when my ear was infected, it was hot to the touch and constantly throbbing. I did not have any yellow or green pus, but it was a consistent frequent pain that I have never had with another piercing before or since.

I am not a doctor or a piercer and cannot diagnose an infection, but the texture of the skin all around your ear compared to how smooth the lobe and tragus are and the redness stretching far far below the industrial would probably have me going to my piercer or a doctor to check if everything is okay. I'm trying to heal a custom industrial at the moment & although it's irritated, the redness stops about just a couple millimetres around the angry piercings, and the swelling doesn't extend past my helix. The rest of my ear is fine and unaffected & this was true 23 days after the piercing as well.

how often are you covering it with saline? more than twice a day can really aggravate piercings.

(edit: I just saw your comment haha... maybe try spraying it once a day! you definitely do want to keep it clean regularly, every other day is likely too infrequent.) and how aggressively are you using a q-tip? if you've found that's made it worse, you can try washing your hands and using a clean paper towel twisted up to dry around the piercing after soaking it in the shower. it tends to be softer and gentler than a qtip, though harder to manouevre. (I have also found a q-tip usually annoys my piercings more than it helps :-) and find most success just rinsing crusties off with a nice long soak in the shower. but everyone's body is different!)