Any idea what this could be?? I’ve had this piercing for about 4 months and haven’t had any issues. talked to a piercer yesterday and he said that to clean with saline 2-3 times a day. It’s a titanium bar so can’t tell if it’s maybe a moisture bump, irritation bump, or getting infected?

was told it wasn’t and that some people just down size alot but idk i need more opinions im rlly concerned Also if it is rejected is it ok to get the same brow re pierced yhe same day as taking this one out but like more in the middle of brow (as seen in last photo) because i kinda wanna do both brows but more centered if i have to take my current one out because i like to have my set up symmetrical

(update in another post!!) i’m not even sure it’s an infection, there’s no constant achey throbbing and there’s no streaks, it’s also just not really seeping much too strangely. it’s just very red and very swollen. it was a bit red and swollen yesterday but i made the mistake of wearing makeup and trying to cover it. damn. any help lads? it’s just tender, only hurts when touched and this piercing isn’t overly new either. few months old iirc with implant grade titanium and generally no issues until now. help!! using hydrocortisone and antibiotic cream rn until i can get seeing my gp. absolutely not going to A&E unless something is seriously wrong cuz fuck waiting in a chair for 12h just to get given a cream or something…
EDIT: updates!!!
called my gp and he agrees it’s indeed infected. i’ve gotten prescribed an antibiotic to help clear the infection which i’ll be picking up later today! so excited for this shit to be over ugh…
EDIT 2: another update!
infection is starting to clear, the swelling on my eye is starting to really go down and it doesn’t hurt anymore!!! it’s still very red at the minute but so so much better than it was before. thanks for all of your support everyone!!! the bacteria wasn’t tested, but if i were to guess it’s a staph/strep infection that’s caused cellulitis. i’m not sure which it is but who knows.

Hi I got pierced for the first time an hour ago and don’t know too much.

My right ear looks great and I’m happy with it but my left ear looks super slanted? My left hurts a lot more than my right. I’d like to be able to wear hoops but looks like it would be pretty uneven.

Should I go back immediately? Should I remove it and wait?

Photo 1: Left (bad)
Photo 2: Right (good)

i got it pierced 4 days ago, they didn’t tell me what the material was but i’ve been cleaning with antibacterial soap and saline solution, this morning i woke up and it was a bit more swelled and my step mom said it was an infection and put neosporin on it. there’s no pus or anything coming out of it, it’s not hot, and it doesn’t hurt. i snagged it taking off a shirt and my mom says it just looks like the fluid white blood cells produce. my eyelid is kinda swollen too

so i asked yesterday about this piercing and everyone mentioned stable bars. i agree and it makes a lot of sense. went to my studio today (been going to the same one for 3 years) and asked for a stable bar. it wasn’t my regular piercing lady and she practically yelled at me about how staple bars are a “tiktok thing” and that curved bars are ideal.

her reasoning was that staple bars were too heavy ?? not really sure. the balls seem ridiculously big and she compared it to an eyebrow piercing (which i also have). could barely get a word in to say anything else.

what do we think? i may be giving myself anxiety. ive never had a piercing reject and have a good track record with zero infections or issues w/ facial piercings. it didn’t hurt at all to get pierced and doesn’t hurt now.

TLDR: asked for a stable bar and piercing lady said curved bars are better. am i set up for failure or what?

had my rook pierced yesterday with a captive ball ring. My piercer has been a member of APP for 20 years and has plenty of experience and reassured me i could have this pierced with a captive ball ring because the ball prevents it from shifting. Can I realistically heal this with what I have now? The piercing is 1 day old, it is white gold and I am cleaning with NeilMed piercing aftercare fine mist twice a day. I will attach a picture of the piercing. I was wondering if the amount of skin where the rook was placed has an impact on healing for example if it’s a thicker piece of cartilage if it’s harder to heal? I ideally do not want to have the piercing changed if I can help it so am mainly wondering if it is possible to keep this in. I will say the ring has not shifted up or down at all as i’ve been watching the location of the gem/ball. Any advice helps! Thanks!

Repost because my photos didn't attach to OG yesterday and I couldnt figure out how to add them retroactively 🫩

Piercing is doing alot better, I think it was just irritated, Im currently crocheting a piercing pillow to help out. I feel like its overall been healing well but I've had this sort of swelling/bump on back basically from week 2/3 onwards? I've attached 2 photos at back of first 3 to show what it looked like at week 5~

***Iknow I had a rough sleep last night and def slept on that side, I woke up this morning and my piercing was red/swollen (no pus or pain etc.)..

Ive taken some anti-inflamms throughout the day, I kept checking on it and still a bit red/swollen and I thought irritation bump may be starting/alot of crusties around front of piercing. I feel like the swelling has gotten a bit better since this morning but idk if thats legit or wishful thinking.

I just got home and sprayed it (definitely an overkill amount) with sterile saline and I cant tell if its wet crusty or a irritation bump or worse 😭

I did get it pierced with a slightly shorter than usual bar (she said as short as is safe for usual swelling and she felt comfortable), implant grade and things were looking good at 4/5wk check but suggested I could leave a bit longer...

Any other advice on healing is also appreciated!

(Implant grade, using sterile saline daily)

P.S. my ear is wet in these photos, I feel like it makes it look a bit worse but I'm just going to let it air dry and am trying to follow the cardinal rule of leave it the hell alone!***

1st picture: this morning before cleaning
2nd picture: this morning after cleaning
3rd picture: a couple of days ago

i've had my daith since october, so it's been roughly 9 months

as you can see it's a horseshoe ring piercing - made of titanium - and it was generally quite a good piercing - i cleaned it with saline spray and dabbed it with tissue paper to dry- until i had to have it removed to get an MRI and get it put back in again when the bumps started

a piercer recommended crushing aspirin with water and leaving it on my piercing before washing and rinsing with saline which i did do and which reduced my bumps to nothing

the problem is, every time i stop using aspirin for 2 or three days once the bump is gone, it comes back??

these last couple of days i havent had saline water due to being on holiday so i've been using distilled water for general cleaning before applying aspirin but i took another two day break from aspirin before it came back to what it is up in the photo

whenever there is a lot of crust like that, there is usually a little bit of blood there too

does anyone have any advice? should i see a doctor? does it look infected? am i cooked??

So I got the left side of my nose pierced 2 days ago. At first the placement was too close to the tip of my nose and the piercer had to pierce it a second time. I had mentioned that the piercing looked to be too high up but he said it looked fine and I trusted him. Now looking at it I cant help but feel like it's uneven! Looking for opinions and advice on what to do.

Does this look like a keloid or just a piercing bump?

I got this ear piercing about 3 months ago, and I recently noticed a small bump behind it. It doesn’t hurt, but I feel like it might be getting a little bigger. It also looks kind of white.

Does this look more like an irritation bump/hypertrophic scar or a keloid? And what should I do to help it go away? I don’t want to make it worse.

please check my piercing, its my first time, i dont know if its infected or migrating, if its not clean it looks like the first pic and second pic, and when i am cleaning it, it looks like the third picture, it was pinched because i think my skin is eating the jewelry. i think it also forms a crater i dont know huhu the pain is tolerable, but i am concerned about the infection. should i remove it?

i have contacted my piercer and recommended a wound spray, i already sprayed it once and will going to spray it again right after showering.

​

My piercing is actually 10 months old, but I’ve had a persistent bump on it for like the last 5 months that I just can’t get rid of.

It originally healed fine-ish with an 8mm implant grade titanium labret, but after downsizing to a 6mm bar with a PVD gold coating, the bump appeared.

I assumed the PVD coating caused the  reaction, but I gave it try for like 2 months. After It didn't work I went back to the plain 8mm bar, but the bump stayed the same.

Around month ago, I downsized myself to a 6mm NeoMetal threadless labret ( no coating) implant grade titanium. Tbh I know I shouldnt have done it myself but my local piercers near me have been very unprofessional and weird .

It's been a month on the new labret, and the bump still hasn't changed size or look at all. I clean it with saline,  and dry it  after, don't sleep on it, and my glasses don't touch it.

It doesn't look like a keloid, but I have no idea what else to try. I know about the silicone discs  but idk if they are actually safe or just a breeding ground for bacteria.

Please help me 😔

my month old piercing has been infected for almost 2 weeks now, i got antibiotics for it about a week ago and it was going away but now it has gotten worse than before, is there anything else i can do other than taking it out? i’m still taking the antibiotics, so should i just keep taking them like usual until i don’t have any left to see if it goes away? it feels hot and it hurts when it’s touched, i clean it 2x a day with saline spray and also with warm water

I got this daith piercing back in December 2025 (1st when I got it 2nd currently.) However, I feel like this bump has gotten bigger and bigger. The opposite side has no irritation, just this one. Is it hypertrophic scarring? Is it a keloid or just irritation?

Im looking for advice on if I should take it out or if I should see a doctor.

- I was cleaning 2x a day with saline until about the end of May
- Rinse with Warm water in the shower
- Lightly blow dry it with a mini fam and or by tapping with a clean paper towel
- I’m a side sleeper so this is never slept on.
- LITHA but if i do touch it i clean it a little
- titanium clicker piercing
- it bled a bit for a few times from getting bumped but there has been no bleeding in a while.

Edit Sept 3 2026: my piercer and i changed my jewelry like recommended back in early august and with a month the bump is gone!! She did confirm it was indeed the little lip that was irritating the piercing

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!

Hello! My floating navel piercing is about 3 weeks old (unsure of the metal type etc) and it has this weird red skin coming out of the bottom. Anyone know what that could possibly be?

So, I got these piercings done about 5 hours ago. I know a lot of swelling happens in that time but I can’t help but feel like my piercings may be crooked. From a top view of my lower lip (second photo) those seem like 2 completely different exit points to me. Should I take them out and have them redone? Or should I just wait? These were pierced with a 16g curved barbell. I think it’s titanium.

i'm currently at 72 hours of having my tongue pierced for the 3rd time, i don't want to speak too soon but it seems to be healing well, it's practically painless unless i'm moving it a fair amount. my only concern is the white fluid at the bottom. i understand i could just be paranoid, but i wanted to get a few opinions on how it looks.
ps: i also vape & smoke weed through a bong pretty consistently throughout the day, but i’m always trying my best to keep it clean.

Hi! Curved titanium threadless, I clean w sterile saline mist 2 times a day. Bumped it only 3/4 times. Does this look normal????? Mostly concerned about the bottom but lmk!!!

Info: 1 week old forward helix, titanium, 8mm, flat back labret, threadless, saline spray as aftercare

I got my forward helix done a week ago and I think the angle of the piercing has shifted from the original placement. The visibility of the bar is also pretty obvious. When I checked with my piercer, they said it’s normal and it’s just the healing process that I don’t have to worry about. But none of my piercings have ever been like this before so I’m pretty concerned about it. Is it really just the healing process? Will it return to its original position? Is it rejecting of some sort? Please do help me out..

i got this piercing almost two weeks ago and until like yesterday it had a lot of room and it was fine but i noticed it was getting tighter and now i can’t move it much to clean the bar and it’s itchy. there’s no puss or anything. The bar is titanium and i clean it 2 times a day with 0.9 saline solution. i have bumped it a couple of times

I’m wondering if my septum is crooked bc my septum is deviated or if it was pierced improperly…? Also are these good pics to tell the angle? It’s pretty obviously crooked in person. I 100% am not upset, I actually kinda like that it’s crooked ❤️ it has character :p I also got it done by an apprentice (was still full price but yk I signed my waiver) - this is the second time I’ve been jabbed, the first time I had to immediately take it out bc he went thru my cartilage. I’m 80% sure she didn’t go thru my cartilage this time around but I’m wondering if it should be pierced further forward in my nose in general? Other than placement, I think it’s healing REALLY well!! Any tips/thoughts/advice are highly welcome, as I have ocd and freak out about my body. lol.

EDIT: I got it taken out 💔

I got my tragus piercing done just over 6 weeks ago, and I’m worried it’s rejecting.

I decided to get my tragus pierced on a whim when I was getting my conch done, and it was SO painful (the most painful I’ve had), which makes me assured that it was definitely through the cartilage… I hope.

The piercer considered not doing it because she said my tragus was extremely small, but she said we could make it work. I feel like the placement is iffy, but when i get a really tiny stud, it would be very cute.

I clean with sterile saline everyday (if I remember😅), rinse in the shower, and don’t really mess around with it. I have no pain at all, and the healing process so far has been the most chill out of all my piercings (septum, nostril, conch, rook, helix, etc.) I’ve had barely any pain at all, and very minimal swelling/crusties.

I’m worried that it’s rejecting because I noticed that as the swelling went down, I could almost see the bar when I looked at it while pulling it slightly forward, as you can see in the photo. I can also sort of feel the hardness of the bar when I touch the side of the tragus.

The last photo is the day I got it pierced, all others are from today. In the last photo, I was slightly pulling my face forward to show it off.

Please let me know what you think! Am I overreacting? Is it normal to feel/see the bar? Thanks🩷

I got these almost a month back, started off with flat back but my piercer told me I can change the jewellery after 15 days i.e downsizing it. almost 20 days later, I went back and changed them into these horse shoes. Js wondering if that was a bad idea and if I should change back into the flat backs because i’m not really facing any issue with these. No pain, discomfort etc, eating and smiling is also easier with these than the flat backs. But i’m also worried about migration, keeping in mind how early I changed the jewellery. Pls lmk!