If you know anything about Tragus piercings please help!?

Question

I had my tragus pierced in january and in the last month or so it has swollen up and made a large red almost knot on my tragus. The knot doesnt really hurt its just there and it's exactly attractive. I called the piercer and he said to put Vitamin E on it. Thing is its still not going away. If anyone could help me with some advice on how to clear this up i would GREATLY appreciate it! Thanks!

Answer 1

Try getting saline solution and soaking it to the best of your ability. Also a really warm wash cloth with salt water helps. Whatever you do DON'T put antibiotic ointment or anything like that on it. That will actually increase the infection. If it gets really bad take it out. That area can cause all kinds of other infections.

Answer 2

Do not take the piercing out, because you can treat it with the jewelry in place better.

Often a piercing done with slightly irritating material like steel or an alloy of gold (usually including copper, silver and trace metals) can cause irritation and prevent complete healing. Switch to an implant certified piece of titanium jewelry for better success. www.piercing.org/pexy/jewelry/jewelry.html can explain more about selecting a safe piece.

Other notable cofactors the irritation could be related to:
*cleaning products you use; chemical or particulate irritation
*the shape and size of the jewelry; a piece out of proportion to your body
*mechanical friction/motion of the jewelry; moving it around too much
*sleeping on the piercing; putting pressure on the jewelry
*tap water/moisture not dried off completely; fluid causing ulceration of the wound bed

In the meantime, try to follow simple sensible care www.piercing.org/pexy/recovery/recovery.html
Boost your immune system with great nutrition and try a dry hot compress for 10-15 minutes each night at bedtime to increase the circulation and bring healing cofactors to the area until you are well to speed the recovery. This can be accomplished best with a very warm washcloth inside a Ziploc bag or a heat pad set on medium.

Answer 3

Easier than the answer above....change to a more comfortable and good jewelry (stainless surgical steel). Try tea tree oil on it at night and sea salt water soak for 20 minutes during the day. Dont take out the jewelry in case it's an infection because the skin can heal up leaving the infection trapped in your ear (duh, that's bad). Try not to sleep on that side of your head.
If it's worse or still there after a month or two, talk to a few different piercers and see what they say.