Titanium, Healing and the Usual Mistakes
Almost no piercing goes wrong out of bad luck. It is cheap steel, a short bar or dirty hands. All three are avoidable on day one.
We do piercings in a separate room, not in the tattoo booth, and every item comes out of its sterile pouch in front of you. These are the four things that actually decide whether a piercing settles in weeks or annoys you for a year.
Implant-grade titanium, not steel
All our first-fit jewellery is ASTM F-136 titanium, the same grade used in surgical implants. It contains no nickel, so it does not trigger the classic reaction you get from cheap costume steel. If you bought "surgical steel" for twelve euros at a beach stall, that is where the redness comes from.
Why the first bar is long
The first bar is deliberately a couple of millimetres longer, because the area swells for the first few days. A short bar gets swallowed by the swelling and the disc buries itself. After four to eight weeks it needs downsizing — a two-minute swap, and we do it free of charge.
Saline, and nothing else
Sterile saline twice a day. That is the whole routine. Alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, iodine and tea tree oil burn the new tissue and set healing back. And do not rotate the jewellery: every twist tears the skin channel forming inside. Shower normally and pat dry.
How long it really takes
Earlobe, six to eight weeks. Nostril, four to six months. Helix and tragus, six months to a year. Navel, easily over a year. Painless does not mean healed on the inside. Come back at two weeks and we will check the fit and the healing at no cost.