bleeding belly button around bottom piercing hole...

wcaddie · Jan 17, 2012

I have had my belly piercing for about 4 months. i cleaned it meticulously with saline solution and dial soap in the shower. it never got infected or irritated and it healed really well. in late december i bought 2 new rings, and had a licensed piercer put one in for me. she said my piercing still had a little bit of healing left to do, but was looking really good and that i shouldn't have any problems with the new ring...i had no problems with the new ring until recently.

just yesterday i noticed a little blood on the bottom piercing hole. i cleaned it and it was fine. today it looks like a tiny, bloody clot has formed on the side of the barbell, almost like a thin bloody flap of skin. i got worried so i changed the ring back the original. i think that the skin around the new ring was forming to fit the slightly different size (i think the barbell of the new ring looked a little skinnier than the original). now i'm worried that i broke through more skin re-inserting the original ring.

could my body be rejecting the piercing now? i intend on visiting the piercer tomorrow or wednesday and leaving my original piercing in for a while until i'm certain it's healed, but any suggestions in the mean time? new products/cleaning methods/etc?

divadoll · Jan 17, 2012

Maybe you just irritated it? I'd say just leave it alone for a day or 2 and allow it to heal. Constant cleaning is just as bad as not cleaning it at all.

Slinkycats · Jan 17, 2012

Belly button rings are notorious for doing things like that even up to a year or two years and being healed. I would suggest not changing the ring after it starts doing things like that when it gets temperamental. The new piercing was prob still healing and it just caused some irritation. Changing it again just caused more. This happens to most people when they get piercings, and that increases with belly rings.

You will want to have your piercer take a look at it asap tho and follow his/her directions. Above all else don't take it out completely because it may heal with bacteria trapped inside and that can cause a lot of nasty things to happen. This can happen in any piercing just so you know, but the belly rings tend to do it more.

One thing you should be doing for sure is using sea salt baths twice a day. You can have it in a full bath or you can just use the solution in a cup. SO sea salt (like epsom salts - you can use epsome salts as well if you wish, I personally favour the sea salts), and water is what you need. Basically you will run a bath and add the salts, or in the shower or even over the sink. You just wanna rinse the piercing site and turning the ring and rinse again. You may also want to have a normal shower at the same time in which you do the salt part last and then a quick rinse off with just water and you are done.

It might take a while for it to heal, but if you have any other questions talk to your piercer first and then if you have any questions for me I would be happy to try to help.

I'm not an expert in any way, I am not a piercer, tattoo artist, doctor or anything like that, just have a lot of knowledge on the subject as I have been pierced a lot and some of those friends were also teaching their apprentices on me while he stabbed me and I learned the whole routine on how to do things etc etc etc...

VERY IMPORTANT! Talk to your piercer first cause they are the experts on this.

Hope this helps

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wcaddie · Jan 17, 2012

Thank you I think I will start using sea salt...and yes, I'll try not to mess with it too much, I do know cleaning it too frequently isn't good either. I'm pretty sure I changed the ring before it completely healed, then it started healing in a bad way around the new ring, and now it has to re-heal with the old ring.

Thank you both for your advice!

kikikinzz · Jan 19, 2012

My belly button ring took almost a year to totally heal so its not unheard of to have occasional bleeding. Sea salt will definitely help the healing process but like stated above, dont clean too often. I used the sea salt pads for several months and then just used an anti-bacterial on it during my shower (making sure I twisted my ring all the way around).