I have had an eyebrow piercing for about 18 months. In the beginning I had no problems with it, but on one holiday (about a year ago) I lost the top ball to the bar. I bought a new one there, but that one was not a good idea, the piercing got infected.
I went back to the piercer, and he put in a new bar. But ever since then the piercing seems to get infected.
It comes and goes, some days it is fine, sometimes the whole eyebrow feels a bit swollen. But sometimes (about once every 3-4 weeks) I get a bump next to the top hole, this bump gets bigger and bigger until it pops, with profuse bleeding.
I don't clean my piercing at all, just wash off the crusty bits under the shower. I do touch it every now and then, could that be the cause?
Do you have any advice for me?
Thanks
Something has definitely gone wrong because at this point, the piercing is healed and should not be giving you such problems.
The bump is generally a result of irritation and the body wants to get rid of the irritation and to be able to patch up the hole where your piercing is. Since you have a barbell, it is unable to patch it up so it is left near the site so that when free, it can do its job.
By now the body has realized that there is something present and will reabsorb the fluid in the bump and it shrinks and eventually disappears.
So lets try to figure out whats going on with your piercing. What type of jewellery do you have in the eyebrow? A barbell but is it curved or straight? Does it fit nicely or do you see some barbell when you look straight without any expression? Is it implant grade surgical stainless steel, titanium or plastic?
How do you wash off the crusties? Do you move the barbell? Do you pop the bump or does it pop on its own?
For your information, if you had an infection, you would require anti-biotics in order to get rid of the infection. The bump is not an infection.
Give us as much information as possible so that we can better assist you in resolving your issues and get a healthy piercing.
I have a curved barbell, it does not stick out on the top or the bottom. I think it is surgical steel.
When I wash off the crusties I do move it about a bit. I also unscrew the top ball a bit as then I can get to the back of the ball to get those crusties too. The last few weeks I have been trying to avoid that, based on similar advice that I saw on this site.
I sometimes find myself touching my eyebrow (and piercing), without thinking. The piercing also itches sometimes, but I then I do not scratch.
I don't attempt to pop the bump, but it usually happens due to me. Sometimes I bump my eyebrow, or when taking off my shirt the piercing gets caught, and then the bump pops. It has also happened that I woke up with the bump popped.
That's about all that I can think of at the moment.
Since your piercing is over 2 years old, we believe that something is acting upon it to cause it the problems you are experiencing.
Touching it and lying on it when you sleep could be enough to irritate it and this is why you have the crusties forming. The bump forming about once a month tells us that you are doing something regularly that irritates the piercing so that the bump forms.
All we can restate is that you need to leave it alone, do not touch it at all. Put a warm water compress on the piercing once or twice a day for about 10 minutes to soften the crusties and then using a Q-tip remove them.
Lets see if that helps calm down the problem.
