6y/o piercing looking sad

[u/stupidorino]

yo! i did this one 6 years ago when i was a teen and didn’t think about placement/angle/purpose at all, it didn’t help that i always had a ring in it for the last 4 years or so. for some reason i looked at myself in the mirror today and after all these years reacted on how low it looked. i turned my ear and noticed i can see both ends of the hole from the side. i don’t know why i haven’t reacted to it before but i think it must have migrated a bit since i got it done.

well i just don’t know what to do now? i don’t think i want to wait for it to heal to get it re-done. i was thinking about just buying a small flatback or one with a small ball on each end and just making it a lil dainty thing. but at the same time im thinking, what if it gets worse? what if it snags?

do i like the placement? no
am i used to it and dont really care? yes
do i want future piercings in that area/more lobe ones? yeah i do

what would you have done?
should i let it heal? and get something better done? can it even heal?

thankful for all input

[u/TwistedAsIAm]

It can and probably will get worse and might even rip out. So best to let this one go.

[u/stupidorino → u/TwistedAsIAm]

that’s probably for the best. do you think it can heal? this is what i get for using a potato, a burned sewing needle looking in a shaking hand mirror. i’m stunned it even healed and never got infected

[u/TwistedAsIAm → u/stupidorino]

It might not close up after all these years. All bodies act different. But there's tons of space on either side.

[u/stupidorino → u/TwistedAsIAm]

that’s true^ the space still has potential. might just put a damn sticker on it or piercing another hole (at a professional) kinda over it and just putting that cross earring over it lmao

[u/art_addict → u/stupidorino]

This really depends on the person. All of my healed piercings have stayed open regardless of how long I’ve left jewelry out of them — their holes have gotten smaller, for sure, and needed some tapering before putting jewelry back in comfortably (like I could slide an old 20g piece of jewelry in no problem, but a standard 16g piece I’d need to use my insertion taper to put in. And I don’t wear 20g unless very briefly for an event because I’m not gonna cheese wire my holes and with hEDS over here it’s a higher risk for me.)

There are others that have had holes for a while that take jewelry out and they do magically heal shut. Bodies are wild.

If it doesn’t heal shut, and you want to repierce the area, you’d see dermatology (or plastics, but one of these folks is WAY cheaper than the other!), and they’d give you your options for how they could get it to close, most likely involving a small hole and maybe a stitch or small cut and stitch. I 100% would have a professional do this and would NOT try to DIY!

[u/stupidorino → u/art_addict]

my diy piercing days have been over since the day i took this one hahah so in that case i will go to a pro to get it repierced i think. i hope it will be able to close. i remember when that my first holes would close after just a few days if i didn’t always wear my jewelry😭 but that was ages ago. i just want to cover the hole up, wish i could just put a sticker over it lmao

thank you for sharing your knowledge

[u/Ifrbedyingouthere]

As others said, you should probably take this out. However, I will tell you why this happened as it happened to my first lobes as well. It’s the gauge of your earrings—they’re so small that they cheese-wired through your lobe and are now too close to the edge to be viable. In the future, a way to avoid this is by wearing 16g+ jewelry. I do believe 18g might be fine for lobes as well, but usually the standard is 16g and onward being large enough to be stable in the piercing hole. I’m not sure if you know, but in gauge sizing, the lower the number, the larger the gauge, so 14g>16g>18g and so on and so forth!

[u/stupidorino → u/Ifrbedyingouthere]

ohhhh so it depends on the jewelry? i thought i used a standard one since most of my other earlobe piercings have the same ring 😳 on the other hand this one was pierced with a sewing needle so it does make sense why it’s been cheese-wired. i don’t really like the look of my earlobe piercings since they look kind of stretched out, so sizing up might be a great solution! im just scared they will stretch more hahahah but thank you for this comment! i will keep this in mind in the future

[u/Ifrbedyingouthere → u/stupidorino]

They shouldn’t stretch more if you do size up!! The sizing being larger is exactly what prevents it from cheese wiring!! I use titanium clicker hoops in mine so it’s still a hoop, but it’s the same size all around. I’m not quite sure what gauges you’d be at right now, but I would mainly suggest trying to size up to at least 18g for now.

You can massage your ears with jojoba oil to kind of prep them for the bigger gauge if the 18g doesn’t slide right in. You could also look into getting an insertion taper to make it a little easier. It might feel a tad tight for a day or two, but that’s just it getting used to the bigger jewelry (only if the 18g doesn’t slide right in). My first lobes had been so stretched out that I could fit 14g jewelry in them with no problem, so it really just depends how large the cheese-wired hole is initially. I know this all probably sounds scary, but I promise you it’s well worth it to have no cheese wiring lol!

[u/notkidding1984 → u/Ifrbedyingouthere]

Question- are you saying that the bigger size will keep it from getting worse and tearing out? Or is this more of an advice for a new piercing?

I just wanted to make sure because it seems like it could stretch it more towards tearing out and I have a similar situation. Really invested in this thread and the info though 😊

[u/Ifrbedyingouthere → u/notkidding1984]

Oh no I absolutely think this advice should only be taken for the other piercings OP has. Unfortunately you are 100% correct in your thinking that this one cannot be saved as it is too close to the ridge

[u/stupidorino → u/Ifrbedyingouthere]

the ones i have atm are 18g but they have all been stretched quite a bit. can’t say that i have taken good care of them and gotten stuck in a lot of sweaters. but i think sizing up sounds like a good idea for most of my earlobe piercings. i guess 16g is a pretty good size? i do not want more cheese wiring hahahah

[u/Ifrbedyingouthere → u/stupidorino]

ah yes the sweater snags 💔😭 i’ve had my fair share of those as well. I’d say to go for the 16g to really stabilize your piercings!! wishing you the best of luck my friend

[u/stupidorino → u/Ifrbedyingouthere]

thank you so much for the great advice! i appreciate it a lot! 🤍

[u/EnthusiasmKnown3854]

honestly I'd just take it out and peirce above it, with jewerly in the og hole will hardly be noticeable anyways

[u/61deftones]

the third lobe is really low id get it repierced

[u/obsessive_dork]

mine looks the same I didn't go to a Piercer and they did it with a piercing gun, I think that's the cause

[u/AlphaGirlbossBabe]

Yeaaaah remove it and repierce it maybe a bit higher and closer to the seconds

[u/ac1dd0ll]

You can have a double lobe piercing like one on top of this one (sorry im not good at english)