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- Wash your hands.
- Purchase a sterile piercing needle online.
- Place something penetrable but solid on the back of the piercing site.
- Push the needle all of the way through your ear in a smooth motion.
- Do not disturb the jewellery in your ear for 10 minutes.
- Do not remove the jewellery for 6 weeks.
- Keep it clean.
How to Pierce Your Ear
Knowing how to pierce your ear safely can avoid painful infection. I’d always recommend getting the job done professionally by a reputable piercer, although should this not be possible, here is a basic guide on how to do it yourself.
Steps
1- Wash your hands, the jewellery you intend to fit, and any other surface that you shall be touching or using. Also wash your ear at the site of piercing with a medical alcohol wipe.
2- Purchase a sterile piercing needle online. Do not reuse someone else’s! Should the implement that you’re using not be in a sterile packet, disinfect with an open flame or medical alcohol wipes.
3- Place something penetrable but solid on the back of the piercing site, such as a cork or a bar of soap. Whatever you use makes sure it’s cleaned!
4- Push the needle all of the way through your ear in a smooth motion, wiggle, and then leave the needle at a slight angle. Should you have used a hollow piercing needle, thread the jewellery through, should you not be using a piercing needle, push the implement that you’ve used all of the way through, followed immediately by the jewellery.
5- Do not disturb the jewellery in your ear for 10 minutes, but keep cold with ice. Once the bleeding has stopped, fix the earring in place and then clean around the site
6- Do not remove the jewellery for 6 weeks, but wash around it every day using a warm salt bath (not medical alcohol).
7- Keep it clean. Should the area around the site of injection begin to get warm or swell, then it may be infected. See ‘How to Treat an Infected Ear Piercing‘.
Tips
- Have a friend pierce it for you. It’s very awkward to do it yourself.
- Be absolutely certain of the place that you want to pierce before jamming in a needle! Line up the site perfectly. Have a friend help you.
- Should the piercing be through tougher tissue/cartilage, leave the jewellery in for 9 weeks rather than 6.
- A small cup the same size of your ear is the perfect implement to use as a container for a warm salt water bath. This way you can lie sideways whilst bathing your ear anywhere you want.
- Make sure that the needle being used is slightly wider than the earring.
