I got my lobes pierced again (second holes), and a labret stud about a week ago. The labret is now fine, but I'm a little worried about the lobes - my original lobe piercings are stretched to the gauge above the standard piercing gauge - I don't know the numbers because I didn't do it deliberately - I bought some nice earrings and they happened to have a thicker bar so I spoke to a friend who had hers stretched and she said just put them in. The stretching was all healed and stuff about 2 months before I got my new holes done.

So now, obviously, my brand new lobe ones are a bit scabby. They're still bleeding/weeping and stuff but I'm cleaning the whole area twice a day, with sterile saline, and they're not infected or anything, they're healing nicely.

Now, here's where it gets weird - my ORIGINAL lobe ones smell funny. There's no bacterial infection, and they haven't gone necrotic, but they're weeping slightly from inside, and if I don't clean them once every couple of days, there's this cheesy smell which comes off on the earrings (and my hands). I'm working on the principle of hey, there's a new wound right next to them, it's probably just stuff coming through from there, but the new ones don't smell funny and the old ones never smelled at all when I first got them done. I'm basically keeping them clean, and sterilising the earrings I'm wearing in them once every couple of days, but I'm a lil bit worried about it. Has this happened to anyone else before? Any advice?

When I got my third holes, the second ones got a bit wonky. They never had a funny smell that I can remember, they just got a little bit sore and weepy. My sister sometimes gets a funny smell when she has an allergic reaction to the metal that an earring is made of...but from the sound of it I don't think that's what is happening to you. They aren't new earrings that you're using in the original holes, are they?

When my second holes got weepy I just treated them as if they were a new piercing and they healed along with the third ones.

When lobes are gauged they tend to smell funny. It's the nature of lobes, and unless they get red or irritated it should be nothing to worry about.

I get that a bit sometimes with my ones at the top of my ears. Not red, just a little bit of the cheesy smelling stuff now and then. Sometimes the skin feels a little bit more sensitive. What I've found helped was changing my shampoo. I was using an anti-dandruff one out of habit, and it's got some pretty vigorous stuff in there, more than was really needed to clean my head. I've swapped to Johnson's baby shampoo and the sensitivity has gone and my ear feels a lot happier.

It seems to come and go. I've had a bit more recently after I had to put a new bar through one of the holes (the last one fell out in the shower and went straight down the plug hole!), but before that it had been ages since I'd had the cheesy goop. It seems to settle after a while by itself, but I think changing shampoo helped.

Hmmm, ok. Thanks guys. I think I shall resume not fretting. At least shampoo/conditioner irritation shouldn't be a problem. I can't actually wash my hair atm Tea tree oil to the scalp ftw! They're not new earrings cand so I guess it's probably just residual inflammation/infection from the new ones.

I get a bit of a nasty smell (which hangs on my hand/jewelry) / sore / weeping if I ever use anything that isn't titanium. (or so it would seem)

Mine also seems to come and go, but for me I put it down to the metal...

The latest outbreak of the smell occured with my tunnel, weeping, sore, lasted a few weeks then I brought a new ti tunnel, and it literally cleared up in 3 days.

That said, I still have steel in my industrial, and it still stings/swells every few weeks.... and I've had it years now.

It sounds very much like you're allergic to metals, and if the steel you're implying is surgical steel, then that's an impressively bad allergy. If it's not surgical steel then you could try that, and for me any gold or silver (non-plated) works well.

Beyond changing the metal, there's not too much I can give by way of advice. Sometimes taking the piercing out when there's an outbreak helped, and other times it didn't. I still get reactions on mine and I've had some of them for 7 years now.

Allergies to surgical steel are not surprising, really. It has nickel in it and that's the primary culprit for allergies with piercings.

Best bet is 18 karat gold, titanium or niobium. You can look for nickel free studs and all, they'll be marked as hypoallergenic or just straight out nickel free.

Yeah I'm fairly sure I'm allergic to surgical steel.... I mean I've had my tongue done for ~10 years now... and it aches if I put steel in.

I normally have blackline titanium in all my peircings... the only problem is getting decent jewelry now I don't have a friend who is a piercer.

I've had 2 piercings reject before I came to the Ti only conclusion.