Some of you may know me already, as I have written two experiences so far for BME (Standard Navel, "A Month Later and It Still Looks Good" and Nipple/Female, "Another Self Piercing for the Wall of Shame"). This is not an actual piercing experience, but rather, a word of caution for those of you who have had a piercer who recommended Bactine as the best way to clean a piercing.
At A Glance Author Amanda Contact Astar312@aol.com When Two years ago Artist Chris Studio Eternal Images Location Lanoka Harbor, NJ When I first got my belly button pierced two years ago, I did a full six months of research beforehand. When I handed my dad my final research, I had given him 93 pages total! During my research time, I read over and over again that Bactine was NOT to be used to clean a healing piercing. I took note of that and knew the best aftercare for me would be unscented Dial in the shower and seasalt soaks during the day. After calling around to quite a few different tattoo/piercing to see who would pierce me with a barbell instead of a ring (rings tend to migrate more than barbells, and sometimes just sitting the wrong way can cause the ring to lean sideways, leaving the piercee with a crooked piercing), my intention had been to walk away if the piercer suggested using Bactine. Things didn't go quite as they were planned though...
Being as I had never been in a tattoo studio before, I didn't really know what exactly to expect. I walked in with my mom and was greeted by a very friendly girl behind the counter and she helped me pick out my barbell. I was impressed with everything; the whole place was spotless and the floors were so shiny and clean it was almost blinding lol. Chris was busy piercing another girl's navel at the time so I looked at tattoo flash for a few minutes and tried to stay calm. This was my first body piercing of many to come and I didn't want anything to get screwed up.
Those few minutes passed by very slowly and Chris came out of one of the back rooms. He had very large-gauged ears, a few visible tattoos, and surgical implants in both his arms. Before he took me into the back room, he handed me an aftercare sheet and explained that being as he experimented with trial and error on all of his piercees and himself, he knew Bactine was the best aftercare method. Confused, I explained that during my six months of research, mainly on BME, I read over and over again that Bactine was NEVER to be used. He simply smiled and told me that this website was not reliable and the people on it didn't have their facts straight. I should have left right there, but I didn't. I looked at my mom, hoping she would say something, but she merely smiled also. After I was pierced I left Eternal and as I sat in the car (very slowly) and asked my mom what she thought of the aftercare. She said that seeing as he had so many modifications himself, Chris must know what he is talking about and that I should follow his aftercare directions. Oh, by the way, he told me not to do seasalt soaks because they would irritate my piercing if I did them everyday. With that said, this is what happened to my piercing (which is all healed up and fine now):
When I wrote my experience a month after the initial piercing, it was red. It hurt to touch it the wrong way and some days I had to be very careful as to how I would sit. I thought maybe it was because I had changed my barbell four times already, the first time exactly one week after I was pierced (I know, tisk tisk) but that wasn't the problem. I was still using my Bactine to clean it everyday because I was constantly outside now that the May weather had finally come. I would use the Bactine when I woke up the morning, after I was outside, anytime I would work up a sweat, and after I took a shower. I thought it was healing nicely, because I didn't have anything to compare it to and my only friend who had a belly button ring had to take her's out because it was pierced to shallow and eventually migrated out. I went back to Chris two months after I was pierced so he could look at it (it was still bright red, swollen the full length of a 1/2" barbell, and it would leak out green pus. A while down the road it eventually got really scabby on the bottom hole and I couldn't push any barbells through the bottom but instead had to push it through the top and even that eventually became painful.) Chris said it was fine and it would just take a little while to heal but to just give it time and keep up the aftercare. I kept the aftercare up for about six more months and when there was no improvement I eventually started to ease up on the Bactine. For awhile I honestly thought I would really have to take my navel ring that I had grown attached to, redness, swelling and all.
It was only when I stopped using the Bactine altogether that my navel healed and finally stopped swelling. This was close to eighteen months after I was pierced that everything healed in what was supposed to only take four to twelve months. The actual piercing itself was placed very nicely, except it leans to the right on the bottom slightly, but it's not noticable unless I point it out to someone else. I had thought it was migrating a few weeks ago, but another piercer looked at it and said it was only pushing itself to where it should have been placed in the first place. It turns out that Chris pierced me a little deep at first and now it is perfect. The moral of this story kids: unscented Dial soap and seasalt soaks are your friends; Bactine, Neosporine, alcohol and hydrogen-peroxide are your worst enemies. The aftercare method I was given (and actually follwed! ha!) was NOT helpful at all. I think if I had just stuck to my gut instinct and used the aftercare I had read about for so long, my belly button would have been happier sooner, and it wouldn't have been so aggrivated all the time. I'm just glad everything worked out okay for me, and I have learned my lesson for the future piercings and the six tattoos (which I have planned out very carefully and YES they all have significant meaning to them) that I plan to get soon, with my piercings including an inverse navel, tongue, nipples, and tragus. (I'll be 18 in October!) Now I know to follow my gut instinct and do what I have learned is correct instead of taking one man's advice against all others'. Good luck folks, and happy piercing. I hope I helped some of you out there. Feel free to email me with any questions/comments you may have. Please just entitle it as "I read your experience on bme" so I know it's not spam and I don't delete it. Thanks guys.
(As a side-note: Chris is no longer working at Eternal Images, and now there are signs/binders/books everywhere in Eternal stating that Bactine should NEVER be used as aftercare on a fresh piercing for any reason, with a list of the potential problems it could cause. Think of it as using alcohol, Neosporine, or hydrogen-peroxide on a fresh piercing.)