Nipple Piercing- Too Deep, or Just Need a Longer Barbell?

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Sunday October 18th, 2009 @ 3:20 PM

Filed under: Nipple

I got both of my nipples pierced August 27th, 2009. As of today, it is September 19th, 2009. So they have been pierced for about three weeks now. The healing has been going fairly well, although I feel that my left nipple is struggling along a bit more than my right nipple, and still has pain from time to time and seems to crust up and ooze a lot more than my right nipple does. I’ve noticed that it appears to be pierced a bit deeper than my right nipple, slightly out into the areola. I also have some concerns that perhaps the barbell is too short. Since I’ve had these concerns, I was thinking I should stop by my piercing shop where I had it done, and have them evaluate it. However, I also trust BME as a highly educated source of advice and information so I thought there was no harm asking here while I wait to visit my piercer.

I included a composite picture so that you could see what I’m dealing with. I’ve also drawn some arrows and dots to illustrate my concerns. The white dot represents where I feel the nipple actually ends on my left breast, and where… perhaps… the barbell should have emerged from. I am not a piercer, though, so I defer to whatever advice you may have to give.

Is this simply a matter of “leave it be?” Or a matter of getting a longer barbell? Or, is the advice to remove the left barbell and eventually redo the left piercing? As I said, it appears to be coming along… but it has good days and bad days, whereas the right nipple seems to have mostly good days.

If the advice is to insert a longer barbell, should I do that immediately, or wait a specified number of weeks?

As for my aftercare, I used antibacterial soap just the first week, and every week thereafter, I have been doing one 10 minute sea salt soak per day with inverted disposable cups at the rate of 1/4 tsp of sea salt per 8oz of water. After soaking, I rinse in the shower and gently clean any leftover crust with a new and clean q-tip. I try to avoid moving the barbells more than I have to, and I never spin them.

While I think the left piercing looks like it was pierced a wee bit deeper on the one side, I don’t think it’s that big a deal at this point.
I do think you could benefit from slightly longer barbells though.

I wouldn’t suggest antibacterial soap. Just give them a nice hot water rinse twice a day in the shower just before you get out. If you’d like to irrigate with saline that’s fine, but I wouldn’t apply it with Q-tips as they can leave little fibres behind.

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