Since I’m WFH and hardly ever go anywhere, I took out my stud earrings a while ago to let my ear holes get a break, and I just never put them back in. Like 4 months now.
I just scratched my ear lobe, and it felt quite smooth, and I had the random thought, “What if my ear holes close up? Nah, I’ve had these piercings for 45 years. They won’t close.”
So I rushed to put them back in - panic, me? - and OMG! They were starting to close! The left one was relatively easy, but the right one barely went through.
So - heed my warning!
(I posted this at giraffeboards.com and someone suggested I cross post here, as a PSA. Thanks, Jackie!)
Heh. I have a bunch of piercings I’ve collected over the years. Mine all have Captive Bead Rings (CBRs), so I never mess with them, but I’ve lost one or two over the years. My left ear has a dozen piercings. I once lost one of the CBRs and didn’t buy a replacement for a year, but it went in easily.
Years ago I had a MRI of my neck done, and had to remove all my metal. The ears were simple, but my left nipple piercing was only a few months old, so I did not remove the nipple CBR until just before the MRI.
After the MRI I sat in the parking lot, adjusted my rear view mirror, and reinserted my nipple ring (not easy to do). As I struggled with this, I suddenly felt watched. I looked up and an elderly couple walking to their car were starring at me. I have no idea what they thought I was doing, but they were definitely freaked out.
I work with somebody who has nickel-to-quarter sized ear gauges, and I’ve wondered what would happen if he decided to stop wearing them. Would his lobes stay like big floppy spaghetti-os, or would they eventually shrink and close up, I wonder?
They’d gradually shrink down in size, but will likely not close all the way. My son’s lobes were gauged when he was 18. When he got a job in corrections he had to take them out and cover his lobes with band-aids. They shrank down considerably over the years, aided by Vitamin E cream, but he could easily put an earring in. Some people have the defect surgically closed.
I thought that properly done gauges would never fully close since the initial hole is supposed to be a small hole of removed material and not a piece of metal poked through.
The “initial hole” can be just a simple piercing that is then gradually enlarged over time with a series of tapers. If you are in a hurry you can use a punch to remove tissue, but most people (I think, unless things have changed drastically) just start with an 18 or 16 gauge needle piercing.
When I got my ears pierced 35 years ago, they got infected, so I was told to remove the studs, wait until they healed, and then get them pierced again.
The left one is fine. But the right one crossed the original hole. So if I don’t wearing earrings for approximately 2 weeks, there is only one earring that I can get in that hole. And I recently bought a pair of continuous hoop earrings. I absolutely have to wear other earrings the day before. Otherwise forget putting the continuous hoop earring in my right ear.
Yet another reason I will avoid poking holes into myself. Yes, I’m a wuss. When my daughter, then a teen, got her ears pierced, her dad took her and I walked around the mall, trying not to pass out. I can’t watch people put in their earrings - it creeps me out. I don’t even want to think about non-ear piercings.
I have one small 18 gauge CBR. I have no idea how long it has been since I put it in. The company I used to work for moved in 1996 and I know I had this ear ring in then.
Mine are mostly closed up, I think it’s been about 20 years since I had any earring in. I recently got a bug bite behind my ear lobe that got infected. The infection got into the old piercings and got nasty. I ended up needing to go to the doctor and get antibiotics.
Untrue. I see many folks whose piercings close up completely over time. Since piercings are not allowed in prisons I see many guys trying to preserve their jewelry holes by sticking things like comb teeth or other shards of plastic, bits of wire, etc. into their artificial orifices (orifi?) and I see many of these ultimately fail because of inconsistent use. I see a lot of guys whose holes are gone completely, and they expect me to do something about that, also.
I don’t know why some guys’ piercings never close and other guys’ do, though if the hole was a large one to begin with, it’s much less likely to ever close completely.
Thanks, Jackie!)