lumps on my neck

Hi, I'm 20 years old and I'm really concerned because recently I found a lump on each side of my neck. I need to first explain how I found the lumps to know if this could be the cause. I have my ears pierced 3 times in each ear but I have trouble wearing earings because the metal seems to irritate my ears so badly, so normally I wear nothing. Well, I decided I wanted to try wearing earings again, and unfortunatly the top hole in each ear had closed up, but I managed to use the stint of my earring to poke the holes back in. Well, soon after not only did the holes that I poked back in but, the other holes became infected. After 1 1/2 to 2 days of having the earrings in I noticed the area behind my ear on my neck was sore and when I felt it I notice a small shallow lump about 1/4" wide and circular, it didnt seem to move but it hurt to much to poke very hard, then I notice another lump exactly the same on the other side only it was farther down on my jaw line maybe 1/2"-3/4" from the tip of my earlobe. I'm not sure if they swollen lymph nodes or even lymph nodes at all or if I should be concerned it could be more serious.

Signed,
Worried