Never put anything smaller than your elbow into your ear Follow care advice after piercing Use sun protection cream and wear a wide-brimmed hat Itchy ears are miserable, and when the ear is affected with eczema or psoriasis, they can be consistently uncomfortable. Fingers, pens, pencils, or whatever is to hand, find their way into the ear in a desperate search for relief. But scratching, or poking when the ear is blocked, damages the ear canal's sensitive lining, allowing infection to get in, called otitis externa. This can also happen when ears become waterlogged through swimming. The canal swells, becoming narrow and exquisitely painful.
Hearing becomes a problem, and often a discharge appears from the ear.
Under these circumstances, antibiotic drops are needed, together with a strong painkiller. When it's very severe, the ear needs to be cleaned out by an ear specialist if the treatment is to be effective. Fashionable they may be, but fashion often comes with a price. Anything that damages the skin not only hurts, but can also allow infection in. This is often the case with ear piercing, when the skin hasn't been looked after properly during the piercing or afterwards.