First, a note: it occurred to me that having done the piercings on day 2 of the blog, it gets a bit confusing because the pictures are going to be labelled as different days to the blog posts. So although this is the third blog entry, it’s the second day in the life of the piercings. That will be less confusing. Sorry about the title.
Now both piercings are done, albeit 12 hours apart, we’re waiting to see how they heal.
The first stage of healing that we expect to see is Coagulation and Hemostasis…
Stage 1 - Coagulation and Hemostasis (should be finished in about 20 mins)
After a wound, you have probably noticed, your body bleeds. This is obviously for a reason. Firstly, blood being a liquid will help flush out any bits of nasty that have got into the body. Secondly, blood carries all the ingredients your body needs to heal. To start out, it needs fibrin to build a scab so that’s what gets sent there. Unfortunately, the healing cells are bigger than your average (very small) blood cell, so the vessels need to expand so that they can fit. This means that the area heats up, expands the blood vessels and gets the blood to the right places. Once your body has expanded the blood vessels enough to get some fibrin down there, your blood will start to thicken, that’s coagulation. I get a little excited when I see a nice bit of blood thickening, it’s a sign of good healing abilities and healthy, well-oxygenated blood. Once the coagulation has kicked in, the fibrin starts to plug the gaps and the bleeding stops. That’s Hemostasis (hemo=blood stasis=stillness)
Ok so here’s the thing. Gun piercing and needle piercing happens in different ways so the stages of healing are affected.
Coagulation and Hemostasis in Piercing Healing
GUN: A gun piercing shoots an earring through the ear, the hole thus is the same size as the earring, there is no space around it. Your body wants to bleed (and it is better for it if it does!) but it can’t because the exit has been instantly blocked by a stud.
NEEDLE: A needle piercing inserts jewellery via a cannula so is by necessity VERY SLIGHTLY less wide in the jewellery than in the hole That’s why some piercings will bleed a little. Which, as discussed, is fine.
(Edit: When I wrote this I used needles that were 0.5mm larger than the jewellery so I would say maybe 1 in 3 people bled a bit when having a piercing, I now use needles that are 0.1mm larger than the jewellery; this does make it more fiddly to do but I’ve done so many now it’s no bother and I have a nifty tool so it’s a much smoother process now than it used to be. You know you hear some people say ‘the jewellery going in was the worst bit’? It’s not now, it’s very nothingy. Anyway, almost nobody bleeds now because we hit that golden spot where it’s got enough space to get blood to the area but not so much it can escape and run down your face. Neat innit?)
Close-up differences between needles and different piercing guns (or “systems” as some people now call them so as to not say gun. It’s a gun still.)
Elanor was pierced with a Studex gun - most places that use guns are using studex. They are a MASSIVE company who make more money than you could dream of. The earrings look pointy to the naked eye but in reality they are totally blunt. It’s just force getting it through, that’s why it needs to be fired at speed. Needles only need the tiniest gentle push and they’re through. That’s why hospitals use needles and don’t just fire things into people. It’s dangerous and cruel.
Still very boring
Needle Piercing Day 2
Gun Piercing Day 2
Not much to report. Maybe it will just sit there?
A final note: I said I’d talk about turning the earrings every day. The gun piercing aftercare instructions said to rotate the studs 3x a day, I say do not rotate them at all. Why?
Well, because the gun piercing used blunt force to make a hole only the width of the jewellery, turning it is pretty important. If you don’t, the fibrous blood cells will hold the earring in place and it can embed into the ear. You won’t end up with a tiled wall around your bathroom, you’ll end up plastering your ladder to the wall.
With a needle piercing, because there is space, blood can move around the jewellery, there is no need to break the fibrin and the jewellery isn’t going to become part of the ear, it is easy for your body to understand that it is a separate entity.
Now, does that mean I think turning ANY earring is a wise move?
Hell no.
Moving the stud:
Can introduce infection unless you’re surgical-level cleaning your hands before you turn it which we all know you’re not.
Moves the cells sending messages to different places in the wound. That’ll confuse things.
Removes any scabbing that may have formed inside which will make it bleed again, or not be able to bleed again as the case may be. This is a new injury and it will restart the healing process. Bad juju.
But Elanor is doing what she’s told. Let’s see how this goes.