Many moons ago (i.e. in college), I maxed out my ear piercings at 4 in my right ear and 2 in my left. Somewhere along the line, I got tired of wearing all that jewelry and took them all out. My earring wearing habits declined to the point where when I did want to wear them, it was becoming increasingly difficult to get the earrings in, and I eventually gave up entirely. It’s now been several years since I wore any, and I can no longer manage to get an earring in either ear in the main original piercings that I had done when I was about 10 years old (I’m 32 now).
The problem is that I would very much like to start wearing earrings again, but I guess I’d have to have my ears re-pierced to do so. I’m a little squeamish about it now, though. When I was younger, it was nothing to pop into Claire’s boutique at the mall and have them pop a hole in my ear with that spring-loaded gun. I’m a little more cautious about it now…I’d like to find someplace a little more reputable than Claire’s to do it, but I have no idea where to go.
Will it be hard to re-pierce my ears in the same spot? Will there be scar tissue from where my old holes closed up? Any ideas on a nice, sanitary, reliable place I can have it done?
Even if there’s not a listing for someone in your area, you should be able to get an idea of what you’re looking for, i.e., someplace that is sanitary and whose staff would not even dream of using a piercing gun.
I was 12 when I did my ears myself, and my parents had a shit fit, so they closed up. I waited until my late 20s to do it again. I didn’t have any scar tissue (although that may be because I didn’t keep them pierced the first time).
My ears tend to close up really, really fast, so I’ve had to have them redone a few times. It’s no big deal, really. If you have it done over and over again the scar tissue will eventually become a problem, but if you’re redoing a piercing that’s only been done once before it shouldn’t be an issue.
As for where to get it done, the jewelry kiosks in the mall have always been good enough for me. They’re sanitary enough to be able to donate blood afterward, and I’ve never had a problem with infection or anything, If you’re uncomfortable with that, though, try asking a reputable jewelry store for suggestions.
Are there any visible scars or dimples from the piercings? If you massage between two fingers your earlobes, do you feel anything within the tissue? (Lumps, I mean.) It really shouldn’t be a problem to have your earlobes repierced, even if there is scarring. A competent body piercer will be able to tell you better than I am able to, of course.
Piercing guns cannot be sterilized and are a health risk. Plus, the studs don’t allow for swelling and are hard to clean properly.
I suggest you go to a reputable piercing studio that uses (and regularly sends out tests on) an autoclave and pierces you with a fresh-from-the-packaging needle.
Sure, people have gotten gunned piercings and lived, but why risk disease, infection, and/or having to go to the doctor to get the jewelry cut out if the swelling envelops the stud)?
My ears also tend to close up fast once studs are taken out, so I tend to leave them in for a looooong time. Having gone through stages of wanting to wear them, then not each ear need to be re-peierced. Considering I have 5 in my left and 4 in my right, I just tend to do it myself - cheaper and easier.
For some reason, my right ear would never stay pierced.
I had mine done the first time when I was about 11 - and within 2 years, the right one closed off, and the left one stayed fine.
So the right one was repierced again and again and again (at least 3 times by Claire’s type people - many more by me, with ice and a sharp pointy earring for a play or something like that). Finally, in my early 20s, I got it repierced for the final time.
And this time, it stuck. No idea why it finally worked, but there it was.
It was never hard to repierce on the same spot, and if there was scar tissue, it didn’t seem to matter that much - but I’m not the person to ask about nice, sanitary, or reliable. I kept going back to mall & piercing guns.
I re-pierced my own after 5 years. It took a bit of patience to work the earring through the hole again, but the scar tissue (that little lump) was still there and I eventually got it through.
Let me second (third?) the suggestion of going to a reputable REAL body piercer, ie the same kind of place you’d go if you were to get your tongue or some other random body part pierced. In addition to being safer, the piercing will be A LOT less painful and heal much faster (and easier). YMMV, of course, but it’s a pretty safe bet.
I haven’t wore earrings for about 8 years and I can still fit the earrings through the holes in my ears. I think because I wore earrings constantly for a few years, that there’s no way possible that the holes will ever grow closed for me.
I’ve had my ears re-pierced several times. The lobes in each ear had to be redone twice (the first time I let them close over, the second time the right got infected so I had to close it over, and the third time stuck just fine.) My second holes had to be redone once because I let the close over and my third in my right has never had to be redone. There was never any problems with scar tissue.
I’m probably not the best person to ask about who’s the best either though as I’ve always gone to places like Claire’s and the one in my cartilidge I got done at school by the cosmotology class in grade 10.
Survivor of 15 gun piercings here, eight in one ear, seven in another.
When I was a kid, I got it done at the mall – it did swell up and I had to have the Dr. dig out the back of the earring from inside my earlobe. Finally around 14 years old I got them pierced again, with no problems and have been adding more and more since then (I have two left to go before I’m done.)
If you want the freakishly long story, keep reading.
I got my ears pierced first when I was 6, they started to itch after about a week so I took them out (noy knowing they would close up). Year later, pierced again. This time the piercing girl usedthe scar from my old ones as a marker (big mistake). We’re not really sure what happened, but the consenus is that the tissue wasnt fully healed when she pierced them, and the hole just got bigger than it should have. This caused my ear to swallow my earing, a ruby was stuck inside my ear with the back still stickin out. After spending about 20 minutes trying to pull or push the eraing out, my mom took me to the E.R. , where they used 3 friggin huge needles to numb the side of my face and then pushed it out*.
Year later, get them pierced again, this time it sticks.
*a few years later the same thing happened to my friend, we thought they would do the same thing to her that they did to me, it turns out that no other doctor in my city thought it would be good to stick needles in the neck of a 7 year old and then rip a piece of metal out of her flesh, so my friend got to have minor surgery . Meaning, while they had to tie me to a bed and hold me down. My friend got to take a nap.
I recently found a dermatologist that did piercings. It’s marketed for people that have nickel allergies but will work for anyone. I’ve not had it done yet but it sounded like a reasonable alternative to the mall kiosks. It’s priced at $40 and includes your first pair of earrings.
Sapphire Bullet, you’re about 5 hours too late. I found a spa/salon that I trusted to do them, and they fit me in this afternoon. I’m now the proud owner of one basic pair of silver studs for the next 6-8 weeks. They feel fine, they’re not even really tender at this point and I can turn them with no problem, so they’re not swollen.
I can’t wait to wear the earrings I got for Christmas!
Drat, missed it. But as others have stated, its no problem. I have ears that heal very quickly. Very, very quickly. I had to get my first set of holes re-done three times until I decided that I, unlike most of pierced humanity, had to keep something in my holes at all times.
I found a spa/salon that I trusted to do them, and they fit me in this afternoon. I’m now the proud owner of one basic pair of silver studs for the next 6-8 weeks. They feel fine, they’re not even really tender at this point and I can turn them with no problem, so they’re not swollen.