it pierced and leave it alone for the most part, only soaking it if it's sore or been bleeding or crusting more than usual.

(*note: I am not a medical professional, this is just my understanding of cartilage piercing bumps)

Hey, you know more about it than I do and probably some doctors who just look down their noses at piercings.

I'm looking mostly to see if anyone can shed some light into it and I think you just did. I cut my hair short just to ensure that the hair didn't get around the post and cause problems, the second one (the "boil") is closest to what it's doing right now, actually.

So, essentially, leave it alone.

yeah, the dermatologist trip was pretty useless. I was actually there for something going on with my face, I thought I'd just bring up the piercing too since I was there. The resident who gave me the shot TRIED TO PUT A BANDAID ON IT. Like.. seriously??!?

I keep my hair pinned up in almost a faux-undercut to keep it from tangling in mine even though they're healed now. It's just annoying trying to yank butt length hair out of the rings lol. Yeah, just try not to sleep on that side and give it a sea salt soak once in a while if it's looking crusty (gently wipe the soaked crusties off with a q-tip) or feeling sore. Don't feel obligated to turn it or anything, I know it's a popular Claire's type of advice to turn your earring 3x a day, but that's just damaging the healing skin and possibly pulling crusties back into the hole - your earrings aren't going to fuse to your skin/flesh.

I got the same thing and it's turned into a bit of a habit to twist them once in a while. Sometimes, I can just leave the whole thing alone.

I was cleaning it before normally twice a day (when I got up and going to bed), but when it started healing more, I only cleaned it once. And despite it being new to me for the whole cartilage thing, this is actually my third piercing (I have two others in my lobes) so I kind of have an idea what to expect with the nastiness that can come of it.

Still, as I said, I'd be more inclined to listen to someone who's been there and knows what to do from experience than an actual medical profession who's like, "You dare to pierce? Reap the consequences, heathen."

Try to get in a habit of not touching it at all, it's definitely tempting to spin it around and such. Now that mine are healed I like flipping them up and letting them fall back down but I remember I just kept ending up with a red and slightly swollen ear when I was doing it while they healed lol.

I remember I soaked my piercing 2x a day regularly for about the first 2 months, then I got bored and switched to 1x a month, and about 4 months in I just stopped entirely and would only do it when I felt like it was getting too gross lol.

Yeah, most medical professionals, especially older ones, have major sticks up their butts over body modifications. I work in engineering and I catch the older guys frowning at my cartilage piercings all the time. If only they knew I've got 2 tattoos across half my back too.

Aye, aye. Consider it done, especially if it'll help with the swelling. I know with my previous ones, I could get away with not cleaning them as much but different part of the ear entirely. Mreh, oh, well.

Thanks for your advice. c:

... And don't get me started on tattoos. I love them to death and hate the stigma that comes with having them.

Hopefully the swelling and bump go down soon! I no longer have lobe piercings but I plan on getting my conch and tragus done once I find out whether I'll need to wear earplugs at all at work this summer. I'm looking forward to it a lot more now that I know what to expect and how to deal with problems lol.

You're welcome! Yeah, it's ridiculous how stigmatized tattoos are. I can have them and be a perfectly normal, contributing member of society, thanks.

I just got mine done exactly a week ago! So far I've noticed it's SUPER touchy. But for cleaning I'm doing the bottle the shop gives AND rubbing alcohol as I remember using that on my first piercings as a kid and having nothing bad happen from using it. The turning it is kept at once a day. And I've been told neosporin or the like is good to add once a day to heal it faster. I also keep my hair away from that side one way or another. Though it hurts when my hubby forgets and goes to cup my face XD

I myself used to pierce ears at hellmart. The advice we gave was wash 2x a day, or more if you got it dirty by like swimming in a lake/ river and turning once a day. If someone had any lumps or odd tissue where they wanted the piercing we wouldn't do it at all. Keloid is what the scar tissue is called if I remember right, or something like it. It's not painful unless messed with.

Huh, this is new to just the past couple days and certainly not my first piercing. I'm not sure what to make of it.

Couple of things to remember about ear piercings...

if you have pets in the house, especially pets that sleep on the bed with you, it's REALLY important to change your pillow cases twice weekly. Pet dander and tiny little pet hairs can actually get into the healing piercing and really irritate them, causing the redness and swelling.

If the piercing is on the same side of your head you usually use when speaking on the phone, clean, clean, clean that phone. Cellphones get SUPER nasty, lots of bacteria on them and even potentially fecal matter if you're the type that uses your cellphone in the bathroom. (aerosolized material after flushing, horrifying but present in the air). Use a comet wipe or something like that to clean the phone frequently to keep ick out of the piercing.

Always always wash your hands before touching any new piercing. Again..bacteria is everywhere and easily tranmitted into the healing channel in the skin, especially if you keep twisting it. As was pointed out earlier, twisting a piercing basically just scrapes the healing skin raw with the little bit of dried matter than can accumulate on the jewelry.

Best cure for a little bump, or a bit of redness and irritation is a warm saline soak. Check your local drugstore, walmart, ect...it's just pure saline solution, usually no more than a couple dollars a bottle. Pour some into a shotglass, warm in the microwave but not burning hot of course. I really like the soft, cotton disks used for cleaning off makeup and saturate it with the warm saline, then use that to gently clean and soak the area 2-3 times daily til the problem clears up.

I haven't had a pet in the house for over four years, I always keep the new piercings clean and never touch them without first making sure my hands are clean and I keep my cellphone clean too because ewww, that is nasty otherwise. Some gentle cleaning with warm saltwater has already caused it to shrink a bit since I made this topic. c:

Yay glad it's gotten better! I know for me I get not quite zits but still some kind of fluid filled bump as it is and using rubbing alcohol reduces them for me. Also I've taken to using clean eye droppers to apply the cleaning solution on my piercing. It seems to be working great but have you used it before?

Mhm. It's been going down consistently for the past couple days if I just leave it alone though with minimal cleaning.

I just found that using the eye dropper keeps my hand a distance away and can cleanly apply the fluid then use a clean wipe to gently dry the area works FAR better than a q-tip.

At one point my ear felt heavy and painful. I get that when you first have a piercing done it will swell, but this was 3 days or so later. Sucked to the point I wanted to go home and clean it and not be at work. Got home pulled fibers off a q-tip and worked it under the backing... got so much gunk it startled me. After that I started the dropper and haven't had an issue other than when it gets bumped.

Huh.

I'll keep that in mind. c: