Little bits of dried blood on cartilage piercing?

About two months ago I got my cartilage piercing done at a tattoo parlor (with a needle) and I just realized there was a tiny ring of blood around the end of the ball towards my ear. I got a q-tip and pushed my earring from the back so I could clean off the blood, and I got off little bits of dried blood. My ear started to get a bit sore so I stopped trying to get the q-tip around my earring. I also noticed a bit of flaky-ness around the piercing as well. Is there anything I can put on my ear to stop the dried skin forming around my piercing, and what cleaning methods do you advise that I should use to get the dried blood off, or should I just leave it until it''s completely healed, and then clean it?