- People pierce their ears, noses, eyebrows, lips, tongues, navels and sometime genitals. Each location requires a different method of penetrating the skin. According to WebMD, no matter the procedure, never get a body part pierced with an ear-piercing because these instruments can never truly be sterile. Also, proper selection of jewelry material to prevent allergic reactions to the metal is imperative. Surgical steel, 300-grade, or gold of any quality 14-karat or higher suits a piercing. The list of acceptable metals also includes titanium and niobium. Nickel, however, should never be used because many people develop an allergy to it. Use these preventive measures for both infection and body odor.
- Lack of hygiene creates a foul smell just like bad breath from not brushing your teeth. You should clean your piercing only slightly less often. The bacteria plaque builds on teeth. Bacteria and dead skin cells also build inside the holes created by the piercing and on the jewelry used. Mild soap and water and a disinfectant geared toward the location of your piercing will clean it. That is, pierced ears have products such as Claire's Ear Care for keeping the lobes disinfected. Hydrogen peroxide will work, too. For any nipple or genital piercings, the Association of Profession Piercers (APP) says to soak the area in a mild, warm saline solution once or twice a day and only use antimicrobial, germicidal, non-fragrance soap. Even then, do this no more than twice a day. The APP also says to never remove the jewelry even after the piercing has healed — unless you want to do so permanently — because the hole can close over very quickly.
- As with any infection, a piercing starts to smell like rotting flesh. According to the APP, soreness, bleeding, a whitish discharge and swelling can occur for nipple and genital piercings for a few days. These piercings take time to heal. After this initial period, however, infection easily sets in from activities including sex, swimming in unhygienic water, wearing the wrong types of non-breathable clothes and even over-cleaning. Piercings most other places only require diligence in cleaning the area. A piercing is effectively a wound. Any swelling, allergy or pus-type discharge immediately after the piercing process denotes infection from unsterile equipment.
- Properly healed piercings that do not get air when you participate in sports or other physical activities produce slightly more perspiration from friction alone because they are underneath your clothing. A strenuous game of basketball with nipple rings under your T-shirt or a five-mile run with any piercing below the belt will cause more sweat. Body odor accumulates around nipple and navel rings as well as any genital piercings. You smell, so your piercings smell.
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