|
j, this should answer your last question, as well as give you the reasoning for not changing it.
when the piercer initially drove in that tiny spike, he made a weak canal through the nipple. so weak that if he took it out, it wouldn't have taken long for it to grow back together with a bit of scar tissue.
for the next few months, you're best to work it back and forth through what will eventually be a strong 'canal' with anti-bacterial soap, about 1.5 x/day. i.e. once a day is fine, but if you get it dirty (anything foreign, including hands not freshly cleaned) clean it twice...the shower is best, along with some sort of disinfectant...i'm not sure if you have the iodine-based brown-colored Betadine in CA, but i've used about 1/4 of my 6oz. bottle in 5 years, for both my navel and nipples. Use the Betadine in the shower just as you do the soap...a couple drops, and work it back and forth, then rinse it clean.
If you use the anti-bacterial soap too much, you'll dry out the skin, and it will get somewhat crusty around the edges. don't worry, just easy up on the frequency of which you wash it. the only issue with the betadine it that some people develop chemical reactions/minor burns, though the cases are very infrequent and you'll notice right away. if it becomes infected it WILL hurt, and WILL get very crusty...just up the frequency of applications of the betadine, and it will diminish. don't mistake any sort of pain for infection...if it's getting hit or yanked on over a few hours or days, expect some pain.
the above is a good reason to keep hands and another person's bodily fluids off of it...you're almost asking for infection. i'd wait a few months, though i didn't.
so, over the next 9 months, working the jewelry back and forth will develop the scar tissue evenly around the borders of the canal, making it a solid passage way - like any other piercing - that you can remove, and replace, and it will go in one end easily, and come right out the other end without fail.
however, if it's played with or pulled on, the weak walls of that canal are stressed, and they can (and will...if it's only been a month or two) break. this adds to the scar tissue, and will enlarge the nipple due to that additional tissue inside the nipple.
changing the jewelry is even worse. the walls of the canal that are working to solidify themselves around the jewelry no longer have a guide, and are like jelly with a thin membrane inside the nipple. when you reinsert the jewelry, you'll get in the hole, probably break the membrane (more scar tissue), then break it again to find the exit hole (even more scar tissue), resulting in enlarged nipples, all because people can't wait to play wtih them, or customize the jewelry.
4 months of waiting to play with them, and 9 months of waiting to change them is well worth the cosmetics of a lifetime, since you don't know when you'll stop wearing them at this point.
|
