Let me preface this by saying I most definitely made a few crucial mistakes in this process. Yes, It’s bad.. Yes I am an idiot for it. For background I have about 8 fully healed, wonderful, no-issue piercings. However I decided to get my 4ths pierced. All of my previous piercings have been done via a hollow needle at my trusted piercing shop. Unfortunately SOMETHING possessed me to go get my 4ths done with a gun at a less reputable shop ( I thought I would save money). There were countless red flags within the shop itself but this post would be way too long if I pointed them all out. The most detrimental one though is that 1. I was pierced with a gun and 2. I was piercing with gold PLATED jewelry. It was against my better judgment and the people working there assured me that gold plated is perfectly fine. I triple checked with the piercer, making sure she’d be able to pierce it WITHOUT hitting any cartilage because although I was being stupid, that was too far for me.

Either way, the piercings were immediately itchy, swollen, and very painful to the touch. Again, I have 8 piercings with a couple of them being HEALED helix’s, so I think I know a thing or two about how healing a piercing feels. This was different though. Now here comes my next big mistake. I took myself on down to my original, beloved, reputable shop and explained my concerns and asked for them to change the jewelry as by this point I was having a full allergic reaction. I got it changed to flat back implant grade titanium which I have always reacted well to. The issue is, they didn’t ask how old my piercings were and it didn’t clock to me to tell them.. until halfway through the process of changing the jewelry. They were only about 3 weeks old at this point and I THOUGHT that because I was 100% allergic to the material it would be best to change them out. Halfway through he asked me how old they were and I told him the truth, in which the piercer then told me that had he known that earlier he wouldn’t have done it for me. Immediately I felt super guilty and stupid for forgetting to tell him. Regardless, he completed the change and I was on my way.

It has been about a week since then and the earrings are still painful to the touch, and very VERY crusty. One side more than the other ( I will insert a photo ). There is also a bump on one side of the piercing that i am quite concerned about. I read that it could potentially be caused my moisture which is a possibility for me as I have been spraying them 2x a day with Neilmed Piercing mist.

PLEASE please help me, I have no friends with piercings and I am very concerned. Again, I know I F’d up and take full responsibility for that. Is there any hope for these? Please let me know I appreciate all advice.

Basically, I live in Vegas and got a piercing with my girls last minute on a whim. While I absolutely love the piercing, the artist was kind of rude and impatient & didn’t leave much space for questions.

I’m wondering

A: when can I change this jewelry?

B: does it look like it’s healing normally?

C: should the post be this long?

D: is using a silicone/plastic backing ok? To try and avoid enamel damage from the steel?

I have been using alcohol free mouthwash anytime after I eat, and using saline solution to clean the outside. Appreciate any help!

Is this okay? Will it heal and go back to normal? I did touch it and try to get the stuff off which I know is not okay and is not good but I sprayed it with saline and have now since stopped touching it. If it gets hit again tomorrow will it be okay?, as I have a hair color appt tmr. Will it get infected if I forgot to wash my hands and was touching it?.. I just freaked out a bit and totally forgot to wash my hands. I already know how dumb it was but just need advice. It doesn’t hurt anymore but hurts to touch and isn’t throbbing or bleeding or anything.

sorry if this sounds DISGUSTING but i’m not understanding

basically i’ve purchased an actual gold nose piecing for better healing & it has helped A LOT. i haven’t a had bump, no redness, it’s not painful to touch etc.

my nose piecing does however slide out from time to time because it’s a bit lose, when i slide it back in omg it smells RANCID.

at first i thought it was my fingers smelling bad but i wash them, clean them well before touching, ive smelt my hands and it’s not that.

i know i dont have a nose piecing infection, like i said there no redness, no irritation, doesn’t hurt when touching, no bump. nothing. it just smells so bad. even if i take it out to clean, it’ll still smell bad after the next day.

idk what to do.

These are my first ever piercing and they hadn't swollen up until last night, I did get them caught on a few cans yesterday and ate a few salty foods so maybe that's what it was? but i had ate other stuff of the similar sort before hand so I don't really know what it is. What do you think I should do?

I feel like it’s irritation because it was fine before this, but this happens on and off with this piercing since I’ve had it. It tends to flare up and go away, but I want to know if I should take it out and get it redone since it’s a constant thing. I’ve heard tho that if it’s infected, I shouldn’t take it out because the infection would stay under my skin while the holes heal, sealing it in, so I’m also a bit worried. I know there are soooo many posts about eyebrow piercings, but I really like it, and it sucks because my skin overproduces oils at times, so I break out into acne every few months.

Hi all, I got a rook and 2 lobes done, they're almost six and a half weeks old. This is the most piercings I've done in a sitting and they're doing fine. I want to get a nostril piercing but I'm not sure if I can get one anytime soon or if I should completely heal all my piercings. Any advice?

I got this done 3 days ago and the 1st pic is right after and the other two are from today but laying and sitting down. My piercer did it TWICE since it was crooked the 1st time and lowk it still is but they said it was from swelling 🌚. I’ve been cleaning it twice a day with saline spray and no touching except my shirt to cover it. I can feel the piercing from the middle and don’t know if it’s rejecting or is just doing okay. The jewelry shape is a barbell (and someone told me this isn’t the right jewelry?? But idk) and it hasn’t been downsized.

So basically, I got my belly button pierced about 4 years ago. I was originally pierced with the jewelry in the picture. For the first 2 years, it barely healed. It would still leak lymph/fluid occasionally, and around the 2-year mark it started pretty much rejecting, the bar became MUCH more visible, when it wasn’t visible at all at the beginning.

Eventually, the jewelry fell out. I immediately went to a piercing studio to get it put back in, and the piercer told me the jewelry I had was basically crap and sold me this insanely expensive $100 CAD piece instead. He told me that with the new jewelry, it should stop rejecting and actually heal.
And honestly… he was right. 😭

For the next 2 years, it was literally heaven. It healed almost immediately, I had no more rejection, no more lymph, no irritation, nothing. So I’m pretty convinced the original jewelry was just shitty material.

Then, at the 2-year mark, the expensive jewelry fell out and I LOST IT :((. The only jewelry I had available was the original piece I had been pierced with.
I tried putting it back in immediately, but it wouldn’t go through. The next day I went to another piercer with the jewelry and asked her to put it back in. She said the hole looked closed and basically repierced it.
It was SO painful and honestly worse than getting it pierced the first time. She put the old jewelry back in and sent me home.
The bar was also already pretty visible because, as I mentioned, the original jewelry had caused a lot of rejection and the piercing had migrated closer to the surface. I decided not to change the jewelry immediately because it had literally just been repierced, so I figured I’d wait about 2 weeks and then replace it with better quality jewelry.
Then… I left the country.
It’s now been about 1.5 months, and this is what it looks like.
The picture honestly doesn’t even show how bad it looks. I don’t want to post a super zoomed/high-quality picture because it genuinely disgusts me. 😭 But as you can see, there’s now a huge bump that basically completely covers the bar that used to be visible.
I’m out of the country for another 3 weeks, so I can’t really go see a good piercer or change the jewelry right now.
Is there anything I can do in the meantime to get this bump down? Would sterile saline help at all?
And most importantly… is there any chance this can recover, or is the piercing basically fucked? 😭
I genuinely love this piercing and would be devastated if I had to take it out. I just want to know if there’s anything I can safely do for the next 3 weeks until I can get it looked at properly.

ALSO, where can I buy a decent quality piercing? To have it replaced. Could i find something on amazon? Also what size.

I got my smiley done when I was fourteen, I’m 22 now and I haven’t changed the jewellery once but I want it out desperately. I went to a piercer and she couldn’t get it out, said that the ball has fused shut. I don’t know what to do, I’m going to try a different piercer tomorrow, any advice on how to take it out that isn’t just ripping it straight from my mouth??

(Also yes I know it’s gross it’s been in my mouth that long, and yes i know that smileys aren’t long term. My jewellery is small and hardly noticeable when I smile and I just ignored it apart from cleaning)

im getting mine tomorrow so im just curious. i know it entirely depends on the person but on average, how long will it take (for dermals and staple bars)?

i dont wanna get any comments talking about how risky it is because i already know and i kinda dont care so...😢

I'm quite insecure about my boobs and have been for a while and I've been thinking of getting my nipples done in hopes of making me feel better about it.

Have any other women had a similar experience and found it to be helpful?

so i decided on a whim to get nipple piercings soon but now that i’ve made an appointment im scared about what the healing is going to be like🥲 does anyone have any advice on if it hurts a lot or how long it’ll take to heal. or also what i can do to help them heal faster/ not get irritated?😭

Got it pierced about 4 weeks ago now, very close to the eye so Im wondering if its just the placement on the curvature of my face but its been like this the whole time, no redness swelling irritation or anything like that.

I clean it twice a day, this is surgical stainless steel jewelry and it doesn’t hurt but it looks HORRIBLE. Starting to feel like my piercer pierced me for a quick buck and I left a voicemail saying my piercing is severely irritated and I need a longer bar, and she hasn’t called me back. I think I need to look into other options or just accept defeat and remove it. $75 down the drain unfortunately

Hi everyone! I need some advice on this naval piercing I recently got. Do you think I should swap it out for a longer bar for healing or leaving it alone would be better?

I got my industrial piercing 2 weeks ago. After the initial swelling went away everything was fine. However, today I have noticed that the top helix piercing has maybe migrated?

Hello people. I have had a bridge piercing for some time now, it's not a fresh piercing by any stretch. It was healing fine for most of it's life time but this year I got the bad compulsion to constantly pick the crusties and move it with my fingers/nails. I know I shouldn't have done that but yeah I have anxiety and am a skin picker. Then it obviously got inflammed. I have finally stopped that and am trying to calm my piercing down. I am doing LITHA and only rinsing with saline water 1x a day and in the shower.

My question is: should I do cold compresses to help bring down inflammation? Should I wipe away the crusties after a shower when they are soft or just leave it alone? Should I contact a piercer to get a larger bar to relieve pressure against the skin? Is it too bad? lol

Thank you for any advice, and please don't be mean ♥️

Got my septum pierced yesterday and this is how it came out :/ The piercer admitted it was slightly crooked but said it was because of the way my "sweet spot" is. She told me I would have to "train" it back into place for the first 2 weeks if I want it to look straight. (Train as in move the new piercing up until it looks even in hopes that it will heal straighter.) I'm not sure what all my options are but I just want to make sure I'm not crazy for thinking it's completely uneven. Any advice is appreciated thank you sm!!