Holes. Dug by little moles.

[venta]

Am I normal? Question n in an entire lifetime's series...

Every so often I hear people say things like "yes, I used to wear a nose ring, but I haven't put the ring in for two years, so the hole has begun to close up".

Now I - being very staid and boring - have no bits of me pierced beyond the conventional one-hole-in-each-ear-lobe. They were done in about 1994.

I'm fairly poor about remembering to switch earrings, so usually I have a pair of sleepers which just stay in except on very rare occasions. About once a year I lose one earring, and have to scrabble around to find replacements. At present, I have lost all but one of my silver sleepers, and was wearing some little black smiley faces. Mid-January, I lost one of them, too, and for a couple of weeks wore no earrings at all.

By the time I foraged around and found some new ones, the holes in my ears had begun to close over and putting in earrings was quite painful. For a week or so, the holes were sore and a bit icky, and eventually got the hang of things again and went back to being what you might expect for a piercing that has been there for getting on for twenty years.

So... what I want to know is: how long is it customary to be able to leave a piercing for without it beginning to close up? I've always inferred it to be quite a long time, but personal experience contradicts that.

Does it vary depending on the body part? And why, when the edges of the hole are presumably completely healed, does it decide to start growing back over anyway?

Comments

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

Boring answer is that it depends on the person and on the gauge of the hole!

I have three earrings, all silver hoops, one with a green bead on it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

You are wearing three earings like that at present, or you own a sum total of three earrings?

I currently have some flat silver Celtic knots in my ears, but they're rather cheap-and-chunky looking, and a bit too heavy. Also the stalk-y bits at the back are too long, and prone to sticking in me when I lie down.

[secretrebel.livejournal.com]

I am wearing 'em. I never change my earrings. I like *these* ones.

I also own a whole stack of studs which I haven't worn in over a decade.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I have both my ears pierced twice. I don't usually wear earrings in them and I do find it's sometimes a bit hard to get earrings through when I need to, but they don't often bleed or get icky.

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I have nothing pierced, not even my ears. I love jewellery probably more than the average woman, but earrings always struck me as too much fiddle and faff.
If you generally only have sleepers in them, and those only to stop the holes closing up, perhaps it's time to call it a day and go earringless, and let them close up?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Part of the trouble is, even when they close up they'd still be visible (I think), and I imagine that might look a bit odd.

I do also like wearing "proper" earrings, and put in different earrings as a matter of course when dressing up properly and putting make up on and such. That just doesn't happen very often!

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

There's always the likelyhood that as soon as your pierceholes closed up, you'd develop a massive urge to wear fancy earrings all the time, just because the option had been taken away.

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

Stick with the piercings or you'll inherit some unwearable antiques!

[venta.livejournal.com]

What, if I don't have holes in my ears you'll bequeath me a wardrobe !?

:)

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I have two holes in each ear. The set done in 1994 close up very occasionally, so that I have to poke through the skin a little to get earrings back in. The set done in 1997 (by a better piercer, if that matters) closed up completely c.2001, despite being used roughly as often. You can still see they are holes but I cannot get earrings in and would not attempt it again without getting a piercer to do it for me (it's not quite as bad as needing to fully re-pierce them, but I'd want someone to know what they were doing when reopening them!).

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

It's very, very dependent the part of the body. Ear lobes are one of the slowest to close up.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Wow. If ear lobes are slow, then I'd better not have other bits of me pierced - they might close up in the time it takes to switch rings :)

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

... which is one of the reasons i haven't bothered to get any other bits of myself pierced except for ear-lobes :) i'm just totally unenthused. although if i really really wanted some other bit of me pierced, i'd probably take the risk if i was going to be in not-South-America for the first few weeks.

apparently saline-solution (applied for 10 mins with a tissue) is the done thing if piercings start getting a bit crunchy. i swore by betatine for years but it seems that's more of a 2nd-last resort before involving medical people stat.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Aye. There's a reason why one of my friends no longer has most of her assorted "below-the-neck" piercings - they had to come out for an operation, she was too woozy to put them back in before leaving the hospital, and by the time she was feeling up to it, the holes had closed up ...

[lnr]

You can get plastic sleeper rings and bars for that sort of thing.

Though when I had an operation 18 months ago I couldn't find mine, and just left mine out until I left the hospital that evening, which turned out to be fine.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Aye. I don't think she had any plastic ones ready at the point. Maybe she's related to Wolverine in some way. It was more an example of how different locations (and people) can heal at different rates.

[lnr]

I find it varies a bit: the two bottom holes in my ears could probably go a month without earrings and only be a little difficult to put them back in again, but not actually painful. They'd probably still be a bit sore for a few days afterwards: occasionally they get a bit sore anyway if I wear cheap earrings in them. I'd expect after 6 weeks it might be painful.

The two holes above the bottom one in my left ear would probably be OK for a few weeks, but I'm not as confident about them as the bottom one. I'm not at all sure about the one in the cartilage in the top of my right ear. I'd not want to leave my navel ring out for more than a few hours though, or my nose stud for more than a day or two.

[j4.livejournal.com]

My ear-piercings (two in each lobe) get difficult to put earrings into if I don't wear any for a few weeks, but I think it's just that the skin stretches back -- I don't think the hole's actually healing over. They only really get sore/icky when I wear earrings with nickel in (so I mostly avoid it now, but I do still have a few pairs of earrings that I really want to wear occasionally even though they make my ears go funny).

I don't have anything pierced except my ears.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Err, dunno. My ears (one hole in each - 1991) have never closed up, but it's rare for me not to wear earrings at some point during the day.

I like jewellery and have a fair number of sets of earnings but my favourites are the plain gold corkscrews (which I occasionally lose). I think I'd now have trouble wearing the thicker earnings that I had in when I first had the ears pierced, but that's the extent of the "closing up" feature.

[nisaba.livejournal.com]

And why, when the edges of the hole are presumably completely healed, does it decide to start growing back over anyway?

I've often wondered that as well. If it's all healed skin, why does it start growing over the hole?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

This post has inspired me to see if I can get things through my various ear and nose percings, which haven't seen metal for at least a year. Expect copious salty tears.

[venta.livejournal.com]

You don't have rings in those piercings any more? You're not... growing up, are you?

(Incidentally, I haven't forgotten about emailing you. Just having some incidental confusion over someone else's wedding that means I don't quite know when I'm free yet :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

More laziness than maturity tbh, I think I took them out to clean and then never bothered putting them back in :-)

We've been weddinged too (T's brother), hopefully this will be another good year for them!

[john-the-hat.livejournal.com]

Being a non-pierced person myself, I am unable to answer, but yelling for opinions to Lady Blue in her office (16 piercings or so above her neck, including 8 in one ear) I'm told that she's had no problems leaving them out for a couple of weeks....

[triskellian]

24 comments and no one's said 'Mercury Rev'? What is the world coming to!

(I've no idea about ear piercings closing up. I've got eight, but I never take them out for more than a couple of hours at a time.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

It's like they're just not trying :) One kudo to you, however!