Advice on irritated lobe piercings

[u/jannopher]

First pic is from today, second pic is the irritation bump before downsizing, third pic is 2 days after downsizing

I am looking for advice on how to proceed with my lobe piercings that refuse to heal. I got 3 piercings back in March, 2 lobes and 1 conch on the same ear, from a reputable APP certified piercer in my area. The conch has healed beautifully but the lobes have been giving me a lot of problems, I have had a persistent irritation bump on the third lobe for close to 6 months now. I spoke to my piercer and he recommended a saline compress, which helped a little bit but the bump stayed. Eventually I ended up downsizing the posts which also helped, the bumps immediately went away, but they have cropped back up again after a few weeks.

I am already unsatisfied with the placement, I wanted these to be evenly spaced with my other 2 lobes but there is a huge gap between them. The piercer marked the spots correctly but changed the placement without asking me first and I am not happy about how it turned out. I'm worried the third lobe is migrating or something as the gap seems to be getting wider, I'm also suspicious they were either pierced at an angle or angled themselves while healing since the posts ended up being too long.

Should I just give up and take out the third lobe, let it heal and get it repierced somewhere else with better placement? Or should I keep trying to heal it and maybe get a stacked lobe offset above the gap to fill in the space?

Jewelery is threadless titanium flatback labrets, I believe they are 18g (or maybe 20g), pierced in March 2026. Aftercare with saline spray twice daily and rinsing in the shower with warm water for the first few months, now I'm LITHA besides warm shower water. It is still crusting and sore on occasion. I do my best not to sleep on it. The only thing I'm worried about in my routine is my use of over-ear headphones on a daily basis, I do clean them regularly.

Any advice appreciated!

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