I’ve been wearing a ring for about 2 years on my index finger on my right hand. I used to wear it on the ring finger of my right hand but I lost weight and it got too lose so I switched to the index finger. I noticed a large blue vein come to the surface on that finge. I have a noticeable ring line and in that area my finger is dry and flaky. What damage am I doing?
Dunno, but my left ring finger has a definite dent in it to accomodate my wedding rings. (Almost 10 years now.) If I work the rings off, the indentation remains. No veins or flaking has appeared, though.
Ditto here. I had my wedding ring off for a few days when I got it resized, but that’s been about it for over 25 years, and no ill effects so far.
Aside from the skin indenting that will happen, of course, there’s no other effects from my wedding band. 2.5 years constant wear. Don’t expect any change over the next 50 years.
What metal is the ring made from?
If it’s not sterling silver, high quality gold or platinum the flaking could be from an allergy to it.
Alternatively it could still be too tight and cutting off the circulation a little.
Have worn my wedding ring without interruption for 19+ years now. Other than the ring indentation, no problems.
Yet another wedding ring guy here. almost 13 years and nothing but skin indentations.
Man goes in to see his doctor and says, “Doc, my wedding ring is so tight it’s cutting off my circulation.” Doctor replies “that’s what it’s supposed to do.”
Thank you, I’m here all week.
I can say from experience that 12+ years of wearing one can leave a mark. In addition, after a few months of not wearing one and any indication is gone.
The only thing that I could think of to cause flaking would be if detergent or something got under the ring and was not thoroughly rinsed out. (I recently was administering Absorbine to a goat’s knees and didn’t think to take the ring off–the FIRST time; it always came off after that.)
There have been periods over the last 22 years when I went several years without removing my wedding band for any reason (I generally only take it off to avoid losing it when swimming–and now for administering Absorbine) and I have never had issues with flaking or veins or anything else.
Callus and indentation. My signet ring has been on my right hand for 30 years. Oh, and a nice white band of untanned skin. 
I wore my class ring on the ring finger of my left hand for a year, but switched it to my right hand because people kept mistaking it for a wedding ring. It’s left my right hand maybe three times since 2002. There’s a definite skin indentation (as there was on my left ring finger, but that’s gone now). What’s odd is even years later, sometimes I’ll feel a “phantom ring” sensation on my left hand, as though it misses the pressure from the ring.
My wedding ring was put on up at the altar and hasn’t been taken off yet. That was 34 years ago TODAY!
No ill effects that I can see.
Happy anniversary oboelady.
Titatinum is a good hypoallergenic material but even mine rind dent will get flaky if I don’t dry water under it after a shower. I also got red welts after doing some deep housework and getting nasty dust under it. I wore the ring on my thumb for a few days until the finger was better.
Gotcha all beat – my engagement and wedding rings have been on for over 40 years (except for when I was required to remove them before surgery), and there’s no skin problem except for the indent and no-tan line others have mentioned. Of course, they are both yellow gold.
OTOH, I had a pair of glasses that were some base metal with a protective coating. After a couple of years the protective coating wore off and I started to get itchy, scaly spots where the top of the frames touched my skin. Obviously I had some allergy to the nickel or whatever other metal the frames were made of.
I can’t wear even the best sterling silver. It seems to react with my skin almost instantly and both the jewelry and the skin become most unattractive.
My WAG is the ring is a metal to which you are allergic, and that some protective coating or veneer has come off. Either that or you have had a voodoo curse put on you by a witch doctor.
Assuming it turns out to be an allergy to the metal problem, and you want to keep wearing the ring, you can paint the inside of the ring with a coat of clear nail polish to prevent contact.
Just put on a fresh coat of the polish whenever the problem starts happening again.
I just had to comment that you almost never hear this phrase anymore.
Here’s an interesting variant: My wife’s wedding ring is platinum, and we noticed that when she was pregnant with our first she developed a rash on her ring finger. The rash was irritating enough that she removed the ring for a while. When we tried for our second, the first indication that we were successful was the reappearance of the rash. Anyone have any idea what was causing the rash?
Something strange happened to me after about 2 years of wearing my wedding ring. The skin under the ring got all itchy and red and flaky, and I had to stop wearing it. After a couple of weeks, I started wearing it again, and again I got the itchy-flaky.
So, to experiment on myself, I scrubbed the ring really good with a toothbrush and jewelry cleaner, and also mild hand soap. I rinsed it using one fo those squirty nozzles by the kitchen sink. I tried again. Same thing happened. Wierd.
So, I tried putting on my old HS class ring (both were made of gold, the class ring was 10K, I don’t know what the wedding ring is), and the same thing happened again! Ok, so I determined that it wasn’t something on the ring itself, it was a reaction my skin was having. Odd…but OK. So, I tried yet another experiment (after my finger healed yet again). I wore my ring during the day, and took it off at night.
Viola! Never had a problem (well, except for the occasional times I forgot to put it on in the moring and my wife would find it on the nightstand…she didn’t appreciate that).
Then, after several months of wearing it that way (and forgetting it enough times that my wife was starting to get sad), I put it back on permanently. It’s been that way for 6 months now and no return of the problem.
So, scientifically speaking, I have no idea what’s going on.
28 years with a wedding ring, only occasionaly taken off when playing golf. No irritation, no indentation either (fortunately my weight’s stayed almost exactly the same.) No weight gain = no indentation???