nose piercing

[Edens Garden]

I am planning on getting my nose (right nostril) pierced coming up on the 24th or so of this month and I had a couple questions. I know several people on here have that piercing or a similar one, so I am hoping you can help me.
First of all, how easily do they tend to get infected? I have had several cartilage piercings in my ears and pretty much had no problems with them, if that helps at all. How easy is it to treat if it does manage to get infected?
One thing that concerns me is swimming. I have heard of people having to take them out because the chlorine from swimming pools irritated the piercing, but what about lake water? I don't swim overly much, but was concerned when I heard about that happening to my friend.
Anything else you can tell me about when you got it done and after care would be wonderful as well.
Thanks for anything you guys can tell me, I am really excited to get this done and I want to be sure I am well prepared.

[Magpie_Tendencies]

Ok, I really dislike nostril piercings so I have zero experience on them. But I like piercings generally so all my advice is based off that alone.

There's not a great blood flow to your nose so the risk of infection is higher than, say, your tongue. But It's really no greater than getting your ears pierced. It does, however, look way more gross if it does get infected - like a giant, rotting pimple with a bit of (usually sparkly) metal in it. So take care of it!

If it does get infected, it's as easy to treat as any other - get the infection out, clean it a couple of times a day, should be gone in 3days to a week.

The fact that you've had no previous infections from your piercings makes no difference to potential future infections, so don't be lazy in cleaning it.

If you're not keen on taking it out, just place a bandaid over it when swimming. But really, the only way you'll know if it irritates the piercing is to try swimming with it in and see what happens. Then you can make your own judgements for in the future.

The piercing itself is fairy straighforward. Eat a meal, sign the papers, have a needle stuck through you. Probably minimal swelling, slight burning/aching/throbbing afterward. The usual aftercare - saline solution (or whatever one is provided by your piercer), a couple of times a day, use a cotton bud of something to just clean around the piercing, make sure you get all the gunk from under it.

Try not to touch it too much. It's tempting to fiddle but the bacteria that is most likely to cause the infection will be on your hands and it slows the healing process.