Nose pirceing... help!?

Question

i might get my nose pirced and i dont know that much about it. Does it hurt alot? Is it likely to get infected? can you change the ring? Anything more important things to know? Thanks=]

Answer 1

All piercings are painful to some extent. Most of it depends on your own tolerance to pain. Out of all 17 piercings, my nose wasn't high up on the pain list, and I don't know anybody else who found it exceptionally painful either. It's a short burst of burning pain, then it's over. So don't worry about that.

You can change the ring, but I would advise getting it pierced with a stud, as they are more stable and easier to clean. You shouldn't change the jewellery until at least 6 weeks after piercing, but if you are experiencing any redness, swelling, pain or discharge even after that, then hold on a little longer. You ideally want a fully-healed piercing before you go swapping jewellery.

The nose isn't an overly clean place, but thanks to its positioning it can be cleaned easily, so infection isn't usually a problem. Your piercer should give you full aftercare instructions, but I found that filling a shallow cup full of hot water and 1tsp sea salt, dissolved, made a great cleaning solution. My piercer advised me to put my nose in the water and blow bubbles - it worked great for me as a supplement to my usual cleaning, and I did this twice a week.

One last thing. If anyone tries to pierce your nose with a gun, walk away! Piercing guns are unclean and unsafe. Stick with the needle - it seems scarier, but actually you'll find it less painful.

Good luck!