Sub Q

What to Expect

A facial piercing will almost always swell to a mild degree. The swelling is usually short lived, about a week to 3 weeks. The swelling is usually concentrated around the openings of the hole and a mild redness or pinkness will be present. On darker skinned people the skin around the hole may be darker than the surrounding tissue. On the edges of the piercing and on the jewelry, there will be a buildup of dried lymph fluid (basically a scab) on the edges. You can expect to have the redness and some mild swelling for the entire time that the heating process is happening. Sometimes during the healing process you may notice that the piercing will go from looking healed to looking mildly infected. It's completely normal to have a piercing change appearance like this. Sometimes when people don't take care of the piercing, and sometimes even when they do, the piercing can get inflamed on the edges. The description that our customers often give is a "bubble" of skin is bulging out of the hole. That's a sign of the piercing beginning to get infected. In this case, the piercing will take on a deeper red color and will ooze lymphatic fluid. It may even bleed under these conditions. Usually this condition occurs because someone either didn't follow the aftercare instructions or that they didn't follow the "do's and don'ts". If this problem starts to be evident, then revert back to the original instructions. Occasionally the problems outlined above occur from over cleaning the piercing as well. Basically follow the instructions. They work well for most people.
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Healing Times

Healing times:
Eye brow: 2-4 months
Nostril: 2-4 months
Earlobe: 2-4 months
Ear Cartilage: 4-6 months
Tragus : 4-6 months
Septum: 2-4 months
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Do's and Dont's

It is very important that you follow other instructions than just the aftercare that we give you. The things that you do or don't do will make all the difference in the world to how your piercing will heal. If you don't follow these do's and don'ts your piercing will probably take longer to heal or may never heal properly, due to prolonged infections.

Do:
Call Sub-Q if you have any questions. But if you're worried about your piercing, come in.
Follow the aftercare instructions that we have outlined.
Eat food on a regular basis. If you don't, your heafing time could be prolonged.
Take lbuprofen for Swelling or soreness.
Wash your hands before touching your piercing. Hands carry germs. Germs mean infections

Don't:
Forget to follow the aftercare instructions that we have outlined.
Exchange body fluids with other people, on or near the piercing while it is heating. Other people's body fluids contain things that are harmful to the healing process and cause infections, inflammations, and sometimes diseases (yikesl).
Overdo your intake of lbuprofen. Too much can cause stomach issues and even liver or kidney problems. The recommended dosage on the package is the amount you should take.
Forget to eat. Your immunities could be affected by not eating. If your immunities drop, your piercing could take longer to heal or you could more easily contract an infection or disease.
Touch your piercing with your fingers unless you're cleaning it. Hands carry germs. Germs mean infections.
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How to Care for a Facial Piercing

There are too many ways to list to take care of a facial piercing, but these steps work great, and if you follow the instructions that we recommend, your piercing will usually heal between 2 and 6 months. The outside of your facialloral piercing has a 3-step process for the first 3 days. Once the third day is over, then one of the steps will be dropped. After the first 3-day time period, you will still follow the other 2 steps. We supply Dr. Bronners liquid soap, E.R.1 ear piercing care solution and a small tube of Bacitracin zinc ointment with each facial piercing that we perform at Sub-Q. Each of the 3 steps will involve one of the above items. Every day, twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening you'll want to follow all of the steps for the first 3 days. One of the steps will be done approximately every 3 or 4 hours, about 2 or 3 times a day.

Twice a day, both morning and evening:
Wash your piercing with a small amount of the Dr. Bronners soap by putting a few drops of soap in your hand and a few drops of water. Take a Q-tip and swirl it around in the soapy water and wash the openings of the piercing. Move the jewelry through the hole making sure that you get soap in the hole. Rinse the piercing off with clear tap water, Again, making sure that you move the jewelry through the fiole to get the soap out of the piercing. Immediately after you wash the piercing, apply a small amount of the antibiotic ointment to the openings of the piercing. This is the step that you only do for the first 3 days. After the 3rd day, you discontinue this step. You should only do this step 6 times.

In between the morning and evening washings, about 2 or 3 times daily;
Clean your piercing on the outside with the E.R.1 ear piercing solution or Bactine. Follow the same directions as with the soap, but don't use the soap. You'll want to do this step about 2 or 3 times a day, approximately every 3 or 4 hours works great. You may want to bring the E.R.1 or bactine and some Q-tips with you. Keeping them in a plastic bag helps in case the liquid spills out of the container. Make sure to rinse off the E.R.I. The active ingredient, benzalkonium chloride, can be irritating to some peoples skin. Keep in mind not to over clean your piercing. If you clean your piercing too much you may cause a reaction that looks and feels much like an infection.
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How to Know Your Piercing Is Healed

Keep in mind that each person is different for how they heal for each piercing one may get, And with different people there can be different indications for healing. What we give you for information is,a general idea of what most people go through. You may not show the same types of indications written below. It's sometimes a bit difficult to know for sure if a facial piercing is healed. But if you pay attention to how the piercing looks and feels during the healing process, then you usually can tell fairly easily when the piercing is healed.
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The Openings

The outside openings of a facial piercing, after it is healed is very similar to the rest of the surrounding tissue. The edges of the piercing will have no irritation, redness or 'crusty" buildup on or around it. The color is usually almost identical to the surrounding tissue, but in some cases there is a slightly darker hue to the edge and sometimes it's a bit lighter on the inside, But for the Most part ' there's very little difference to the color. The texture of the edge is almost identical to the surrounding skin as well. The inside texture is a little different most of the time. The edges will usually be turned into the hole and as the hole deepens, the inside will usually take on a slightly wrinkled appearance. Since the piercing actually forms new skin inside the hole, the skin has many of the same qualities. The skin makes new skin cells like the rest of your body. But unlike the rest of your skin, it's difficult for the body to slough off the dead skin. Consequently, the dead skin will start to build up once the piercing is healed. The buildup of dead skin and body oils (smegma) makes a paste and will look kind of like a thin layer of white cheese. The paste may take on a distinct odor. The odor smells kind of like the inside of a belly button that hasn't been washed in a while, At Sub-Q we call that smell "the funk". Once it's healed, you can avoid the funk by washing the outside of the piercing and the jewelry, once a day with soap and water.
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Your Rights

At Sub-Q we believe that your rights as our customer and as a consumer are important. And since the services that we offer are a bit out of the norm, it's important that we define those rights.

We believe that all of our customers have the same types of rights as they would have at a typical retail establishment, but we want to take it the extra mile for our industry. Typically in the body piercing industry, some of the rights that you would have as a consum er would be eliminated. Most places that perform body piercing don't allow for things like "trade-ins" for jewelry or refunds of any kind. Sub-Q offers both. And we go the extra stop of putting it in writing. Our refund and return policies are simple and direct. Within the first 4 days, if you don't like your new piercing for any reason, simply return %With the jeweiry still in, and we'll refund your money, minus the cost of the aftercare products that we supplied,

Jewelry purchase is a bit different. If you purchase jewelry, have opened the package and wish to return it, we offer only 25% credit. Since we have to put the jewelry through a remanufacturing process, we can't offer a full price refund. But if the jewelry is still in its original, sterile packaging, we can refund your full purchase price. All refunds and trade-ins, are strictly at the discretion of Sub-Q employees.
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Your Responsibilities

Your responsibilities, like your rights, are also direct and simple. The aftercare of your new piercing is strictly up to you. The closer that you follow the instructions that we give to care for your new piercing, the faster and more smoothly your piercing will heal. There are different ways to care for a piercing and many work well. Some ways may not work so well, and some may be outright bad. But from the experience of the staff at Sub-Q the aftercare instructions that we give work very well, It's also your responsibility to contact us for your needs. We want to help you in any way that we can, but we can't help you if you don't contact us. Even if you think it's trivial, your concern could be important. Please let us know how we can help you.
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Piercing and Tattoo