to ask if anyone on MN knows about body piercings?

[erinaceus]

Any piercers about? I have had a belly button piercing for about twenty years. About eighteen months ago the belly bar fell out and because reasons I just left it. The other day I found my old ring and the ball bearing, gave them a good soak in TCP and an rinse and put them back in. This morning I woke up and the area is a little bit red and sore. I took the jewellery out for now.

What is a good way to clean everything properly so I can get back to wearing my belly button jewellery? When I first had the piercing done it took about nine months to heal properly. I would prefer not to end up with significant infection.

I do not want to know that I am too middle aged for navel jewellery, thank you 😁

Antibiotics?

Best thing would be go to a piercer. They can autoclave the jewlerry and use a swab to sterilise the area and insert it for you.

if you haven’t worn anything in it for years it will be a little sore.

Thanks @Mol1628 . I thought that might be the case and will see if I can find one open in the coming days. I had not thought about autoclaving the jewellery, seems obvious now you mention it.

TCP is not very good, you can grow some bacteria in it!
Personally I'd boil it in water and fairy liquid for a few minutes, then reboil in plain water. Have you been cleaning the piercing since reinserting the bar? Get something from the chemist (not TCP)

Clean the piercing site with some sea salt and water as hot as you can stand, don’t use anything else on it! Then buy a new belly bar to go in - you’ll need a 1.6mm bar as this is the “regular” piercing size but if you can find a 1.2mm one then you may find it fits in the shrunken piercing a bit better and will be less sore. A bit of redness etc is normal, but any oozing/funkiness then get it checked out for an infection. Good luck!

No body piercings, but do have several cartilege piercings, and my piercer gives the same advice to everyone in terms of post-piercing cleaning.

You definitely need to sterilise your jewellery - you can do it yourself (as another pp advised) in boiling water. But you also need to take care of the piercing site if you do put the sterilised jewellery back in. So go to a chemist and get a can of sterile saline spray, and use that at least night and morning, and additionally after a shower. And keep spraying it, even if you think it's 'better'!

Finally (and this does sound odd, but in the piercing world it's becoming standard advice) dry your saline-sprayed piercing site with a hair dryer on a warm (not hot) setting. This will dry the piercing site without you needing to use a towel (which might aggravate the irritation), but it will also promote healing more quickly.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tips, all. 🙏🏼 Just what I needed.

Any more are welcome.