Catriledge Piercing?

Question

I just got mine, 4 days ago. I just finished cleaning it with soap ( it is a hoop) and my ear is bright red and getting extremely swollen.

Is this normal?

It is throbbing.

What should i do?

Answer 1

It's normal for it to swell after you clean it or otherwise irritate the piercing. If the swelling and redness doesn't go down though, it means you have an infection, in which case you should keep cleaning it. And soap probably isn't the best idea, use alcohol or polysporin or something since the soap won't completely wash out of the hole and might be making the irritation worse. Polysporin is very good since it's okay if it stays in the hole. (Piercers tell you not to use it, but they're often wrong!) Also if you use soap you have to move the piercing around alot to wash the soap out, which will make redness and throbbing far worse, as you seem to have discovered! With alcohol or antibiotic ointment you just have to put it on either side and rotate the piercing so it goes inside the hole where it kills germs on contact, you don't have to move it around very much at all.

If it's infected don't take it out because you can trap the infection inside the ear, just keep cleaning it and see a doctor if it doesn't get better!