Sunday July 27th, 2008 @ 1:20 AM
Which is less irritating?
I mean, are seamless rings ever perfectly lined up? And if they’re not, does the uneven part ever enter the actual hole and hurt?
I personally don’t love either for piercings. I certainly don’t offer them for initial piercings because of the seams in either the segment rings or “seam rings”.
Seam rings (sometimes called “Seamless” rings for some reason…) definitely can line up perfectly. A high quality annealed ring will bend with ease to the side for insertion and back again.
The problem with them is that they do turn into the piercing and can irritate it.
+1 / 1 votes 
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Posted by Lexci Million | Permalink | Comments
Monday July 21st, 2008 @ 4:58 PM
I have been gauging my ears for about 4 years now. I recently reached the size 7/8. I have always taken very good care of my years and try to take my time gauging so that I do not mess up my ears or get any blow outs. When I was at size 8 in my right year I got hit at work and became infected. I immediately removed it, cleaned it, kept any jewelry out of it and let it heal completely. I had to re-pierce it and re-gauge it. Knowing that my ear now had scar-tissue I was very careful when gauging that ear. Instead of tapering them I would get gauges that were double flared and simply wrap a layer of tape around them every so often allowing me to stretch it slowly and without much pain.
When I reached 3/4 I did the same thing. I rapped tape around them until they were about the size of 7/8. Here was my first mistake. The 7/8 I put in was silicon. The measurements of the taped gauge to 7/8 was larger then I had expected. After putting in the 7/8 my ear got very swollen and red. After a little less than a week the swelling went down so I decided to keep them in. My ear then started getting very dry and flaky and started to puss. The back of my ear was also so swollen that it was going over the back lip of the gauge. My ear constantly was pussing and had a very small amount of blood coming out whenever I touched the back. I had to actually cut the gauge out of my ear because it was so tight. Once I got the gauge out I discovered I had a pretty bad rip and my ear was a little blown out. I took out my jewelry, washed all the shit out, washed it with saline solution and put some neuo-sporn on it. I’m not sure what I should do next. I definitely want to re-gauge them when I am able to, but until I would like to know the best way to take care of them and get them back into a better condition.
I realize this is a “losing battle”, and most of the time I just let it go…just can’t do it this time. And please…don’t take it personally…because you’re far from the only person doing this.
1) It isn’t called gauging. It is called stretching. You stretch your piercings, you don’t gauge them. While “gauging” can be a verb, there is no definition that refers to making something bigger by “gauging it”. Much to my dismay, there probably will be one day because the word is mis-used with such regularity now.
2) They aren’t called gauges. They are called plugs or eyelets or hell…even spacers if you must. But not “gauges”. Gauges, in this context, refer to a unit of measurement. 8 gauge. 6 gauge. 00 gauge. Not, “Hey, I really dig your gauges.”
Now…on to the question at hand. First of all, I’m sorry you are having trouble with your ears, especially if you’ve taken so much care with them over the years. Unfortunately, this stuff happens from time-to-time.
The best thing you can do for your lobes right now is to leave them be. Don’t wear any jewelry in them…even if it’s significantly smaller than what you were wearing. Your ears need absolutely no trauma right now. They need to be treated with care and gentleness. You shouldn’t try to do a bunch of stuff to them or put a bunch of stuff on them. Your body knows exactly what it needs to do to heal them…so let it do its thing.
You should be able to re-gauge re-stretch them at a later time. However, you need to give them lots of time before you start this process again. Without seeing exactly what is going on with your ears, I can’t say for sure…but I would imagine you need at least a month before you put something back in. From there, you will need to take the process VERY slowly.
Silicone can be a wonderful material for many people. I personally wear it without any problems. However, it also has the potential to do some serious damage when used for stretching.
Best of luck.
+31 / 35 votes 
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Posted by Derek Lowe | Permalink | 13 Comments
Friday July 11th, 2008 @ 11:33 AM
5 days ago, I woke up and my lip piercing was swollen, warm and was giving out yellowish pus. I didn’t over look this, and went straight to the doctors, where they told me to take it out. I know the dangers of trapping an infection in the body if it was taken out, so I havn’t. So I got some antibiotics. Since I got it pierced I’ve been doing salt soaks, and mouthwashes and everything right (I’m a clean freak) So there is no reason for it to be infected.
So it cleared up after these 5 days, no swelling, no pus, i thought it was getting better. But I woke up this morning, to find that it was swollen and pus again!!
I do have half a course of antibiotics left, but I don’t want it to keep reacurring. How do you blast an infection so it doesn’t come back?
And is it adviseable to get it changed to a stud in this condition (I think I may be knocking it in the night) because I dont want the jewlery being chabnged, to push the infection furhter in if you get me. And also would it cause more aggrivation.
Correct me if I am reading this wrong but did you discontinue your course of antibiotics after you thought the infection had gone? If so, this is very dangerous as the dosage is designed to be enough to kill the bacteria causing the infection. These little critters are clever things and if you don’t fully kill them by not finishing a course of antibiotics they can then adapt to become immune to that particular type of antibiotic. This is one of the reasons that MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) is so prevailent. People reading this - if you are prescribed a course of antibiotics you MUST complete the course, even after all the symptoms have subsided. I cannot emphasise the importance of this enough.
As for contracting an infection, well, we can take precautions (such as being pierced in a sanitary studio by a respected piercer following all the right protocol and following good aftercare advice) but sometimes it can be down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, if you have an infection that you weren’t aware of, that can become systemic and find a home in a fresh wound. Like if you are recovering from a sore throat. Your body may be doing a good job of dealing with it but a simple piercing can be enough to tip the scales. These things happen. The best advice I can offer you is to finish your course of antibiotics and if it hasn’t started to show signs of clearing up towards the end, go back to your doctor as you may need another course. Continue with your aftercare regime and once the infection has cleared up switch to a sterile labret stud (as mentioned in a previous post, I am not a fan of BCRs in fresh lip piercings - a feeling shared by most of my friends in the industry). Good diet and hydration will also be of benefit to you.
+12 / 14 votes
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Posted by Tiff Badhairdo | Permalink | 2 Comments
Friday July 4th, 2008 @ 10:31 AM
I had an off centre labret pierced two weeks ago with a CBR. I had pretty bad swelling for about 10 days and recently it has gone down. My piercing is laying more to the side now and it feels alot more comfortable. But seems to have moved. I read about a process called nesting. At first I thought it was that, but I noticed that there was a small patch of bruising at the bottom of the ring on the innerside of my lip. It looks like migration (I’ve delt with surface piercings before) and I have never had an oral piercing (my baby brother also clocked me in the lip so it might be that). I was wondering if what has happened was just nesting, or if it is migration or even rejection. Can labrets actually reject? Because I want this to be a long term piercing because I adore it.
Thanks!
This is why I am not a fan of fitting rings in a freshly pierced lip. The swelling and the constrictive nature of a BCR can cause the piercing to migrate during the initial healing stages. Also, they tend to move around alot more freely once the swelling subsides and this alone can irritate the piercing thus lengthening the healing time. It is unlikely that your piercing will reject. It would have to have been pierced ridiculously shallow for this to happen but it may well settle in a placement a little off to where it was originally pierced. You could ask your piercer to pop a sterile labret stud in there but to be honest, this is a little like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Keep up with your aftercare, baby it, try not to play with it and hope for the best.
+6 / 6 votes
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Posted by Tiff Badhairdo | Permalink | Comments
Thursday June 26th, 2008 @ 7:11 PM
About two weeks ago I got a vertical labret piercing. One night the ball went straight through the hole and I had to pop it back through. For a few days it was just swollen but now it has raised tissue around it in the front. I really don’t want this to be a keloid, but I am not sure. I went to one piercer and they told me it was fine and that tissue was there because I ripped it. The other piercer told me it was a start of a keloid. I am totally confused now. I don’t know if I should take it out. The only thing is I don’t want to have a bump there for the rest of my life. I know I will have a scar, but not a bump. I need some help on what to do to cure it or if I should remove it.
Unfortunately, way too many people, including way too many piercers, toss around the word “keloid” as soon as they see a bump on a piercing. At the risk of making rash generalizations, any piercer who claims you have a keloid on your piercing probably doesn’t know what the hell they are talking about. Now, I’m not saying keloids never develop on piercings…because they do. However, true keloids happen so rarely, chances are very few piercers have actually seen a real keloid. Piercers who use that word to describe small bumps on piercings are typically not well-educated/well-experienced in their craft…which clearly sucks….especially when it comes to information that is readily/easily available.
I will now climb down from my high-horse of snob-hobbery and try to get to the heart of the matter.
The bump on your piercing is just that…a bump. It’s almost certainly there because the ball of the jewelry got pulled into the piercing which made it down right angry. Your body generated some excess tissue as an indication of it’s pissed-offness, as well as a bit of a defense mechanism against further irritation.
Given how new your piercing is, the chances of that bump being permanent is very small. Be extra careful with your piercing during the rest of the healing period. Once the piercing heals a bit more and toughens up a bit more, that bump should start to go away.
And remember…the next time a piercer tells you that you have a keloid…just slap them. Immediately.
I kid!
I kid?
+14 / 14 votes
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Posted by Derek Lowe | Permalink | 1 Comment
Friday June 20th, 2008 @ 9:06 PM
Warren,
I have just read your post about bioplast, and was wondering what alternative you would reccomend. I had my side labret pierced 2 weeks ago and the first week was good, but the second I found myself biting the bar by accident. I even chipped a little bit off my tooth, and even worse, the second time I bit it so hard the ball got pulled under my skin, which was quite a disgusting experience. To save my teeth I thought it would be best to get a bioplast bar…also to save my job as my boss did not like the look of my latest piercing and I told him I would meet him halfway and not take it out, but put something less visible in there.
Obviously its quite a new piercing, but I’m quite worried now about the bioplast bar, is there some other kind of retainer you would recommend?
cheers.
fearata,
Thank you for actually taking the time to research through AskBME to then make a informed question on something that is perhaps not already answered. It helps make the AskBME staff members days just so much easier when people do what you did 
There is a couple reasons why you could be experiencing what you are experiencing. 1) The piercings are not placed in the ideal position and thus enabling you to easily bite down on the discs/posts if you’re not careful (ie: while eating,etc) 2) It could simply be yourself and the natural human instinct to want to nibble on/play with the piercing. When I had my tongue piercings and my labret piercings, I was always getting called out on the fact I would play with them, even though I didn’t realize I was.
However the problem with you getting the BioPlast jewelry is this…If you are currently chewing/biting on your jewelry, you’re going to do the exact same thing with the BioPlast. Which the result of the occasional gnaw/bite on a plastic bar, is that you’re going to break the disc portion clean off. I see it happen all the time, with customers that come in looking for more bioplast. Essentially if you purchased a BioPlast labret stud, it would be a “money pit” for you , as you would be buying one every month or so depending on how often you bite down on the bar.
For something less visible, and in a fresh piercing (2 weeks old), I would strongly suggest you look into purchasing a Quartz Labret Retainer. Quartz Glass is a strong durable glass that’s autoclaveable and has had relatively great success in fresh piercings.
However the hard part is going to be your ability to try and focus yourself into not biting down on the jewelry, if you’re doing so by way of “playing with it”. But if its a result of placement, then the only way to resolve the problem would be to re-adjust the placement by letting it heal up and re-doing the piercing in a better position.
+1 / 3 votes
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | 5 Comments
Thursday June 12th, 2008 @ 9:04 PM
Alrighty, well i’m planning on piercing my lip when I get the money and needle and stuff to do it. I know it’s a pretty dumb idea…but yeah…. any tips on placement and ring size and stuff?
Nope…Sorry the “Piercing For Dummies” booklet isn’t scheduled to come out until 2012, but then the Mayan Calendar will come to pass and the world will die a horrible horrible death.
Oh I’m sorry that was for the last caller…Ok…I’m getting something…Its vague right now, just hold on….Ok, got it! You will die a horrible horrible death!
The reality is without being visibly capable of inspecting your lips, your gums and teeth,etc nobody will be able to provide you with any adequate answers.
The reality is properly done piercings ARE NOT SUPER EASY (Although quite often people will claim it is), they do require specially trained eye to know what placement is ideal, what gauge jewelry to use as well as length,etc.
My advise to you is to not spend the money on buying the stuff yourself (needle, jewelry, surgical prep,etc,etc,etc) because the reality is after you pay for all that, you might as well have gotten it done at a professional studio.
Now by saying that though also know I am not 100% AGAINST DIY piercings, just wanted to make that clear. My advise to you is that if you are insistent on doing the piercing yourself, is to visit a reputable studio and discuss with the piercer the concept of them assisting you doing the piercing. This means you’ll be in a studio with a trained professional capable of handling any and all situations that may occur. As well as they will be able to help you and show you how exactly to do the procedure yourself, and be able to use the proper jewelry size/type,etc. The only difference is when it comes time to pass the needle through the body and insert the jewelry, it’ll be you doing it and not the piercer.
+16 / 20 votes
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | Comments
Thursday June 12th, 2008 @ 8:51 PM
HI, I can’t find jewellery to fit my nipple piercing apart from a straight barbell. I have a large nipple and I’d love to get a stirrup or a ring, but on all the online jewellery stores they don’t have anything like that that’s big enough. They all have a maximum length of 16mm. Any ideas on where I could find things to fit? Also, I can’t find anything to put in my tragus piercing as well… I made it bleed when i tried to put a ring in there as the curved ring stabbed into the inside of my piercing and I couldn’t get it through. And again, they don’t make stirrups in the right size - it would either be too big or it would be squezzing it tightly. Please help!
Welcome to the wonderful world of buying jewelry online! Tell her what she’s won Bob!
The reality Kayp75 is that the best way to obtain jewelry for your piercings is to actually *gasp* walk into a piercing studio and speak with them about obtaining the jewelry you want/desire.
Now people reading this, I know it’s hard…The really real world is be so tuff and scurry…But when it comes to purchasing jewelry online, you most likely not always find what you’re looking for. Sure there are about a billion sites online selling all manner of jewelry from half decent to utter complete crap that will rust in your face. Online shops, in my eyes, are better for individuals who know EXACTLY what the exact measurements of their jewelry requirements are and then obtaining very “unique” pieces you perhaps cannot purchase via your local studio. Also know its best to run by the local shop first to see if they can actually obtain what you’re looking for.
So Kayp75 just hit up your local studio(s) and see if they can obtain what you’re looking for. What gauge size is your piercing? Because Off the top of my head I can state: Straight Bars, Circular Barbells, and Rings(CBR’s) and even Smooth Segment Rings can be obtained in much larger gauge sizes. So I’d say simply just go to the studios and inquire about making a jewelry order as there are quite a few companies out there manufacturing awesome jewelry and aren’t opposed to making something they don’t regularly sell.
Also if you’re having trouble putting in your jewelry, again, visit the local piercing studio for assistance…The reason I say that is because that’s what we’re there for, for everything you might need be that: Piercing, Jewelry Ordering, Jewelry Insertion, Jewelry Removal,etc.
Because realistically if customers stop going to local shops for these services, what’s the point in any of us staying in this business for? Many think its a cool awesome job that gets you in the sack with the opposite sex, but that’s not it…Well, sometimes it is for some of us, but most of the time it doesn’t.
So guys…PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHOPS!!! And if you think your local shop sucks…Then travel to find a good shop!
+7 / 19 votes
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Posted by Warren Hiller | Permalink | 5 Comments
Thursday June 5th, 2008 @ 11:33 PM
I had my lower right lip pierced roughly three weeks ago with a SS labret stud. A few days ago I went back to the shop to have that piece switched out for a ring, as I found it more comfortable and easier to eat/talk with.
I noticed the next morning that the ring was a bit too tight and was causing more scar tissue to build up as it adjusted its placement and configuration. I since switched back to the labret stud, but I’m wondering if that lump of scar tissue will go away…or if I’m stuck with that hard wad of nastiness forever.
The scar tissue is a result of the irritation from the ring being too small. The ring may have simply been the wrong size to begin with. It’s also possible that your lip re-swelled a bit because of the jewelry change, thereby making a ring that normally would have fit okay, too small.
Regardless of the reason, the scar tissue should go away if you can keep from irritating the piercing. Changing back to the labret stud was probably your best option. For the duration of the healing, be very careful with your piercing and things should return to normal.
+2 / 4 votes
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Posted by Derek Lowe | Permalink | Comments
Saturday May 31st, 2008 @ 9:39 AM
Hello,
I’ve been having a series of issues it seems. I was pierced twice right next to each other on the side of my lip at 16ga, and the jewelry insert was a labret stud (to my later knowledge, 8mm post length). I realized it was too short, but even at this length it’s been bumping my teeth. Mostly on just the one closer to the middle of my lip, but the other has been bumping against it too occasionally.
However, at the same time the back of my lip is starting to “eat” the inside disc of the stud. So, there seems to be no solution, more bumping against my teeth or not have my lip “eat” it. I purchased implant grade labret studs (10mm in length), and after 2 weeks I switched them out by myself with no problem. There is still the little indent in my lip in a circle around the piercings where the discs slip neatly into, and fit into my lip some. So, even with the 10mm post length jewelry it’s still pocketing into my lip, and also hitting my teeth more. I don’t want my teeth to move, or get a receding gum over this issue.
I know CBRs are frowned upon for healing, but in this situation is this something I should switch out to to fix both problems or is it more likely I just need to get the whole thing pierced?
I’ve had them pierced for 2 weeks, the swelling is gone, and there is no signs of irritation or infection other than the irritation caused by my lip growing over the labret backing.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
As with so many questions that show up here, seeing these piercings would make it much easier to make suggestions. Since that isn’t an option, please bear with me if I’m only able to advise you in more general terms.
It sounds like you made a good call getting longer jewlery in your piercings, Even though they may bump against your teeth a bit more, it’s very likely you would have ended up having to remove your piercing had the disks sunk into you lip. At the very least, this would have caused additional swelling and you would have had to put even longer jewelry in your piercings.
Unfortunately, length of the stud vs. how it hits your teeth and gums is very often one of those things you have to deal with at first with new lip piercings. Oftentimes many of those issues can be eliminated with good placement, but I can’t speak to that in your particular case.
Keep in mind that your piercings are still very new, being only two weeks old. It’s likely, that in anoher week or so, you may be able to put the 8mm studs back into your piercings (again, I can’t see, so I can’t say for sure). That would probably help with the teeth issue. Also, depending upon what sort of jewelry you have access to, once your piercings are a few months old, you should be able to change to studs that have smaller disks…which would help with the teeth issue.
Best of luck.
+1 / 1 votes
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Posted by Derek Lowe | Permalink | Comments
