i got my tragus pierced around march and there's a small red bump around the ring of the piercing, i think it's a keloid (scar tissue that'll be permanent). any one w/ this experience? what should i do to get rid of it?

please help me!

First off there's a number of things you could try and/or a number of things to consider that might be causing it....

These aren't in any particular order....

*perhaps the diameter of the ring is too big or too small. too big can be causing excess knocking around of the piercing and too small can be causing excess pressure.

*perhaps you need to switch to a labret stud or circular barbell to wear.

*did you follow the aftercare procedure laid out by your piercest. if you did so, but have stopped you might want to try doing more seasalt soaks, maybe once a day. or if you're stilling doing the soaks, perhaps you're doing them too often and/or not using the right ration of water to seasalt, both can cause the piercing to dry out.

*do you bump/hit/or lay on it when you're sleeping or taking off clothing. perhaps you could try laying on your other side or easying your clothes off over your head.

*you could try doing Vit. E oil/emu oil/or mederma rubs on it twice a day to stimulate blood flow to the area, which can sometimes help keloids go away.

*you could also go back to your piercest and see what they have to say

Any of these things might be a cause or could help them go away. But unfortunately keloids are crap shoots---you never know if you'll get them and you never know if they're permanent.

My advice would be to baby it for a time and see what happens.

Good luck!!!!

I think hello kitty about covered it Great advice. ITA with either keeping up with sea salt soaks or starting them if you haven't already. Use only a tiny amount of sea salt, and a full 8 oz. of warm water. I had a keloid start to form on my tragus piercing, and switching the jewelry from a circular closed-ball ring to a straight barbell helped.

Good luck!

the thing is I haven't been soaking it w/ sea salts everyday, in fact, i rarely do. but i do know the cause of it, at time, i would move the ring and touch it when i shouldn't. but thanks for the advice. very much appreciated it.

I hope all goes well.

Whenever I stretch my large guage cart. piercing I have to deal with "displaced skin", which isn't exactly like a keloid, it's skin that doesn't have anywhere to go right away, I've been lucky and its always been reabsorbed.

My FH on the other hand has 4 HUGE keloid on his both of his lobes from trying to have his ears pierced and having some holes ripped out. His are so bad that they will never go away and we're going to have them surgically removed.

So I have my fingers crossed for ya, keloids suck major a**!!!!

Epsom salt and warm water! Soak it for 10-15 mins daily. My friend had a keloid scar on her belly button piercing (she's got pretty dark skin) and soaking it in salt made it disappear within a month or so!

wow i have the exact problem as you- a keloid formed on my tragus as well! i don't really understand about the seasalt soaks? do u put the water on a wash cloth and lay it on there orr..?

Sounds like some good advice! I guess I was lucky with mine. I had to take out the metal ring the next day and put in plastic spacers. I worked as a lifeguard at the time and was always in the water (which they say is a no no) and both mine healed in a week (yeah no joke it was like a week).

Mix the sea salt with warm water in a shot glass so the salt dissolves. Then pour the mixture on a washcloth and hold the wet part on your piercing. Repeat a few times for best results. My navel piercing got a slight keloid when I changed jewelry. This worked for me!

Oh yeah, and definitely do not use antibacterial salves or anything like that. It suffocates your piercing and it needs to breathe!

a great tip is to crush up an aspirin and put alittle water in it to make into paste..put it on ur keloid everynite b4 bed..this will shrink it within a few weeks..

do not touch or play with your piercing anymore during the day....only touch it when cleaning & clean it with dial soap no more than 2x's a day..i personally recommend very gently cleaning it once a day with dial antibacterial soap & then throught the day u can spray it with bactine spray but do not actually touch it..just spray

i highly recommend only cleaning your piercing wiith dial liquid soap and Bactine spray...use the dial soap once a day, espcially while you are in the shower...then throughout the day you can spray it with bactine but do not move it back and forth in the spray

i am a professional piercer for the past 8 years & I own my own shop

Do not ever use alcohol or oitments on your piercing

these piercing take up to a year to heal so handle with care.. they are very sensitive and you have to continue to clean it for up to the next year although you do not have to contiue to use the bactine....the dial soap must be used everyday though

Originally Posted by chelsae

wow i have the exact problem as you- a keloid formed on my tragus as well! i don't really understand about the seasalt soaks? do u put the water on a wash cloth and lay it on there orr..?

I had a small one starting to form when I
got my conch pierced (which is an area of thick cartlidge on the ear), I did sea salt soaks twice a day
by mixing sea salt and warm water (i did use a lot of salt) and applied the mixture with a q tip or cotton ball and held it as long as possible. I made sure to try to gently move the ring to clean inside as well. I did this religiously, never missing a soak, and soon enough the keloid started to heal.

do the above methods even work if its an old keloid scar? ( i fell through a glass windom 7yrs ago) and have scars on my back ( small) and my hip ( like a coin sixe) should i try these things too

Originally Posted by Baby Boo

do the above methods even work if its an old keloid scar? ( i fell through a glass windom 7yrs ago) and have scars on my back ( small) and my hip ( like a coin sixe) should i try these things too

They could work, they're def. not going to hurt or make them worse. A keloid is caused by trama(such as falling through a window OUCH, I'm glad you're OK!!!) and none of these methods would cause major trama to the area.

I would probably focus on the oil rubs, such as emo oil, or vit. E oil or use a medical treatment like Mederma. You could start a routine where each morning when you get ready and each night before you go to bed, rub the oil into the keloids. You also need to focus on massaging the keloid and applying firm, but not hard pressure, and I would do this for about 5 mins. each session. By doing this your trying to re-stimulate some of the blood flow that has been lost in the area. Now this may take a few weeks, months, or years, there's no real way to say how or if your body would respond.

This tech. HAS helped some people I know with keloids, but it is NOT a def. cure. It all depends on your body. My fh tried this on his ears, but they're so bad that it didn't help. But as long as you're willing and able to commit to those 5-10 mins each day, it couldn't hurt to try. Good luck!!!! Keloids SUCK!!!!!!

I had a keloid form after I got a mole removed and went back to the dermatologist to see what she could do. She gave me a series of steroid injections that helped a lot immediately, and the keloid's faded down to nothing over the years. I would try to talk to a derm about old keloids and a possible injection regimen - it was minimally painful and not expensive either.

.. what's a tragus lol?