How to Properly Care for a Belly Piercing

It's got to be the most popular place to get a piercing second only to the ears. If you've been wanting to get your belly button pierced, or have it pierced and don't know why it wont heal, this should help Expectation: It's important to know what you've just gotten yourself into. A belly button piercing is one of the hardest piercings to heal, and takes the longest. Resistance: After you've gotten your belly button pierced, your natural inclination will be to mess with it. The only time you should mess with the piercing is when you clean it. Endurance: The first week of your piercing will be the best you'll have during the healing process. Your piercing will require attention every other day if not every day. First Two Weeks: Wash the piercing every day, once in the morning and once before bedtime. Wash your hands thoroughly with the soap, then rub a good lathering of soap onto your fingertips, and thoroughly clean your piercing. clean the skin around the piercing. Last but not least, get the ring nice and sudsy, then spin it thru the piercing to get the soap down into the wound itself. If you keep a daily routine and don't mess with the piercing, you shouldn't get any infections. That Extra Step: A lot of piercing artists recommend the shot glass method. Lean over, remove the shot glass by pulling away from the top of the piercing first, and empty the glass into the sink. Be sure to rinse the salt solution from your piercing, and pat dry. In the first couple of weeks it's possible the piercing may develop dry skin and crust over. If you do go swimming, or take a dip in a hot tub, be sure to immediately clean out the piercing. Anything less than surgical steel can flake or cause infection inside the wound, which can cost you the piercing. Take the fifteen or less minutes a day to keep the piercing clean, and it'll last you your whole life. Your piercing will go through phases: for a while it will look clean and have an even skin tone. IF this happens, go to a piercing artist and have him/her help you pop the infection and clean it.