We live in South Florida. SoFl plays hard all year round – the joys of living in the Sunshine State! We also know summer brings school sports back into play – often before school is even back in session! Sometimes body piercings during school sports are outright prohibited because they just don’t play well together. Keeping that in mind, we have some thoughts to share in regards to sweaty contact sports and how they mix (spoiler they don’t!) with fresh new piercings. Don’t worry tattoo enthusiasts, we’ll hook you up with some info too!
Before you go “Lili, school started in August, you needed to share this back in June!” Yes. We know. This is the sort of information we take for granted and don’t necessarily think to share until someone asks. Then ten more people ask. Then we realize this information isn’t readily available and maybe we should do something about that. So we are.
New piercings require care and a gentle hand. Sports are often the exact opposite, making your new sports schedule something to take into consideration before getting a new body piercing. We hear quite a few schools also prohibit the wearing of any jewelry when participating in sports, so a new piercing is as unwelcome in those changing rooms as it is on the field.
Curious about approximate healing times? We have them listed on this page, but remember, all bodies are different and your personal healing time may vary.
If your piercing is already healed, you can generally put a retainer in for the duration of your game. We do not like to deal in absolutes – again, your body is unique to you and what works for your bff may not work for you.
Retainers can be clear or flesh colored, or really any color, though they do tend to be there to hide a piercing so clear/flesh colored are fairly common. Unfortunately, sometimes “flesh” as a color is a “close enough” situation. As most retainers are made of silicone, acrylic, or glass they are not suitable for fresh piercings. We carry a small selection of common-sized clear retainers and can order what you need if we don’t have it in stock.
Retainers aren’t really designed to be swapped in and out often, but if your piercing is healed this shouldn’t present a problem.
If your piercing is under a month old, we’re sorry to say a retainer is not in your immediate future. Your skin is still healing around your jewelry and changing it out too soon can cause damage to the un-healed skin.
If your piercing is at least a month old and you plan to leave a retainer in for the duration of your season then you should be golden and we’re happy to help you with that jewelry swap.
If your piercing is at least six months old we still don’t recommend taking the jewelry out and crossing your fingers for a few hours, but you can likely safely swap out for a retainer yourself. If you aren’t comfortable doing that we’re happy to lend a hand.
If you have basic aftercare questions, you can reference our aftercare suggestions right here. If you can’t find the answer to your specific question or need more clarification, give us a call or text and we’ll be happy to chat about your piercings. Don’t have a piercing yet but have questions about what to expect? We love to go over that information too!
