I just got an industrial bar about 4 weeks ago now. I have what looks like swelling, but I went back to my piercer and he said it was a keloid. He said use saline solution and tea tree oil. He said not to use a bar of soap to clean it in the shower. The other piercer I spoke to a week ago said to use bar soap and really salty water, with sea salt. I went to him because my ear was a little red and a little swollen, but that went away and I got this mess.
The top piercing is red, inflamed, and kind of hurts. Its swollen enough that looking at it from the side you can see what should be the underneath of my ear cartilage. In top of the swelling is an additional red bump. Its not oozing, but after I soak it in a sea salt soak I get a little discharge, just barely enough to wipe off with a q-tip. I have had this since Sunday, and now its wed. I am afraid I will have to take it out, and I really don't want to have to do that. Both of my parents are Dr's and they want to do crap to it, but so far I have been successful in not letting them, just because they don't know about piercings. My dad tried to use hydrogen peroxide, so that was the end of that.
What's you opinion, on how to take care of this and get is... better.

Grind up an aspirin and a tiny bit of water until it makes a paste and put it on your keloid for a few minutes. Do this for a while until the keloid is dissolved if it doesn't work I would consult your doctor. Don't use peroxide. Don't use bar soap. Use liquid antibacterial soap. Use a sea salt rinse. Don't take it out. Industrial piercings take a while to heal and they will leave a scar. Basically what is going on is there are 2 independent piercings joined by one piece of jewelry. You can try wearing an earring in each ear until it heals more. With one piece of jewelry, anything happening with one hole will affect the other. Hope this helps.

From what you are describing, it does not sound as if you have a keloid. Keloids are slow-progressing scars that extend beyond the borders of the wound margin. They do not become large growths or bumps in a matter of weeks. In fact, they can take years before they become large, noticeable nodules. Unless an already formed keloid has become infected due to trauma, they do not leak pus, nor do they swell. Also: Keloids are less prevalent in individuals of European-descent. Please don't get the assumption that because you have a recently formed bump behind your ear that it is a keloid. It is more than likely that the redness, swelling, and discharge is an infection. Go see your doctor.

I've had 2 keloids now in 2 different places. Keloids are a result of the piercer not being experienced or not peircing correctly. I'll give 2 examples:
My first keloid I got on my belly botton piercing on the under neath part, and it was not pretty. Most people think that a keloid is a scar formed as a result from the piercing or from not taking care of it. WRONG. It can in some cases be scare tissue if left long enough with out care, but in the early stages is really just a small cyst or infection.
When I saw the keloid on my belly button I had no clue what it was. I had a few piercings and took good care of all of them but never seen this before, however my belly button the guy had trouble piercing. He pierced from the bottom up, and had a hard time getting through the thicker part of my skin pulling back and trying to stick it through harder THREE times!! It was very painful. I have a very high pain tollerance having 9 tattoos and 15 pierincgs none of which were unbearable. He finally got the ring in cleaned it and I was off. A few weeks later the keloid formed, I'm guessing about the size of a small pea? I poked and squeazed at it irritating it more and making it hurt. I finally grabbed a pin and very lightly pricked the edge of it and a large amount of puss (infection) and blood started to come out. Sorry to be gross, but I gently squeezed it dabbed it with a tissue and noticed a significant decrease in the size. I sprayed some H2Ocean (water and sea salt) on it and let it sit over night and I'd say in about... 5 days it was completely healed and gone.
I recently got a piercing on my ear called a "anti-tragus" look it up it's a thick chunk of cartilage across from your tragus and it was pretty painful. Well after I got it pierced... I heard the piercer say, "that was the first one I've ever done" GREEEEAT! I don't recommend getting uncommon piercings unless you ask the piercer if they've done one before, it makes a HUGE difference. Anyway, followed the normal routine spraying it with cleaning solution 2-3 times a day and it has healed rather well, but beginning of this past week a huge keloid started forming, when I noticed it, I tried cleaning it even more often, but that didn't work. I tried looking up some remidies to get rid of them, but I don't know about you, garlic and olive oil, surgery and laser removal weren't something I was willing to try. I have heard that crushing up an advil, adding a small ammount of warm water to make a paste like mixture and putting that on the keloid once a day until it goes away will work. (A piercer friend told me that) But I tried what I did last time, I took a sterilized needle, which you can do by letting a needle sit in rubbing alcohol over night. I lightly pricked the keloid in my ear which had grown extremely painful, and immediately puss and blood came out relieving a HUGE amount of pain and pressure. It was almost completely gone. I sprayed it with my cleaning solution cleaned it with a q-tip, repeat and today it pain free and almost keloid free.

NOTE: I do not recommend anyone doing this, I am just sharing my personal experience, and there are differences in keloids (soft- infected hard- scar tissue) I know how difficult and painful they can be and wish everyon the best of luck. Please choose your piercers wisely.

I'm curious where you found this information, because both keloids I've had were in a matter of a few weeks-months of having a new piercing and I'm full italian, so I'm not sure what being european has to do with being less susceptible to getting infections or scars.

I am not sure if mine is a keloid or not. It is through my cartilage but it is not an industrial. It is only the top part of my ear. When it was pierced it cleared up and healed completely fine. It no longer hurts at all. But, recently it has been swelling but it isn't in pain and I have checked out quite a few photos of keloids and the look very similar. The only difference is size. Help me please?

I also had a keloid and I used the aspirin and water until it turned into a paste and it worked it no longer hurts swells or has anymore keloids on so I would recommend it and I have had my ear pierced now for 18 months