I think my body hates my ear piercings
I got my ear lobes pierced (my first piercings) in April 2025. I have since had both of them get infected. My right piercing was infected in July 2025, which went away with antibiotics. My left piercing was infected in November 2025, which had to be removed. Now I fear the right one is infected again.
Initial care: I got my ears pierced at a piercing studio, who gave me sterile salt and instructed me to soak each side for 5 minutes per day, eventually petering out to once a week. I followed the instructions and it went fine. Around the time I moved to once a week (July), it started to feel irritated. I increased my soaking schedule but it just got worse. It was gross. Eventually, I got antibiotics, and it healed.
Post first infection: They told me to use soap to clean it instead, so I started doing that in the shower every day. It was fine for a while, but then in November, the area around my left piercing started to swell. I tried to leave it alone for a while and just keep doing the same care I was doing but eventually I decided to go to a piercing shop and consult them. They told me it was a moisture bump.
Post piercer visit: They told me to keep it dry and also gave me a sterile saline spray, which I started to use daily. After I showered, I would tie up my hair, pat dry the area around my piercing, blow dry my hair, and keep my hair tied up until it dried. It started to look worse and worse and the bump eventually grew over the back of the piercing, leading to an infection. I went back to the shop, they removed the piercing and I got more antibiotics. They also told me not be afraid to clean crusties with a q-tip, which I started doing weekly-ish.
Now: I've been maintaining the same post-shower routine, using the saline spray, changing out my pillow cases, and cleaning the crusties regularly. It was fine until a few days ago, and it's started to swell, hurt and feel a little warm to the touch, and today when I cleaned it, there was yellow-green fluid. I think it's infected again and I'm just so upset. I don't know what I'm doing wrong at this point and I have been trying to follow everyone's advice and it still keeps getting infected. I bought some really cute earrings to wear after my piercings healed and I still haven't been able to wear them. I feel like I never will. I'm hesitant to get my ear re-pierced when I will probably have to deal with this all over again, and I still don't know what my issue is.
If y'all have advice let me know, I've been stalking this subreddit during all of my infection events for advice.
TL;DR: I got my ears pierced in April and have since had two infections and they might be infected again now. I've received so much care advice that I have been trying to follow and nothing seems to be working.
Posted Jan 25, 2026, 4:39 AM UTC