How can you tell if a peircing is infected?

Should I remove my peircing? Infected maybe.?

• I got my right lobe (ear) pierced about 2 months ago. I currently have 3 piercings in that lobe, the oldest one is healed and has been for over 10 years, the other two are the newer ones. The top one is healed completely after using the ear care stuff and is fine, the middle one however ( the one between the healed one and old one) was really infected up until a few days ago, It was so bad that when I would wake up in the morning, my pillow would have little dots of blood and a scab from when I lifted my head off of it. Before it was all infected, it seemed healed so i struggled with the backing to the earring to change it to a different earring. When I did this, I tried inserting the new piece of jewelry( stud) and I didn't see it come out the back hole, but the shaft disappeared, so I tried again and it did the same thing, bewildered, I went to a mirror and watched myself do it and low and behold the shaft wasn't exiting through the other side of the ear like it should, it went up under the skin of the back of my ear ( i was so freaked out I nearly barfed). So I took out the new jewelry and stuck the old one back in backwards because it wouldn't go in properly the way I was doing it before. ( I put the shaft through the back to the front so the backing is visible when you look at my face) I got it pierced with a gun, I know I know you shouldn't do that, the other one is fine though, i have 6 other bodily piercings as well so I understand all the ins and outs of caring for piercings I just figured I would chance this one..Anyway, Ive been cleaning it with peroxide since its infected. The qtips weren't working well enough so i got myself a little fine tip syringe so i can squirt the peroxide onto the infection. The piercing now seems fine, but there is still discharge in the back of my ear around the piercing. its all dried up and crusty but when i go to check on it during the day, i wipe it with a tissue and it comes off with wet blood and plasma. The peculiar thing is that the space where the backing went in under the skin of the back of my ear ( about the size of a nickel) rises like a welt when I shoot the peroxide into a certain part of the Peirce and hurts like nothing I have ever felt before.It gets all white under the skin and I can only assume that is the peroxide bubbling up the infection underneath. When I press on it, it doesn't really hurt, it is just squishy, no puss comes out, its just soft whereas the rest of my ea is hard like cartilage. So naturally i'm freaked the f out and I want to know whether to remove the piercing altogether even though it seems fine, just that one spot is weird, or keep it in and continue to do what Ive been doing and see if anything changes.. I don't want to leave a nasty scar and not have the piercing, but I also don't want to get sick or have something weird happen to my ear lol. In the past I also had my cartilage pierced with a gun ( before i even knew that piercings were done with needles) and they were rejecting no doubt about it, I tried to salvage it, but one day I was touching the piercing and felt this weird stuff so I looked in the mirror and fat was coming out of the piercing. I went white as a ghost and decided those piercings weren't worth the weird things they were dishing out to me so I removed them. They are healed now with little marks where the piercing used to be but no jewelry can go in. I really dont want to go to a doctor and spend a bunch of money on them just telling me to remove them when I can check here first with people who have probably had the same luck with piercings pierced with guns. I know now to never get ear piercings done with a gun anymore lol! Thanks for reading this long long dissertation about my stupid ear. Thanks for any and all input from experience and whatnot. Sam :D

• Answer:

  If you know the ins and outs of piercings, you'd know how bad peroxide is. Get either a mild (scent and dye free) soap and water, or do sea salt soaks. If you still have the gun jewelry in, go to a professional body piercer and have better quality, sterile jewelry put in. Once you have decent jewelry in and take care of them better, your issues should disappear, but if they don't, that's when you may want to call a doctor. You NEVER remove an infected piercing - it needs somewhere to drain.