How To Get Rid Of Keloid Piercing Bumps

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Eden Stuart is an editor at . She covers all beauty and wellness topics, with a special emphasis on makeup, skincare, and haircare.

Karen L. Hudson is a tattoo artist and contributing writer for . She has been an amateur artist as a hobby since grade school, and served a 12 month tattoo apprenticeship in a tattoo studio.

How To Get Rid Of Keloids On Piercings

If you feel a bump on a piercing, there's no need to panic. Even if you're meticulous about your care and serious about the healing process, a piercing bump can rear its head. It's important to understand before you get a piercing that it takes a level of patience and dedication to earn your piercing wings, says pro piercer J. Colby Smith.

Still, the bump needs to be properly treated. To do that, you have to identify the type of bump you're dealing with, where it is located on your body, and how it got there in the first place. After that, simple remedies, time, and patience will help you cure any unsightly swelling. Read on to learn exactly how to care for a piercing bump straight from the experts.

Piercing bumps can be the body's immune system responding to the wound from the piercing, causing some localized inflammation which, in turn, causes the bump, explains board-certified family nurse practitioner Alexandra Moench, DNP of Schweiger Dermatology Group. She notes while this process is sometimes benign, in some cases, the underlying cause may be something other than inflammation and may need medical intervention to resolve. Some specific types and causes of piercing bumps include:

Piercing Bump Vs Keloid: A Comparison

The bad news: Many things can lead to the formation of a piercing bump. As such, it's important to investigate what actions and aspects of your day-to-day routine could be irritating.

It can be helpful to eliminate any potentially irritating or aggravating factors, including excess trauma or pressure on the piercing, says Garshick. For example: If the piercing is on the ear, avoid using headphones or other objects that may occlude the area.

Pro piercer Johnny Pearce tells us common irritants include bumping, snagging, or sleeping on new piercings; airplane travel and cabin pressure; touching the piercing with dirty hands; skincare and beauty products; and jewelry.

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Smith recommends checking that your jewelry is a proper fit and allows enough room for swelling. You'll also want to investigate your materials: Are your studs, hoops, or CBRs (captive bead rings) made of surgical stainless steel, surgical titanium, niobium, or Tygon (a surgical plastic)? Some people can develop an allergy to certain types of metals commonly found in piercings, such as nickel, so it may be important to avoid certain types of metals, particularly if you have sensitive skin, says Garshick.

If you're unsure about the state of your jewelry, visit your local trusted professional piercing studio. They can help you pick a more suitable piece of jewelry and may even change it out for you, too, so there's no reason to do it yourself. Once it's in, leave it there until your bump is completely healed. Rotate it occasionally if possible, but only after healing.

Cleaning your piercing daily with a mild antibacterialsoap can be the key to eliminating abscesses or cysts. It is important to clean the area regularly with a gentle cleanser, like Dove's Irritation Care Body Wash ($7) or Andalou Naturals' 1000 Roses Gentle Cleansing Foam ($13), to minimize the potential for infection, says Garshick.

Piercing Bumps Vs. Keloids: What's The Difference

Additionally, King recommends salt solutions. These may work to draw out impurities, clean infected areas, and loosen dead skin cells anddried pus. Another popular solution for cleaning new piercings is H2Ocean's piercing aftercare line.

Mix 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt with water, and soak your piercing blister three times a day until it is completely gone. This can also help to remove discharge from your piercings.

At the end of the day, [piercing bumps] come from irritation, says Smith. The body does not like the foreign object, so we need to gently convince the body to heal around it rather than fight it. I find most people don't take great care of their piercings until there is a problem—then they care a lot. My advice is to be proactive from the start. Keep it clean and be careful with it.

The Piercing Keloid: Earlobe Keloids And Cartilage Keloids

Salt soaks usually treat pesky piercing irritations, but certain bumps may call for an herbal compress, like a chamomile tea bag soaked in hot water. Smith recommends applying a hot compress with a chamomile tea bag to the bump nightly. The heat helps draw out some of the irritation while chamomile helps reduce inflammation, he explains.

If that's not working, he suggests moving on to apple cider vinegar. Tape a small piece of cotton soaked in apple cider vinegar to the bump overnight. This will turn the bump white, then purple, then black, and, eventually, it will fall off like a scab in a few days.

We've also been successfully treating irritation bumps using what I call 'compression therapy, ' which utilizes the gentle but constant compression of a larger titanium disk on the bump, encouraging it to dissipate even more quickly, Pearce says. Note: You'll definitely want to leave this route to the pros and pay a visit to your piercer.

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Hypertrophicscarring, the most common piercing bump, is caused by increased collagen due to trauma in and around the piercing site. It usually occurs in a cartilage piercing (upper ear or nose). If this sounds like what you're dealing with, consult a professional and have them size down your jewelry gauge to avoid undue pressure on the wound. Then, perform a daily, gentle oil massage with rosehip seed oil, which is perfect for various skin types and gives you added hydration benefits to soften the scar tissue over time.

While piercing bumps can be hard to prevent, they can be treated or addressed with different topical creams or ointments, such as Vaseline Healing Ointment ($4) or antibiotic ointments such as a prescription called mupirocin ointment, or topical steroid creams to reduce the inflammation, says Garshick. Moench also recommends NSAIDs like aspirin or ibuprofen to reduce inflammation.

If the infection persists, take a trip to the dermatologist for a shot of cortisone (I recommend this a lot to my actor or model clients as they need a quick fix before they get in front of the camera), says Smith. Adds Garshick: In-office treatments, such as cortisone injections, can also help to reduce swelling and inflammation associated with healing or scar tissue.

How To Get Rid Of Piercing Bumps (and Keep Them Away)

Of course, sometimes, you just have to make an appointment with your dermatologist or GP. If a piercing bump is persistent despite over-the-counter remedies, becomes painful, or is associated with worsening redness or systemic symptoms such as fever, it is important to check with a doctor, says Garshick.

Takes every opportunity to use high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we keep our content accurate, reliable and trustworthy.This won’t be a blog post telling you to get rid of the those ugly Piercing Bumps by using Tea Tree Oil but a post helping you figure out exactly what’s irritating your piercing.

These piercing bumps or “irritation bumps” as some people like to call them are actually your body’s way telling you your piercing is irritated. Cartilage Bumps and Nose Piercing Bumps are more common than you think.

Piercing Bumps, Keloids, And Infection: How To Avoid And Treat Them!

These bumps are not to be confused with Keloids, as mentioned in my previous post on Tea Tree Oil, Keloids are scar tissue and for some people, it’s their body’s natural way of healing. They are permanent unless removed from a dermatologist. The internet seems to confuse the two, piercing bumps and keloids, but reality is that not every bump equals a keloid.

Piercing Bumps occur because your piercing is irritated and the only way to make it go away is to figure out why your piercing is irritated. No magic essential oil is going to make it go away, it’s going to keep coming back until you find the root cause. These are the four common causes for your piercing bump:

The BEST metal to be pierced with would be Titanium. Titanium is often what doctors use during surgery/bone replacements. If you were pierced with a lower grade metal, it could be irritating your piercing.

How To Get Rid Of Keloid On Belly Piercing

In my experience, I was pierced with surgical steel for my nose and belly button. Both of which developed these “irritation bumps.” I ended up switching my nose piercing a