Helix piercing help?

[Anonymous]

I got my helix pierced last Wednesday at a local piercing shop, with a needle.
(It's the top one, in the cartilage) I talked with a friend who had her nose pierced in the same shop, and she told me her nose had become infected because the needle had some kind of rare bacteria on it when the guy pierced her. Which sounded weird to me because everything was sterilized and clean. So here is my question : how long after being pierced does a piercing get infected because of the needle? I know it can get infected for months during the healing process (which is up to 1 year for mine) but that would be because of other factors. But the needle? How long does it take your ear to react to an infected needle?
Thanks for any help :)

[MAJ4251]

Rare bacteria my ass. She just wasn't cleaning her piercing properly and was probably messing with it.
Just clean it at least twice a day with a warm non iodized sea salt solution or buy H2Ocean (It's a life saver, way more convenient because you just spray it on the from and back, and clean it up with a q-tip and you're good to go.) Make sure you don't turn the jewelry either. That will irritate the piercing and an irritated piercing can lead to infection. But you would know if it's infected if it's warm to the touch, sore, red, has pus coming out of it, and a bump would form around the piercing. Your piercing looks fine so no worries :)

[Takada]

About a week, I'd say. When it's infected, the pus (that's normally white or clear) becomes yellow or green. Mine has been infected as well, but it's fine now. It doesn't have to be infected, but wipe your piercing with a cotton swab once a day and check its color. Washing it with anti-bacterial soap and soaking it in lightly salted water helps prevent an infection.