Sunburn Blisters

Blisters should never be deliberately popped, even if you use a sterilized needle. The serum inside the blister helps the sunburn heal. Breaking the blister can make the sunburn more painful, slow healing, and increase the possibility of infection. Use a sunscreen and wear protective clothing to safeguard your skin from the sun's harmful rays.

Source: Dove

I don't think I have ever deliberately popped sunburn blisters, but I have deliberately popped the blisters you get on your feet from a pair of new shoes rubbing against a certain spot on your feet all day while going for a hike. I wore these new hiking shoes I got up a 4 hour hike one day and I guess they were one size too small. The backs of my heels really paid for it. I had the hugest blisters in my life. I decided to pop those blisters later that night and let all of the juices seek out. Nothing bad happened to them for doing that. I had to wear sandals for the next 2 weeks because anything that touched those blisters hurt so bad!

So I wonder, is there a difference from popping the shoe blisters versus the sunburn blisters? Should I not have popped those huge blisters I had on my feet? I feel like they were able to start healing faster once I let some air get to the insides.

I don't think it applies to other blisters. Doctors lance them all the time. I had one on my hand done whilst riding in India. The armour in my motorbike glove was rubbing on my knuckles for hours at a time, hurt like all buggery.

Good, that's good to know. From now on I won't think twice about popping my shoe blisters.

I think a blister is a blister, no matter what caused it. Doctors will do anything for money. If you really think about it, doesn't it makes sense that the skin covering and the liquid inside a blister is there for a reason??

If you take garlic and wrap it around a wart, say on your finger, and leave it there for a few days, it will create a blister and eventually the wart will be gone. It's the skin covering and liquid inside the blister that is important for this to all take place, I believe. So, that's what I think, to leave a blister alone.

I am very sensitive to the sun, and if I am out in the sun too long, I will blister up. I don't touch the blisters at all, and by the next day, they are dang near gone. Yes, I know sun blisters and blisters caused by friction, skin rubbing against something for too long, are different... but the skin covering a blister and the liquid inside a blister, to me, makes sense that it is protecting that raw layer underneath from getting infected and to heal your hurt faster.

The doctor didn't do it for money- he was our team doctor- made no odds to him.

I also know the Royal marines pop their own blisters. They also have an unpleasant method where they draw out the blister liquid with a plastic hypodermic and replace it with Tinc Benzine. This is described a a thick brown caustic agent with the ability to (and I quote) 'make a man's head hit the ceiling from a seated position'. Apparently it hurts like hell, but you can continue with activity within minutes.

Their other, far less painful method it to use a sterilized needle and thread, pierce both sides of the blister and leave half a centimetre of the thread sticking out each end. This drains the blister slowly and lets the flesh inside dry.

A mate of mine (who is a practicing doctor) told me that blisters are generally best left alone when possible. Most of the time this is good advice, but on occasion bursting them is a good idea- if you need to be getting on with something and the blister stops you doing that- the one on my hand was a good example - that would have burst anyway from the pressure of the glove, and in a far less pleasant, unclean way...

Prevention is better than cure- keep things dry, and cover sensitive areas with zinc oxide tape.

As for sunburn blisters, just don't get them in first place. I've been burnt red by the sun, never had blisters though! Use a higher factor sunscreen, and use your head! It's not like the information isn't out there about protecting yourself from the sun. As said in the previous paragraph (and it applies even more so to sunburn) - prevention is better than cure.