The Pierced Person’s Emergency Kit
W e’ve all seen plenty of articles about keeping emergency kits in your car, in your home, for your pets, and so on. But have you thought about putting together an emergency kit for your piercings? Nearly everyone with extra holes has found themselves in an emergency situation at an inconvenient time. The best thing you can do? Be prepared!
If you’re getting ready for the unexpected, one thing you absolutely want to keep on hand is sterile saline wound spray. (It should contain saline solution and nothing else!) This stuff will not only keep fresh piercings clean, but it can also help you clean up an irritated existing piercing and see what’s going on. You woke up in middle of the night to your piercing randomly bleeding? You’ll want this to do the fine work of getting the blood off your jewelry.
Extra ball ends. How many times have you dropped a ball end while changing your jewelry or had one come loose and disappear? Sometimes just closing the drain on the sink isn’t enough and routinely checking them for tightness doesn’t catch the problem beforehand. The best thing you can do is either have extra ends or extra jewelry, even if it’s just a retainer. For some reason, ball end loss always seems to happen at the most inconvenient time when the piercer is closed, so having some extra hardware around may actually save your piercing.
Speaking of ball ends, sometimes you wind up with the opposite problem – the dreaded stuck ball end. One way to deal with this nightmare is to have a pair of coated pliers, designed specifically for using on jewelry without damaging it, and a pair of latex gloves for traction. Another option is a ball removal tool. These are aluminum tubes with silicone lining, designed to grip onto your ball end and give you enough leverage to remove it.
If you have stretched lobes, something to consider would be spare plugs in multiple sizes. Glass, single flare plugs in both the size you currently wear and one size smaller (as well the O-rings to keep them in place) are definitely something you want on hand for emergencies. If you have issues with your current jewelry, you may need to change it out to something nonreactive. Or, if the problem is related to a fresh stretch and you need to remove the larger size, you’ll have fresh jewelry around to give your lobes a rest.
Emergencies happen even with piercings! The best thing you can do to handle them is to be prepared for anything! A small kit to handle piercing emergencies doesn’t take up much space and can be a huge help in keeping a piercing problem from turning into a piercing disaster. And don’t forget – when in doubt, consult your piercer!