Lately I've noticed that my septum piercing smells rather unpleasant if I don't clean it every day (not that I didn't pick up the habit of cleaning it...but it just came as a suprise over a lazy weekend). Is this a way to tell if it's close to healed, if the skin and oil in it can...well...smell? I only ask because my ears never started to smell until looong after they were healed.

I'm sorry I don't know the answer to your question but I have a question of my own and maybe someone can answer it as well. I've been hearing a lot about smelly ear funk. Apparently it starts smelling the larger you stretch. Luckily, I haven't had that yet. But I'm curious...how do people smell their ears?

Well, I noticed when I'd be spinning my cbb in my ear, and my hand would smell bad...that or the jewelry smells bad. You'll know it for sure when it happens. All you gotta do is keep them clean with regular soap and (in the case of cbr's and the like) get soap on the jewelry and spin it a few times to get the soap into the piercing and clean it out. Make sure you rinse well, too. You don't want dried up soap stuff on there either.

That's been happening to me lately. My septum has been giving off this slight funk that's been driving me crazy. I've heard about this a lot with healed and larger gauge septums, so I guess that's an indicator that the piercing is on the fast track to healing. Hope this means that mine is starting to heal, thank god!

yeah, i have my ears streched to size 0 and i always wear acrylic plugs, and i get gross ear funk and its gross and smells bad, but as long as you clean your ears daily ive noticed its not there. My friend has metal flesh tunnles size 0 and she rarely cleans them and its really nasty cuz you can smell it if your sittin next 2 her. So my conclusion is its not the jewlry that does it cuz it happens with any kind of material

the smell you're smelling is dead skin cells. when you wear your jewelry for a long period of time without removing or cleaning it, the skin cells build up and create, what i call, ear cheese. i've had my septum pierced since last september and the only time i have a bad build up of nose cheese is when i'm sick.

so..dead skin cells in a septum piercing...is it safe to say that my septum is if not healed, then close to it?

ya i notice since i stretched my labret to 10g i've been experiencing a little "funk" so now i clean after everything i eat or at least twice a day. it's completely healed so i guess cause it's and oral piercing i would have more of a smell compared to an ear piercing.

you can get a build up of dead skin cells on both new and healed piercings. to this day i get them on my ears after 2 days without cleaning them. one time i was so lazy i let it build up for a month and i took my earings out inside a hot car and everyone started caughing and rolling the windows down. it was great.

i went to a 10g in both holes, and my first ones smelled and my second ones didn't.....go figure....but my industrial is STANKY! lol

The jewelry material does make a difference. Acrylic is probly the worst i have encountered. Steel is better. Havent tried glass. I suspect wood would be the best for your septum if your wearing larger jewelry. Otherwise there isnt much you can do about accept takeing the jewelry out and cleaning it on a regular basis. I wear a steel 0g eyelet thats not to bad but i would like to try out either silcon or utimately wood cause im gonna stretch up soon.


sickofnola

I used to get ear funk. then I got those silcone tunnels and I only have to clean them every other day, and they don't smell at all. I don't know if it's like that with everyone, or if my ears just like the silcone ones better than the steel ones I had before.

i don't get as much ear cheese on my silicon eyelets and it doesn't have much of an odor compared to acrylic and steel.

Are you serious? You people have never heard of piercing funk?!

That's f**king hilarious.

How often should a person remove their jewelry to clean it?