Recently, I have had many inquires about all my new modifications that I got this past month on both IAM and in real life. Many people are being nice and are just worried about my health, but I have had a few people demand me to remove my jewelry before I get an infection and die. You can probably figure from that statement that most of the people asking me to remove my jewelry were older motherly type women.
At A Glance Author Becca Seraph Contact Becca [email protected] IAM Silhouettes When N/A Well, I decided to wrote an editorial from my point of view about all my jewelry and answer some of the typical questions that were asked. I made my original post on my IAM page, but realized that other people should read this to. Many people want to get more than a few pieces of jewelry at a time but are worried about healing them all.
First off, I would like to say that having 10 piercing still healing is not the smartest idea, but if you take good care of them, I do not see a problem with having them. I have 20 piercing now and of these 20 about 10 of them are still healing. My Bridge, 3 Helix's, and my Industrial are about halfway healed and my 2 newest Lobes, Wrist, and Nose still have a ways to heal.
One of the questions I am asked is why do I do this to my body? Why do I put myself at risk health wise? This is a tough question for me to answer, because I do not feel as if I am putting myself at risk. I am very careful not to hit my jewelry, sleep on it, or hit it. I clean it regularly and go into Evolution, where I got most of them done, to have the checked at least once a week. The guy that pierces me there, Jeremy, always takes me in the back room to check my jewelry and clean it every time I come into the shop and he never wants paid for it. He is a nice guy and a good friend. My roommate also started working at Evolution as an apprentice and he helps me keep an eye on my jewelry when I'm at home.
Another one of the questions that most people ask me is how do I care for my piercing? Well, first off, it is time consuming and very vital that you take care of your jewelry everyday. If you don't have time and can't clean your jewelry everyday, having more than a few piercing healing at a time is probably a bad idea. As for cleaning, I clean every one of my piercing daily, even the ones I have had for 1+ year. I use Dial twice a day and then Sea Salt soak all my piercing for 10 minutes. This takes about an hour at a time. I have a lot of patience and it really pays off. I hardly ever bleed or crust up on any of my piercing. Most of my piercing hardly gets red, I had problems with my Bridge, but it is better now. My wrist is red every once and awhile, but not to bad. Jeremy says my ears are looking wonderful and I take really good care of them. I have heard some scary stories of people that do not take good care of their ears.
Not many people have asked this question, but a few have. I find it important to list here. If one of my piercing got infected a lot or was always red and not healing would I take it out? The answer is yes, my health is more important to me than my jewelry. Do not get me wrong; I love my jewelry. My example of this would be my lip ring, after 6 weeks it would not heal no matter what I did. I decided to retire this and I miss it, but I know it was the right decision for my health.
How am I health wise? To heal a lot of piercing at once, it is important to be healthy. I walk daily and I take vitamins daily. I try to eat right, but I usually do not, that is why vitamins are good for me. I shower daily and keep my piercing as clean as I can and avoid them from touching things, which means I usually wear my hair up so it does not irate my ears.
This is a big question from most people. How old am I and how do my parents handle all my jewelry? Well, I am 20 right now and my parents do not handle my jewelry very well. I live with my boyfriend of 5 years and our roommate Jake right now and my parents help us from time to time when we need it. However, I am my own person and to me jewelry helps define me and since I live on my own, I can make my own decisions. My parents are old fashioned and do not support my habit and they do complain a lot, but they know I like it and hardly ever demand me take my jewelry out. The only piece they really had a fit about was my wrist, so I usually wear long sleeves around them.
Do I plan to stretch? I am not much of a stretcher, but I do plan to stretch just my ears. I will be careful and wait 6 or more weeks in between stretches when I get into it. Right now my ears are at 12 gauges and soon to be 10.
Another question is when will I stop? What are my next plans? I do have 4 more that I plan on getting. I have my right ear project done now and I want to finish my left ear and my facial. I plan on waiting a little while until some of my piercing completely heals up before getting another. I just got two lobes and I love them, but because of all the worry from some people in real life, I will wait a little longer to continue my projects.
All of my medications right now are piercing. I plan to get my first tattoo in a few months. Before I get my first tattoo, I want all my piercing to heal (besides my wrist which takes forever to heal), so my tattoo will heal nicely. I am waiting to get it done because I am concerned about my health and want to make sure everything goes well.
No matter how many pieces of jewelry I get in my body a month, believe me when I say that my health is my number one issue. I would not risk my health for a pretty jewel on my ear or month or where ever it might be. Every body has a different healing rate and maybe I just got lucky and heal a lot faster than someone else. Someone that takes care of their piercing just as well as me might not be so lucky with healing 10 at a time. I have 20 piercing and of those the 10 that are healed, 8 of them were healing at the same time and are now completely healed and look fantastic. I am patient, caring, and I think it really helps that I work at home and have time to clean and make my own schedule.
Well, I hoped this answered some questions on healing more than one piercing. This is my point of view and my experience with this. If you have any more questions feel free to send me an email and I will do my best to answer all your questions. Happy Piercing and good luck healing!