industrial piercing

I got a brief question that needed a rather lengthy answer:

Does it matter about the size of your ear in order to get an industrial or conch piercing? Thank you, Y.

HI Y.,

I received this message from a woman who is worried about her piercing:

I got my industrial done back in November....my boyfriend and i were doing a little rough houses and i hit my ear with his knee and when i went in the bathroom to look my bottom hole on the back side was bleeding. The only time i bleed was when i got my piercing 4 months ago. What could this be, and what can i do to stop it???

I received this message via email:

Hi Elayne,
I am having a situation with a piercing I did. Sunday afternoon I did an industrial piercing on a girl named Alex. I'm still an apprentice but this was the 10th industrial piercing I've done and I have never had a problem with any of them up until now.

Alex called me this afternoon, 2 days later, complaining that her piercing is bleeding and she can't get it to stop. It hardly bled when I pierced it, and up until last night when the bleeding started, she said that it was healing just fine. It wasn't sore, red, no signs of infection, and didn't hurt at all. First thing I did was try to figure out how the bleeding started. She said she took 500mg of ibuprofen and the bleeding started shortly after that. I understand that a side effect of ibuprofen is blood thinning but unless she was already bleeding I didn't think the ibuprofen would cause her to start. I just thought it would make it a bit harder to get the bleeding to stop if she did happen to start bleeding. Am I wrong about this?

She also said she thinks she accidentally rolled over onto it in her sleep which would make more sense except that it started bleeding before she went to bed. Is it possible she is just not telling me that she bumped it or something, or is it normal for industrial piercings to randomly start bleeding days later?

I just got this message from a reader:

Hey,
I love your book! I got my nose pierced at 14...still love it, never a dull moment :) I'm getting my industrial in a few months for my 16th birthday, and your book helped me learn what to do to prepare for a more advanced piercing and gave me more info on the piercings I've already got. So just wanted to say thanks :)
Megan

I replied:

Hi Megan,
Wow! You've gotten an early start. Glad to hear that my book has proved helpful in preparing you for your next piercing. I'm delighted to help. Thanks for the positive feedback; I appreciate it.
Take care and be safe,
Elayne