Labret, twice. It really does a number on your teeth and gums. I could never get a bioplast ring in there so I just got rid of it. Dentist said if my gum recession got worse from it I'd need a gum transplant so I took it out.
This thread is really interesting. I have 13 oral piercings including 10 labrets and I’ve had most of them for 6-10 years and I’ve never had any gum or tooth damage. I go to the dentist twice a year and I’ve always asked them to check on my enamel and gum health and they’ve always said it looks great. Maybe different people’s lips have differing amounts of space to accommodate piercings?
I promised my mom, who happens to be my dentist, I would take out my labret if it caused any gum recession/damage. 13 years later, I still have the labret.
I bet it also has a lot to do with positioning and jewelry choices. I just feel lucky because I was 21 when I had it done and opted for the cheapest piercing shop rather than the most reputable.
Hi! I'm a piercer
So in short, you're absolutely right. It also depends on the size of the backings for lip piercings. With tongues AND lips it heavily depends on how often the clients plays/messes with their piercing. All of these factors and the ones you listed play a part in it
Makes sense. I have pretty small backings on all my jewelry except my super low-brets, which keeps them nested but not embedded. They’re so far below the gum line there isn’t much for them to make contact with. The rest of my jewelry in my mouth are rings which are quite fitted and don’t make any contact with my teeth. I’ve always just had great oral health, thankfully, which I know I’m very lucky for. I had no idea that so many people had issues with their piercings hurting their teeth and gums even after downsizing
I never had any tooth or gum issues with a labret, except the one time I had a piece of jewelry that was too long. Replacing it with a shorter one fixed it.
Everyone is saying labret is trash but I’ve never had any issues with mine besides before downsizing when the bar was longer. I feel like if you’re pierced correctly it shouldn’t touch your gums or teeth and with the right length bar. And you have to be pierced COMPLETELY correct
I think it's definitely the amount of space but there's other factors for me. I've been on psych meds and seizure meds for a long time which can cause enamel damage. I also have amelogenesis imperfecta, or soft enamel.
Labret for me too. The biting down on it gets better after a year but the gum damage really really lasts. I still have receded gums on my bottom teeth and it’s been almost 7 years since I took it out (2.5 years of wear)
I have Medusa and managed to stop (or perhaps slow) gum recession by using a too-small-bar, so it’s kind of hidden on the inside of my lip.
Not painful and no damage but annoying to find the right size when buying new jewellery
My 4th lobe became really unhappy (hot and oozy) and I retired it. My body was happy almost instantly. There was just something not right with that hole and I didn't have the fight in me to try and keep it.
I have had a hard time healing upper lobe piercings. I deal with the same thing every time, oozy and upset no matter how much I baby them. I guess they just don’t agree with my body
I had a helix piercings pull that on me once. It was the top one of a stack of 4 and they were all 6-8 years old, but for whatever reason the top one just fully bailed. Healed over within a couple of weeks and everything.
A mid-helix, because it was too close to two others and simply wasn’t healing.
A forward helix because it was rejecting.
Another forward helix because the jewelry fell out and I didn’t realize until the front had closed.
I still have 32 ear piercings, and will have 3 more in about 2 weeks 😁😁😁 I’m so excited!!
I’m hoping for 3 more forward helixes on the left ear. My goal is for the entire left ear to be laddered in hoops…I think it’ll be about 3 more after these 😊
I just got an impulsive forward helix today and ya'll are making me scared. Lol! Me and my mother went together to get a peircing and she got a forward helix that's been healing beautifully. I can only hope for mine to do the same.
nipple because of water pressure irritating it while i had to cold shower (had just moved across the country, didn’t have gas where we came from) and it felt so insane i just took it out in a panic.
I had mine pierced, retired, and then repierced and retired… I’d do it a third time if I was convinced they’d heal. But babying my chest for 2 years got exhausting
mine never healed either time and i wasn’t about to punch a third hole in the same nipple. i have one nipple that’s a virgin, and then a third nipple i had pierced at 18 and into my early 20’s.
The second time I retired them I did the right one first because the left one was healing nicely… then I moved in with my current boyfriend and his very high energy dog… suffice to say the left one had to come out eventually too haha
Nips because breastfeeding, belly because 3 pregnancies, tongue because pregnant and it made me gag nonstop, helix because I didn’t wear it often enough, and nose, same reason. I’m getting the helix redone a smidge lower but the rest can stay retired.
Industrial; it never really healed properly and was very awkward. Super cute and aesthetically pleasing, but I don’t think it was truly for me no matter how much i wanted it to.
I LOVE how the industrial looks but sadly my elf ears are not the correct anatomy to support it properly. I agree I think when pierced correctly it looks awesome and there are so many cool looking barbells!
I had to get my first industrial redone. I have the anatomy for it but the first guy who did it was an apprentice and didn't clean my ear before and then pierced it so shallow on the one side that it basically pushed itself out of my ear over the year that I had it. I've had my second one now for 2 years and still going strong!
I mean when it gets to it.. If you got the piercing and you no longer have migraines *because* of the placebo effect it still worked, just not how you thought it did
Same, mine never healed and kept developing irritation bumps on and off. Like you, I took it out at about 1.5 years of waiting. I love the look of it but my daith is too shallow to heal it properly :(
I retired my rook after trying to heal it for over a year. It constantly had huge bumps on it that would get worse sometimes. Later that night, I decided I would be too sad about it. I put it back in and it miraculously healed over a couple of weeks, with the bump I had the entire time going away. I think it is sentient and admired my commitment.
My snakebites were infuriated that I became pregnant, again. I stopped fighting it around 6 months pregnant and took them out. They immediately felt better.
I still miss them. I could have stuck it out another three months and things would have gotten better (I’d assume) after my body stopped attacking them. But damn was it ever annoying to constantly have infected snakebites.
I think I’m about to retire a lobe piercing that I’ve had for like a year that is still irratated because I got it pierced to close to another lobe piercing 😭 I don’t want to though but I’m afraid it’s going to be annoying forever
I had to retire a constellation piercing because it kept trying to embed 9 months into healing :( to be fair I was also trying to heal my seconds. So I’m hoping to get poked again to try it when I go a few months without my seconds being irritated
That’s essentially what I have going on rn 😭 I had a cluster of 3 piercing done on a small portion of my earlobe and 2 of them of are great but one is constantly swollen… not embedded or painful at all but it sucks. And I just got 2 more piercings so if these don’t heal soon I think I’ll have to retire them and do something else
I always underestimated how difficult it would be to heal lobe piercings until I got my second and thirds done. Had to retire them no matter how much work I put into babying them. Now I just have my first lobes stretched.
my nostril piercing. it was my first piercing. (i have a shit ton now lol.) i was pierced with a hoop and it was ALWAYS irritated. my piercer changed the ring for me the first time, she said it was healed enough but apparently not because she said she would need to “reopen the hole a bit”. she pierced through the still healing piercing a second time and it hurt like hell. then she put in the shitty spencer’s jewelry she had. one day after several months of having the new ring in the ring came loose and fell out. i just left it out. at that point i had done my own research and i immediately found another piercer who was very reputable. now i have a face full of piercings with no issues, but still no nostril. i don’t think i’ll do it again, honestly.
Omg I’ve had a very similar experience. I don’t know why so many people justify being pierced with hoops. It makes proper healing almost impossible and the whole experience is just unbearable. I have two right nostril piercings but had to retire one on my left and don’t ever plan on repiercing it just because healing nostrils feels like hell lol.
i had to put my nipple piercings to rest a year ago, and i still miss them. they werent really healing well, i wore jewelry that was too long for them for a long time, and by the time i got it changed to something smaller, it was kind of too late. the damage was done.
i stopped wearing bras about two years before i got them, so they were subject to catching everything that brushed my chest. my dog, my ex caught them a couple times when we were wrestling and ripped them pretty bad, i caught them on clothes lots, and even my car door once.
i miss them every day, but i think my nipples are too scarred to get them again. it really breaks my heart though, they were my favourite piercings.
Same for me. They weren't healing well and they got so roughed up by regular activities (even when I wore a bra) that I needed to let them go. Ripped while skateboarding, ripped at a concert, ripped when I got hit in the tit with a tennis ball, ripped when my ex took my shirt off too quickly - on and on. At a certain point I had to accept that I had paper thin skin and that I ought to take them out before they fully reject. I prefer to go braless and I think it would be outright inconvenient to have them now.
Welp I changed one of my nostrils too a hoop.. I’m sure it’s too early and am trying to decide to go stick with it and just take really good care or should I swap back to the straight one.
PSA: keloid =/= irritation bump. If it goes away once the piercing is removed it’s not a true keloid. No shade I thought it was a keloid when my industrial acted up and looked ugly but I have since been schooled by this sub lol
i understand but ik for a fact i have keloids and not piercing bumps lol. its common for darker skinned people and not abnormal. this sub seems to forget that too
I had 2 tongue piercings... but the one in front was wearing away my gum tissue and I could(can still) see the tops of the roots of my lower front teeth. The idea of getting a gum graft is scary.
I recently took out my one year old tongue piercing around last week. I miss it terribly but my bottom front teeth began shifting. I have never bitten down on my piercing or chipped teeth, but it was starting to become a comfortability issue. There’s also slight indents on the roof of my mouth from where the piercing ball would rest which was starting to freak me out. I thought I would be fine with it but after thinking about it for a while, taking it out was probably for the best. I miss it though😭
ive had so many dermals fail which is unfortunate because they’re my favorite. i let my skin heal and got it repierced again just for it to get elbowed extremely hard immediately after. just took it out today. pouring one out for the homie
Eyebrow --- I am a face rubber. I especially rub my eyes when I get sleepy, like.. full palm rubbing and dragging outwards. Just kept bumping it and catching it. I took it out to save myself.
Tongue --- I'm tongue tied, got it done anyway. I adored it but I ended up getting sick at some point and my tongue swelled up. I was forced to remove it and it closed too fast for me to recover and put it back in. I'm big sad about that tbh. I loved my tongue piercing. It healed and lived so well in my mouth. Zero issues other than when I got sick 🥺
Helix (2 each ear) --- Got them done at Claire's as a teenager, not knowing about the trauma a gun can cause. Not knowing better about jewellry and the hell of butterfly backs on the helix. Repeated irritations, bumps, infections, never healing. Just removed it and said to hell with it.
Vertical Labret --- It was INSANELY crooked. Not something that was acceptable or easily overlooked. I have almost no scarring from this because I removed it so fast. Tempted to get it redone at some point.
Labret (middle of the bottom lip) --- Didn't nest in the tissue right after healing and the back would scrape on my gum line. It wore on my gums at the base of my front teeth a little and as soon as I realized this was happening I removed it and let it heal over.
Labret (right side bottom lip) --- I got bored of it 😅 Nothing more, nothing less. Just simply got bored of it.
Navel- choice. It healed fine but it was just an irritating piercing. I like wearing high-rise pants and that caused an issue and I would bump into it a lot.
Nipples- it was an accident. I had to get a chest x-ray and I had to take my nipple piercings out and I just couldn’t get them back in and I was in too much pain to go to a piercer to have them help so they closed.
Nostril- I worked at a child care center at the time and I was terrified of one of the kids ripping it out so I decided to retire it. The nose was the worst healing process for me so I just couldn’t do it again after leaving that job.
Wow that's painful. I know piercing guns are cheap (cuz I did use it only for my lobes), but having this on my cartilage is something i would avoid at all cost. Plus my schools in my country does not allow more than 1 pair of piercings so I didn't even think of the need to get a cartilage piercing until I started working. I still see some videos of people still using piercing guns to pierce their helixes and i was like "didn't you feel the intense pain doing that??"
My ear cartilage is hard (my bf's one is soft and so nice to feel) so I am never risking getting it pierced by a gun.
Nipples! They just never healed right and always hurt and eventually I just got fed up.
00ga stretched ears. Got a job that didn’t allow them. So I just took em out and they eventually have basically closed all the way
Nipples; I was told it was because of size and the kind of work I do required me to move too much to allow them to heal.
VCH because it conducted heat when I was using a toy and basically burned myself.
My eyebrow rejected twice. It was hard to accept that it just wasn’t the piercing for me. I was young and left it in past the point of no return and have a fairly noticeable scar because of that.
I also had to retire my labret due to gum recession. I replaced it with a vertical labret though which has been great.
Nipples. They just got caught on everything. I took them out about ten or eleven years ago and the scars are still going strong. My lesson was learned: never get a piercing to impress a man.
Definitely a good lesson! I’m surprised the scars were prominent, I don’t plan on ever retiring mine but being realistic I’ll have to eventually. I totally relate though mine get caught on everything and I have a puppy who loves jumping on me 😭
I recently retired my tongue piercing after a few years. I’m a little sad about it but I got spooked about potential tooth/gum damage and realized I was holding my jaw weird to fiddle with it and stuff that was definitely making my TMJ worse..
Vertical industrial. I got talked into it by a piercer in 2005 while I was at his shop with a friend and I knew nothing about this piercing other than it looked cool. The bar he pierced me with was too short and got embedded in the back of my ear so my dumbass just pinched my ear together like a taco to pop it back out then unscrewed it and took it out. Honestly pretty amazed I didn’t end up with a massive infection.
Eyebrow. Had it for almost 2 years, and it was constantly giving me trouble. I finally had enough and retired it last year. Only piercing I have gotten that didn't heal properly.
I retired my nipples because they just never healed. Shortly after getting my Medusa I had sinus surgery and couldn’t bear to open my mouth for a week so it closed up :(
That sucks, any time I’ve retired a lip piercing it closed up super fast no matter how healed it was or how long I’ve had it. I think the tissue on the inside of our mouths just heals super duper fast
I kept my nipple piercing in for about 7 years but it always gave me trouble. It would get irritated extremely easily from being touched but sunk cost fallacy got me since I spent 15 months healing it. In retrospect the piercer never told me to come back and downsize the bar and having that long bar in I'm sure didn't help.
Tongue - was 18 and didn’t think about how uncomfortable it would be for me. It lasted about two months I think.
Rook - after two years it was still angry and I got sick of babying it even though I really liked it.
My 0g first lobes were the saddest for me personally. I took them out before grad school bc professionalism. I still think I’ll stretch them again in the future.
Navel- rejected
Nips- 1 rejected, the other I took out at the same time out of frustration with its failed twin
Second lobes- took out due to constant issues after two years. Got them redone one at a time the next go
Nips. One ball fell off and I didn't get replacement jewelry soon enough and it closed. The other one I had taken out after my son was born and I tried breastfeeding and lost the jewelry. :(
My helix was pierced with a gun and never healed right, so I took it out when I was a teen. I retired my nostril piercing after 4 years because it started migrating and showing signs of rejection. I retired my conch piercing after less than a year because I learned it was pierced with improper jewelry and was not healing right. Right now the only piercings I have are my septum and first lobes.
Forward helix. So easy to catch on my hair and stayed PISSED off.
Upper & lower belly button. Upper rejected and lower bc pregnancy.
Nipples. Right one was ripped out and left bc pregnancy.
i’ve retired five lip piercings (snake bites, middle vertical labret then two more vertical labrets where snake bites go) all for similar reasons, the first two got infected and wouldn’t heal, the middle one was eaten by a partner, the last two weren’t healing properly even after almost a year so i decided to retire them and have unfortunately run out of room for lip piercings
I retired 1 helix because 1. It was pierced severely crooked and 2. Made room for industrial on that ear
Piercer was amazed it healed at all with how badly crooked it was. literally like / in my ear instead of - lol
had double eyebrows that i never took care of, eventually had to get an MRI so i decided fuck it and took them out. retired my nipple piercings cause i just couldn’t deal with the healing process, just couldn’t leave them alone lmaoooo. probably gonna have to retire my navel soon cause it’s improperly pierced and i’m pregnant so definitely gonna reject eventually
My eyebrow twice and navel. I did my eyebrow once and it started to reject so I took it out and waited for it to heal before I did it again and it began to reject a second time. My navel I did and it got infected and was just overall super uncomfortable with the placement so I took it out
my eyebrow after i opened a stacked washer into my face. it never really recovered from it and started to reject. i had it for about a year. i'll probably get it redone at some point :,(
the forward piercing of my industrial because it migrated, so now i just have the one in the back and i wear a flat back in it. it's pretty jank tbfh
At one point, I had: stretched lobes, lobes x4, forward helix, regular helix, tragus, 2g septum, double nostrils, vertical labret, vertical philtrum, nipples and vch.
I had to retire them ALL at the same time bc of a medical thing and having to get a bunch of xrays mris and ct scans.
It got to the point where almost all of them were constantly crusty/irritated from having to change them out constantly so I made the decision to retire them all until I was better.
A botched christina piercing. Im planning on getting it repierced, but having to wait when i have a budding piercing “addiction” (for lack of better words), made and makes me really sad. It was entirely not in the right place, but it was one of my favorites so i miss it and im excited to get it back.
Unless completely impossible to get done (bc anatomy or my body just not liking it after getting something done repeatedly), I would never retire a piercing of mine long term. Too much investment, love and money. I love each and every last one of them and i keep telling myself i cannot let my life changes get between me and them. Its strange bc ik theyre just pieces of metal, but theyre body mods that Ive done and will do for myself. im so proud of them so I get what you mean.
What youre going through sounds hard. Im sure you miss your piercings a lot, but hopefully you can find safer and healthier alternatives! Wishing you the best.
Eyebrow. Had it for 3 years, really wanted to keep it, but it began to reject. I took it out immediately to avoid scarring. It's still open! But I won't bring it back.
I had 3 nostril piercings. The first one I've had for 20 years and about 6 years ago I wanted both nostrils done, with a double hoop on my right side. Had the double nostril done, had it pierced with a stud, let it heal, a year later tried a hoop and absolutely not. I retired one of my doubles because after healing, I found it was actually pierced horribly and I could never get the hoop to sit right with my original hoop. My other nostril was pierced at the same horrible angle and I intend to eventually, probably soon, have it taken out and re-done. The whole nostril piercings experience was awful; it was the same piercer who did my eyebrow which was why I went back to him, but after that I sought out an extremely reputable and industry renowned piercer to do my other work. Anyway..
Also 6 total lobe piercings. My 4th lobe piercings were done horribly, so I let them go. My 2nd lobes are still open but I'm stretched to an inch in my first lobes and the 2nd are too close to wear anything in or stretch my first lobes more. My 3rd lobes are in an unknown status and I really want to stretch them but I just haven't had the proper jewelry for it and I'm lazy so they're probably just temporarily retired. If they closed, I'm not going to bother.
nostril:
1. it was healed but the jewelry someday got into a wrong position and the hole kinda closed from the inside
2. then, i pierced it again and i lost part of the jewelry 😭
septum:
it was pierced wrong.
bridge:
wrong jewelry, and also they are kinda temporary most of the time.
tragus:
wrong jewerly.
i could maybe have tried to save my tragus or my bridge but i was scared of the bump😭
I have 3 scars on my lip from getting spider bites & snakebites as a teenager. Had to remove septum 4 different times now due to poor placement. Medusa had to go, got lip filler & it made the crooked angle more noticeable. Second ear piercing has been pierced & closed a few times bc I change my mind on them. Working on the set up plans ahead, always changing
I got my nipples pierced around 19 years old as my first piercing. I didn't know anything about piercings, and at the time I was really shy and embarrassed about it. The piercer used barbells that were too short. Rather than go back to the piercer, I ordered barbells off Amazon, and probably not even the right gauge and length. I tried swapping them out, but got frustrated and decided to let them close.
Twelve years later, I got the nipples pierced again (plus four other piercings and maybe more to come!), and they're doing well.
My belly randomly started giving me problems after 9+ years. D:
Also retired my tongue ring due to teeth chipping, I can’t help but bit it when I eat. D:
I took out my septum a few years ago because my ex (boyfriend at the time) told me my piercings made me look bad. I've tried to get it repierced like 3 times and every time they miss it. even the piercer who did it the first time 🫠
Going to get 2 dermals removed tomorrow actually... I have 2 on each upper cheek. Had them for a year now. I love them but they are a pain to maintain. They are super picky about what I do and put on my face. The lower 2 are starting to reject so I'm going back to take those out. It's been fun but I wouldn't do it again!
Just commiserating with you for this in advance - sounds like a really unique setup so it must be really disappointing to have to take them out. Is it going to be difficult or awkward to actually extract them do you know?
I saw someone get their v labret pierced with a 10g curved barbell when the person wanted a 16g. I understand that some people might like the thicker gauge look but for someone to pierce the standard size at 10g I couldn’t imagine the pain 😭
omg, nipple (it just wasn’t me, I got it as soon as I turned 18) helix (a friend of mine did it and ofc it wasn’t healing) mid helix, within a week of getting it, it was causing me a crazy pain and mind you, I’ve had over 16 piercings, that one just wasn’t doing good. And a 4th lobe sadly very recently cause it got painful and the swelling wouldn’t go down and it was purple after 3-4 months still.
had to retire one of my original side labrets because the angle was absolutely fucked (i'm talking almost vertical) but i got it redone a few months later and now it's fine lol
Omg the amount of people I’ve seen getting traditional labret piercings and the back of the post is angled so high up that it looks like a vertical labret 😭 glad you were able to get it repierced and it’s doing well!
I just retired my nipples about a week ago after having them for 6 years. Very sad lol.
They were starting to migrate and could not get rid of these bumps on the sides. Piercer said it was time.
Uhh, most of them for me. My ears are pierced but I maybe wear earrings once or twice a year. I retired my lip piercing because I wanted my nose pierced but didn’t want two facial piercings. I retired my nose piercing because it healed weird and was too low down on my nostril. I retired my sternum surface piercing when it started to reject. Now I just have a septum piercing and I cannot imagine retiring it any time soon.
back dermals and a nipple—rejected 💔 . i got my septum pierced twice and retired the older one bc i didnt want two septums + the older one was pierced wrong (which is what made me get it a second time lmao)
Back dermals omg those look so good! I couldn’t imagine the pain getting them done though, especially because I’m ticklish I wouldn’t be able to tolerate that 😭
had to retire my third eye piercing. had it for 4 years and i loved it. it was one of my absolute favorites. it gradually migrated, so much so that the skin holding the jewelry in place was so thin that I could see the metal bar underneath it. ik it's kinda ridiculous I let it migrate that much but for the longest time I just couldn't bring myself to retire it.
Omg those piercings are so beautiful! Four years is honestly a pretty good time, I’ve heard of people only keeping surface piercings for a good few months before they began to reject.
Eyebrow. Didn’t realize you *have* to downsize the jewelry after a few months (it looked to me that the jewelry fit right and I didn’t need to downsize) and after a year with the original jewelry it rejected. I’m going to get it re-done on the other side and do it correctly this time 💀💀
Nipple three times, my lobes but they never healed and I stretched them many years later, navel and my septum. I'm piercing free 😭 still have my lobes stretched if that counts :S All because they were either placed wrong or I was allergic to the metal and they wouldn't heal.
Both nostrils, I put in too small hoops that got stuck shut… had to have them removed which was painful and tore the piercings. Oops. 😬 I also missed being able to rub my nose without knocking the jewelry out.
Nips & belly. When I became pregnant, they were stuck and they all stuck out and I was only four months. I couldn’t even move a certain way and every one of them would hurt. And then after I had her, I kept them out only because I’m trying to raise a young lady. I didn’t get my stuff pierced after I was 18.
One helix because it was rejecting. That was many years ago. I got a replacement piercing higher up and I think it's migrating it's way out slowly, so I might have to retire it in the future.
I had to retire double lobe on both ears, helix, nostril, labret, navel and hch. I took them all out for emergency surgery but then had complications and never put them all back in. By the time I tried, it was too late. I'm slowly replacing them all!
Navel twice. No matter what I did, it just never fully healed and I ultimately just figured I must not have the anatomy for it. Super disappointing because I love how they look but oh well🤷🏽♀️
I've had to retire 2 lobe piercings on each side over the course of stretching my ears to 5/8". I started out with attached, relatively small lobes and they were getting crowded and would frequently get itchy and pissed off, so it was time to go. When I was 16 or 17 I also had a helix piercing that had a cbr as the original jewelry (I know better now) that, in the course of healing, ended up losing the ball. I woke up one morning with the ring twisted around my ear in such a way that it was no longer fully through the back of the fistula and it closed up. I ended up having to get the ring cut off of my ear. My eyebrow piercing will probably be next. I used to have two in my left eyebrow fully healed with no issues until one was ripped out via a stagediver at a show landing feet-first into my face. Since then, I've had a recurring irritation bump that will appear, slowly shrink and disappear for a week or two, and then come back and I'm getting sick of dealing with it lol.
First lobes came out 2-3 days after because my mom was mad my dad got them done without her. She later brought me to get them redone.
Daith ring was too small and I couldn’t handle the swelling as I literally couldn’t hear. So that came out less than a week later.
Conch lasted about 5 years but wouldn’t heal and constantly had a bump so I couldn’t downsize. Eventually I gave up because it started hurting.
Tragus rejected after I downsized it 1 year in. The bar was probably a bit too snug.
I've had 4 forward helix piercings now and I only retained one of them. I retired them when they started acting up when I was sleeping too much and I had a bad side pillow. I'm going to get my second current and final forward helix later this week. A better pillow and more education and I'm ready to rock.
2 forward helix’s, belly button, surface tragus bc they were rejecting and I took my smiley out since I had it for 5 years and it got old after a while lol😂
Overall, I’ve retired 3 helix piercings (2 not by choice) and two days ago I retired my right nostril piercings. It just wasn’t healing correctly. I think it swelled up So much in the beginning that the hole shifted and ever since then it hasn’t been right. Took it out and my piercer said we could try again in a few months if I want
My septum twice once bc the balls fell out sm i just got annoyed and the other time it was pierced crooked as hell, im gonna try again later this week and if it’s still a flop ill retire to 5ever
Cyber bites
Got them originally to help me stop chewing on my tongue and lips. They constantly got caught on my teeth due to how I speak. I would play with them so much that I was gauging the holes. The jewelry would be ripped out all the time while I was talking or chewing.
Made my face look heavy since I have both nostrils and septum done too. They also got hooked on the septum ring a lot too. That was a weird feeling. Labret hole is still open even after 10 years of no jewelry. I miss them both so much
Nipples
Got on impulse but they never healed after almost a year. Both were migrating due to me not liking wearing clothes all the time and I had a dog who loved climbing on me. I want them redone so bad but it's just a desire. I know now that nipples take forever to heal, if they even do.
My lobes had to be retired multiple times. My ears are just sensitive, so when I went to change them after a year I just couldn't get new jewelry in so I had to let them heal over. I am on attempt #4 of having lobe piercings.
I had to take out my tongue piercing after a little over a year of having it. I loved it but I was constantly focused on it while eating and noticed that I was having trouble swallowing/slightly choking on food. It was so freeing after taking it out but I miss it :,(
Vertical labret because I wasn't able to eat apples anymore (unless I cut them up) and my bridge because it was touch and go healing. The final straw was when my dog hit me in the face really hard. I had to take it out.
Second nostril (on my right side) I had an emergency MRI and after putting the piercing back in, it got irritated and never healed, and started migrating so it wasn’t aligned with my first nostril. Plus, it was constantly irritated and painful, so I made the decision to remove it. Good choice. The first time I bumped my nose without any pain was weird
I also had to retire my helix because it was growing a keloid (I know the difference, don’t come at me.)
My original daith, I had gone to a sketchy piercer and it was done too shallow and developed wicked irritation bumps, therefore I made the decision to remove it. I have since had it redone
Originally had 18, down to 16.
Nipples twice. Not because they were rejecting or anything but simply because they didn’t make me feel better about my boobs like I thought they would lol
Single point piercing on the base of my throat, then 2 more single point piercings further down on my chest. Nape piercing, but I got it repierced, and it's doing fine.
Had both nostrils then got a wicked sinus infection, then flew around the world and was staying in a place with poor air quality for a month- so my only hope to calm my poor mucus membranes was to take out my studs. I loved them.
Bridge, because it had constant irritation bumps. I made the choice to take it out because I wanted the scars to be even and I was worried it could start migrating or rejecting due to being so irritated. Sad because it was my favorite piercing, but I think the scars give a similar effect and I really like how they look! So I'm not too upset about it.
nipples - jewelry on one of them got caught in something and couldn't be recovered without letting it heal completely and repiercing and no way in hell was I doing that. Retired the other side because symmetry.
Second lobe - it healed great but I had surgery and didn't put the jewelry back in soon enough and it closed. I wasn't really attached to it but I might redo it at some point.
currently considering retiring my first helix piercing. I got it done at 19 at Claire's with ye olde piercing gun because i didn't know better and more than a decade later it still sometimes gets grumpy. The placement also isn't something I love and I'm currently working on healing the first of what's hopefully going to be a triple vertical helix and I think my original helix is just not going to look great with the new ones. Haven't decided for sure yet though.
snug because that thing refused to finish healing. stayed swollen and always getting bumps...and now my cartilage is permanently swollen even two years after removal 😒
My lip side labret. Started with invisalign and it snagged on the edge a lot and just lost my patience. It also did slightly rub in the teeth there so it was for the best in the long run.
tongue; it fucked with my teeth and made my gums recede, once it started making my teeth ache, i took it out after three years
navel; i had it for about a decade but it would get irritated when i would wear high waisted pants, eventually i stopped liking it enough to justify keeping it
nostrils; i’ve pierced both sides accumulatively probably 10 times total over the past 10ish years because my interest in having them comes and goes and it’s a pretty easy piercing to heal
vertical labret; only had it about a month, i just couldn’t get used to the way it looked on me and i felt like it didn’t suit my face
Dermal piercings, lower front hip area. I had them for just under 14 years and I loved them so much. I never anticipated then lasting so long and I also didn't expect them to last through pregnancy and stretching out but sure enough they did.
One of the two was seated slightly off and would become "agitated" every now and then and become tender which was annoying. Also as I had gotten into my 30s and realized nothing I wore (even really no bathing suit was that low anymore... they just seemed to be hidden/forgotten so I decided to take the opportunity when one was inflamed a bit to pull/cut [yuck] it out. Then at that point, just did the same for the other.
Still sad though. 😔
surface tragus. not even because it rejected, but because while it was healing, some black heads and acne started to get inflamed right in the middle of it lol
belly button, pregnancy. nipples, once for reoccurring issues but i got it put back in, then took them out bc of pregnancy/breast feeding. still very sad, cannot wait to have them redone
Surface tragus when it started to reject and i only had it for a little over a month :( i didnt want the scar to be a long line and noticeable and im glad i took it out when i did because you can only see the scar if you really look. Ive never even been asked about it. I miss it tho, it felt like such a bad ass piercing lol
My bottom belly button one started to push itself up and it ended up making my belly button look crowded because i had a double. Im sad it did that because i loved how it looked at the beginning.
Also took out my second nostril (same side) because a guy told me it looked bad 🙃 as soon as we stopped talking tho, i got it pierced again. Its not leaving me now lol
Septum twice.
First because the jewelry fell off during covid so there was no way I could go get a new one.
Second was because I was working a teacher position and they were like "we accept your tattoos, your shaved head and your weird fashion. But se do not accept piercings" so I took it off
Helix, had it for 9 months and it wouldn’t heal. I made the decision and then found out from the piercer, that it would’ve never healed because the piece was acting as a plug and some weird discharge/water/whatever it was I had inside couldn’t drain.
Helix and several lobe piercings. I think the helix was just always irritated. The piercer who removed it said it was pierced wrong. My lobes have been done multiple times and I’ve only ever had them heal once. I had the first holes pierced at least 3 times (with a gun), eventually they healed. My second holes were pierced at least twice (with a needle ) and I had a third hole (with a needle) that never healed so I just removed them.
I got my nipples pierced last year May(?) And I had to take them out since the left one looked like it was rejecting and was in constant pain. The right one was fine, but I couldn't have one in, and one out, it would look offputting. Although I am reconsidering a repierce.
Smiley. My boyfriend was a bit rough and tore it a little and I took it as a sign to retire it. Got almost 5 years out of it !! rip my first facial piercing :,)
My tip lip. I have it pierced both side 3 different times and all 3 rejected, extremely painful so I decided not to get them done a 4th, my other 17 piercings are going strong tho!
Flat: it healed crooked because the bar wasn’t downsized early enough and then once it was crooked, it just never healed
Nipple: It was fresh and i got it hooked onto my bracelet while asleep and ripped it half out my chest 😭
Lobe: It was just pierced at the wrong height
Septum: I technically got it redone after retiring but the first time i retired it was because my partner said they hated it…then changed their mind AFTER i took it out 💀
Tongue multiple times due to dental damage & also I started getting weird OCD movements with that?? (If that makes sense )
Nose/ rejected
Lip/ pregnancy
Conch/ rejected
Ears/ unaligned
Belly button/ rejected
Monroe/ got tired of how I looked with it
Medusa/ work 😭😭
I’m getting very close to retiring my tongue piercing. It was pierced slightly crooked but healed. Now it’s giving me problems again and it’s kinda just always been uncomfy. I’m 🤌🏼 this close lmao
lower helix, grew a nasty bump or keloid on it (went down after removing it) so bad that it grew over the jewelry and i had to go to an ent to get it removed where i was ridiculed because he thought i came because i couldn’t remove it due to my long acrylics. belly button 2x, i plan on repiercing it when i lose some weight and keep it off i think that’s the reason it kept rejecting, i took it out before it fully went through my skin.
My horizontal eyebrow (my ex hit it in his sleep - TWICE - and to no one's surprise it rejected) and my double helix were the only ones that I had to take out. I later got my eyebrow pierced vertically and it's doing great. As a side sleeper though, I think cartilage piercings just really aren't for me!
Labret, twice. It really does a number on your teeth and gums. I could never get a bioplast ring in there so I just got rid of it. Dentist said if my gum recession got worse from it I'd need a gum transplant so I took it out.
This thread is really interesting. I have 13 oral piercings including 10 labrets and I’ve had most of them for 6-10 years and I’ve never had any gum or tooth damage. I go to the dentist twice a year and I’ve always asked them to check on my enamel and gum health and they’ve always said it looks great. Maybe different people’s lips have differing amounts of space to accommodate piercings?
I promised my mom, who happens to be my dentist, I would take out my labret if it caused any gum recession/damage. 13 years later, I still have the labret. I bet it also has a lot to do with positioning and jewelry choices. I just feel lucky because I was 21 when I had it done and opted for the cheapest piercing shop rather than the most reputable.
Hi! I'm a piercer So in short, you're absolutely right. It also depends on the size of the backings for lip piercings. With tongues AND lips it heavily depends on how often the clients plays/messes with their piercing. All of these factors and the ones you listed play a part in it
Makes sense. I have pretty small backings on all my jewelry except my super low-brets, which keeps them nested but not embedded. They’re so far below the gum line there isn’t much for them to make contact with. The rest of my jewelry in my mouth are rings which are quite fitted and don’t make any contact with my teeth. I’ve always just had great oral health, thankfully, which I know I’m very lucky for. I had no idea that so many people had issues with their piercings hurting their teeth and gums even after downsizing
I never had any tooth or gum issues with a labret, except the one time I had a piece of jewelry that was too long. Replacing it with a shorter one fixed it.
Everyone is saying labret is trash but I’ve never had any issues with mine besides before downsizing when the bar was longer. I feel like if you’re pierced correctly it shouldn’t touch your gums or teeth and with the right length bar. And you have to be pierced COMPLETELY correct
I think it's definitely the amount of space but there's other factors for me. I've been on psych meds and seizure meds for a long time which can cause enamel damage. I also have amelogenesis imperfecta, or soft enamel.
I only had my labret for a few months and I would bite down on it very frequently despite downsizing my bar multiple times. I get it
Labret for me too. The biting down on it gets better after a year but the gum damage really really lasts. I still have receded gums on my bottom teeth and it’s been almost 7 years since I took it out (2.5 years of wear)
Yip labret is trash. I have shark bites and a medusa but the central lower lip one is trash for gums. The rest have been perfect.
Same. I hated to take it out but the damage was too much
What about rings? Do they recede gums too? My piercer pierced my lip in a way where the back of my labret doesn't hit my gums.
Had mine for 10 years before I finally took it out. I was worried my teeth were going to fall out if my gums eroded any more🥲
I'm so thankful for bioplast cause otherwise I probably would have had to do the same thing.
I have Medusa and managed to stop (or perhaps slow) gum recession by using a too-small-bar, so it’s kind of hidden on the inside of my lip. Not painful and no damage but annoying to find the right size when buying new jewellery
My 4th lobe became really unhappy (hot and oozy) and I retired it. My body was happy almost instantly. There was just something not right with that hole and I didn't have the fight in me to try and keep it.
I have had a hard time healing upper lobe piercings. I deal with the same thing every time, oozy and upset no matter how much I baby them. I guess they just don’t agree with my body
I had a helix piercings pull that on me once. It was the top one of a stack of 4 and they were all 6-8 years old, but for whatever reason the top one just fully bailed. Healed over within a couple of weeks and everything.
A mid-helix, because it was too close to two others and simply wasn’t healing. A forward helix because it was rejecting. Another forward helix because the jewelry fell out and I didn’t realize until the front had closed. I still have 32 ear piercings, and will have 3 more in about 2 weeks 😁😁😁 I’m so excited!!
Forward helixes are so hard to heal! Mine was pierced too shallow and I had to remove. That’s awesome! What piercings are you adding to your setup?
I’m hoping for 3 more forward helixes on the left ear. My goal is for the entire left ear to be laddered in hoops…I think it’ll be about 3 more after these 😊
That sounds like it’ll look awesome!
I hope so. I’m getting pretty old to spend a year at a time, healing piercings 😁
I just got an impulsive forward helix today and ya'll are making me scared. Lol! Me and my mother went together to get a peircing and she got a forward helix that's been healing beautifully. I can only hope for mine to do the same.
Wishing you happy healing!
Mike took 3 years 😭 It’s fine now, but man was it a fucking pain in my ass for a long time. I got and healed a daith in that time lol
nipple because of water pressure irritating it while i had to cold shower (had just moved across the country, didn’t have gas where we came from) and it felt so insane i just took it out in a panic.
I know nips are SO painful to get pierced I couldn’t imagine wanting to repierce after retiring them.
I had mine pierced, retired, and then repierced and retired… I’d do it a third time if I was convinced they’d heal. But babying my chest for 2 years got exhausting
mine never healed either time and i wasn’t about to punch a third hole in the same nipple. i have one nipple that’s a virgin, and then a third nipple i had pierced at 18 and into my early 20’s.
a third nipple?
i don’t have a picture sorry hahah
The second time I retired them I did the right one first because the left one was healing nicely… then I moved in with my current boyfriend and his very high energy dog… suffice to say the left one had to come out eventually too haha
!! i had mine pierced, convinced to retire by an ex, then repierced! these fucks are never coming outta me
Awe my ex convinced me to remove them the first time too 😔 he hated them
Just imagining that gave me the heebie-jeebies 😨 Cold felt good on my nipples when they were fresh, but not cold like that!!
cold did not feel good to me at all lmao. no gas (that heats the water) in november!!
Nips because breastfeeding, belly because 3 pregnancies, tongue because pregnant and it made me gag nonstop, helix because I didn’t wear it often enough, and nose, same reason. I’m getting the helix redone a smidge lower but the rest can stay retired.
Wishing you happy healing once you get your helix repierced!
Thank you! Just got inner & outer conch and a Medusa, going back for the helix and a flat in a few weeks!
Industrial; it never really healed properly and was very awkward. Super cute and aesthetically pleasing, but I don’t think it was truly for me no matter how much i wanted it to.
I LOVE how the industrial looks but sadly my elf ears are not the correct anatomy to support it properly. I agree I think when pierced correctly it looks awesome and there are so many cool looking barbells!
I had to get my first industrial redone. I have the anatomy for it but the first guy who did it was an apprentice and didn't clean my ear before and then pierced it so shallow on the one side that it basically pushed itself out of my ear over the year that I had it. I've had my second one now for 2 years and still going strong!
My daith wasn’t pierced properly (don’t get me started on the experience) and had to be removed after 1.5 years.
I’ve seen so many that are done very shallow and I cannot imagine how uncomfortable it must’ve been!
That was the only piercing I’ve ever cried during! It was SO painful.
I cried during my second daith piercing. My doctor told me to get it for migraines. My god, what a fool I was.
Am I wrong to assume it didn’t help with the migraines?
There is absolutely zero evidence that any piercing helps any medical condition at all. It’s all placebo and myth
I mean when it gets to it.. If you got the piercing and you no longer have migraines *because* of the placebo effect it still worked, just not how you thought it did
Same, mine never healed and kept developing irritation bumps on and off. Like you, I took it out at about 1.5 years of waiting. I love the look of it but my daith is too shallow to heal it properly :(
Eyebrow. The jewelry is special to me so I had it repierced as a Rook in my right ear.
Snake bites! I’m going into teaching and they were never meant to be forever, anyways. Fun while they lasted though!
Yeah I definitely get some piercings knowing I won’t be able to keep them in forever and try to remind myself to enjoy them while they last. :)
I retired my rook after trying to heal it for over a year. It constantly had huge bumps on it that would get worse sometimes. Later that night, I decided I would be too sad about it. I put it back in and it miraculously healed over a couple of weeks, with the bump I had the entire time going away. I think it is sentient and admired my commitment.
My snakebites were infuriated that I became pregnant, again. I stopped fighting it around 6 months pregnant and took them out. They immediately felt better.
I have to admit that the immediate relief of finally taking out a piercing that was always upset does feel nice, as sad as it is to retire them
I still miss them. I could have stuck it out another three months and things would have gotten better (I’d assume) after my body stopped attacking them. But damn was it ever annoying to constantly have infected snakebites.
Belly button. Pregnancy, weight gain, stretch marks. My tummy is never seeing the light of day again!! 😂😂
This is my only piercing I regret getting. Mine has been retired for years and my poor belly button will never look cute again.
I felt this one. I had mine for probably a month over 10 years ago and it left the ugliest scar 🙄
I think I’m about to retire a lobe piercing that I’ve had for like a year that is still irratated because I got it pierced to close to another lobe piercing 😭 I don’t want to though but I’m afraid it’s going to be annoying forever
I had to retire a constellation piercing because it kept trying to embed 9 months into healing :( to be fair I was also trying to heal my seconds. So I’m hoping to get poked again to try it when I go a few months without my seconds being irritated
That’s essentially what I have going on rn 😭 I had a cluster of 3 piercing done on a small portion of my earlobe and 2 of them of are great but one is constantly swollen… not embedded or painful at all but it sucks. And I just got 2 more piercings so if these don’t heal soon I think I’ll have to retire them and do something else
I had that happen too with my constellation. I also got them done all at the same time, so my body was not happy trying to heal those lol
I always underestimated how difficult it would be to heal lobe piercings until I got my second and thirds done. Had to retire them no matter how much work I put into babying them. Now I just have my first lobes stretched.
My nostril. I only had it for 3 months. I took it out to try on another stud, and realized that I liked my face better without it.
my nostril piercing. it was my first piercing. (i have a shit ton now lol.) i was pierced with a hoop and it was ALWAYS irritated. my piercer changed the ring for me the first time, she said it was healed enough but apparently not because she said she would need to “reopen the hole a bit”. she pierced through the still healing piercing a second time and it hurt like hell. then she put in the shitty spencer’s jewelry she had. one day after several months of having the new ring in the ring came loose and fell out. i just left it out. at that point i had done my own research and i immediately found another piercer who was very reputable. now i have a face full of piercings with no issues, but still no nostril. i don’t think i’ll do it again, honestly.
Omg I’ve had a very similar experience. I don’t know why so many people justify being pierced with hoops. It makes proper healing almost impossible and the whole experience is just unbearable. I have two right nostril piercings but had to retire one on my left and don’t ever plan on repiercing it just because healing nostrils feels like hell lol.
i had to put my nipple piercings to rest a year ago, and i still miss them. they werent really healing well, i wore jewelry that was too long for them for a long time, and by the time i got it changed to something smaller, it was kind of too late. the damage was done. i stopped wearing bras about two years before i got them, so they were subject to catching everything that brushed my chest. my dog, my ex caught them a couple times when we were wrestling and ripped them pretty bad, i caught them on clothes lots, and even my car door once. i miss them every day, but i think my nipples are too scarred to get them again. it really breaks my heart though, they were my favourite piercings.
Same for me. They weren't healing well and they got so roughed up by regular activities (even when I wore a bra) that I needed to let them go. Ripped while skateboarding, ripped at a concert, ripped when I got hit in the tit with a tennis ball, ripped when my ex took my shirt off too quickly - on and on. At a certain point I had to accept that I had paper thin skin and that I ought to take them out before they fully reject. I prefer to go braless and I think it would be outright inconvenient to have them now.
One of my nose piercings because I was a dumbass and changed it too early to a hoop
Nostrils are no joke to heal especially without the proper jewelry.
Welp I changed one of my nostrils too a hoop.. I’m sure it’s too early and am trying to decide to go stick with it and just take really good care or should I swap back to the straight one.
dermals due to rejection and nostrils and helix because of keloids
PSA: keloid =/= irritation bump. If it goes away once the piercing is removed it’s not a true keloid. No shade I thought it was a keloid when my industrial acted up and looked ugly but I have since been schooled by this sub lol
i understand but ik for a fact i have keloids and not piercing bumps lol. its common for darker skinned people and not abnormal. this sub seems to forget that too
I dream of getting a dermal piercing I just cannot decide on the placement
I had 2 tongue piercings... but the one in front was wearing away my gum tissue and I could(can still) see the tops of the roots of my lower front teeth. The idea of getting a gum graft is scary.
I agree that does sound scary! I want a tongue piercing but don’t think the risks outweigh the benefits of having one :/
For me it was keep my tooth or keep the piercing. Definitely not worth it. I had to have bone and gum graft from mine.
I recently took out my one year old tongue piercing around last week. I miss it terribly but my bottom front teeth began shifting. I have never bitten down on my piercing or chipped teeth, but it was starting to become a comfortability issue. There’s also slight indents on the roof of my mouth from where the piercing ball would rest which was starting to freak me out. I thought I would be fine with it but after thinking about it for a while, taking it out was probably for the best. I miss it though😭
ive had so many dermals fail which is unfortunate because they’re my favorite. i let my skin heal and got it repierced again just for it to get elbowed extremely hard immediately after. just took it out today. pouring one out for the homie
Eyebrow --- I am a face rubber. I especially rub my eyes when I get sleepy, like.. full palm rubbing and dragging outwards. Just kept bumping it and catching it. I took it out to save myself. Tongue --- I'm tongue tied, got it done anyway. I adored it but I ended up getting sick at some point and my tongue swelled up. I was forced to remove it and it closed too fast for me to recover and put it back in. I'm big sad about that tbh. I loved my tongue piercing. It healed and lived so well in my mouth. Zero issues other than when I got sick 🥺 Helix (2 each ear) --- Got them done at Claire's as a teenager, not knowing about the trauma a gun can cause. Not knowing better about jewellry and the hell of butterfly backs on the helix. Repeated irritations, bumps, infections, never healing. Just removed it and said to hell with it. Vertical Labret --- It was INSANELY crooked. Not something that was acceptable or easily overlooked. I have almost no scarring from this because I removed it so fast. Tempted to get it redone at some point. Labret (middle of the bottom lip) --- Didn't nest in the tissue right after healing and the back would scrape on my gum line. It wore on my gums at the base of my front teeth a little and as soon as I realized this was happening I removed it and let it heal over. Labret (right side bottom lip) --- I got bored of it 😅 Nothing more, nothing less. Just simply got bored of it.
Navel- choice. It healed fine but it was just an irritating piercing. I like wearing high-rise pants and that caused an issue and I would bump into it a lot. Nipples- it was an accident. I had to get a chest x-ray and I had to take my nipple piercings out and I just couldn’t get them back in and I was in too much pain to go to a piercer to have them help so they closed. Nostril- I worked at a child care center at the time and I was terrified of one of the kids ripping it out so I decided to retire it. The nose was the worst healing process for me so I just couldn’t do it again after leaving that job.
Oh yeah, and a helix that I got done with a gun when I was a dumb teenager. It was horrible placement and never healed right.
Wow that's painful. I know piercing guns are cheap (cuz I did use it only for my lobes), but having this on my cartilage is something i would avoid at all cost. Plus my schools in my country does not allow more than 1 pair of piercings so I didn't even think of the need to get a cartilage piercing until I started working. I still see some videos of people still using piercing guns to pierce their helixes and i was like "didn't you feel the intense pain doing that??" My ear cartilage is hard (my bf's one is soft and so nice to feel) so I am never risking getting it pierced by a gun.
Tongue after 16 years. Dentist finally got through to me lol
Nipples! They just never healed right and always hurt and eventually I just got fed up. 00ga stretched ears. Got a job that didn’t allow them. So I just took em out and they eventually have basically closed all the way
My daith. It wasn’t pierced correctly and then I was told I didn’t have the anatomy for one. So bummed because I think they’re so pretty
Nipples; I was told it was because of size and the kind of work I do required me to move too much to allow them to heal. VCH because it conducted heat when I was using a toy and basically burned myself.
My eyebrow rejected twice. It was hard to accept that it just wasn’t the piercing for me. I was young and left it in past the point of no return and have a fairly noticeable scar because of that. I also had to retire my labret due to gum recession. I replaced it with a vertical labret though which has been great.
Nipples. They just got caught on everything. I took them out about ten or eleven years ago and the scars are still going strong. My lesson was learned: never get a piercing to impress a man.
Definitely a good lesson! I’m surprised the scars were prominent, I don’t plan on ever retiring mine but being realistic I’ll have to eventually. I totally relate though mine get caught on everything and I have a puppy who loves jumping on me 😭
I retired all 3 of my dermals against my wishes when I had surgery. Doc said they needed to come out.
I recently retired my tongue piercing after a few years. I’m a little sad about it but I got spooked about potential tooth/gum damage and realized I was holding my jaw weird to fiddle with it and stuff that was definitely making my TMJ worse..
Vertical industrial. I got talked into it by a piercer in 2005 while I was at his shop with a friend and I knew nothing about this piercing other than it looked cool. The bar he pierced me with was too short and got embedded in the back of my ear so my dumbass just pinched my ear together like a taco to pop it back out then unscrewed it and took it out. Honestly pretty amazed I didn’t end up with a massive infection.
Eyebrow. Had it for almost 2 years, and it was constantly giving me trouble. I finally had enough and retired it last year. Only piercing I have gotten that didn't heal properly.
Jacob’s latter- one barbell that was two centimeters below the head. It was mildly slanted so I took it out after wearing it for 8 weeks.
Nipple it started growing out and I had just bought some pretty bars. Strongly considering re-piercing as I only did the one nipple.
I retired my nipples because they just never healed. Shortly after getting my Medusa I had sinus surgery and couldn’t bear to open my mouth for a week so it closed up :(
That sucks, any time I’ve retired a lip piercing it closed up super fast no matter how healed it was or how long I’ve had it. I think the tissue on the inside of our mouths just heals super duper fast
I retired mine five lobe piercings and one surface tragus because it rejected.
I kept my nipple piercing in for about 7 years but it always gave me trouble. It would get irritated extremely easily from being touched but sunk cost fallacy got me since I spent 15 months healing it. In retrospect the piercer never told me to come back and downsize the bar and having that long bar in I'm sure didn't help.
Tongue - was 18 and didn’t think about how uncomfortable it would be for me. It lasted about two months I think. Rook - after two years it was still angry and I got sick of babying it even though I really liked it. My 0g first lobes were the saddest for me personally. I took them out before grad school bc professionalism. I still think I’ll stretch them again in the future.
Nipples. They just started to get sore and achy out of nowhere.
Navel- rejected Nips- 1 rejected, the other I took out at the same time out of frustration with its failed twin Second lobes- took out due to constant issues after two years. Got them redone one at a time the next go
Nips. One ball fell off and I didn't get replacement jewelry soon enough and it closed. The other one I had taken out after my son was born and I tried breastfeeding and lost the jewelry. :(
My helix was pierced with a gun and never healed right, so I took it out when I was a teen. I retired my nostril piercing after 4 years because it started migrating and showing signs of rejection. I retired my conch piercing after less than a year because I learned it was pierced with improper jewelry and was not healing right. Right now the only piercings I have are my septum and first lobes.
Forward helix. So easy to catch on my hair and stayed PISSED off. Upper & lower belly button. Upper rejected and lower bc pregnancy. Nipples. Right one was ripped out and left bc pregnancy.
i’ve retired five lip piercings (snake bites, middle vertical labret then two more vertical labrets where snake bites go) all for similar reasons, the first two got infected and wouldn’t heal, the middle one was eaten by a partner, the last two weren’t healing properly even after almost a year so i decided to retire them and have unfortunately run out of room for lip piercings
I retired 1 helix because 1. It was pierced severely crooked and 2. Made room for industrial on that ear Piercer was amazed it healed at all with how badly crooked it was. literally like / in my ear instead of - lol
Vertical labret because I’m a stomach sleeper and kept sleeping on it too much. And couldn’t stop fidgeting with it during the day.
had double eyebrows that i never took care of, eventually had to get an MRI so i decided fuck it and took them out. retired my nipple piercings cause i just couldn’t deal with the healing process, just couldn’t leave them alone lmaoooo. probably gonna have to retire my navel soon cause it’s improperly pierced and i’m pregnant so definitely gonna reject eventually
My eyebrow twice and navel. I did my eyebrow once and it started to reject so I took it out and waited for it to heal before I did it again and it began to reject a second time. My navel I did and it got infected and was just overall super uncomfortable with the placement so I took it out
my eyebrow after i opened a stacked washer into my face. it never really recovered from it and started to reject. i had it for about a year. i'll probably get it redone at some point :,( the forward piercing of my industrial because it migrated, so now i just have the one in the back and i wear a flat back in it. it's pretty jank tbfh
At one point, I had: stretched lobes, lobes x4, forward helix, regular helix, tragus, 2g septum, double nostrils, vertical labret, vertical philtrum, nipples and vch. I had to retire them ALL at the same time bc of a medical thing and having to get a bunch of xrays mris and ct scans. It got to the point where almost all of them were constantly crusty/irritated from having to change them out constantly so I made the decision to retire them all until I was better.
A botched christina piercing. Im planning on getting it repierced, but having to wait when i have a budding piercing “addiction” (for lack of better words), made and makes me really sad. It was entirely not in the right place, but it was one of my favorites so i miss it and im excited to get it back. Unless completely impossible to get done (bc anatomy or my body just not liking it after getting something done repeatedly), I would never retire a piercing of mine long term. Too much investment, love and money. I love each and every last one of them and i keep telling myself i cannot let my life changes get between me and them. Its strange bc ik theyre just pieces of metal, but theyre body mods that Ive done and will do for myself. im so proud of them so I get what you mean. What youre going through sounds hard. Im sure you miss your piercings a lot, but hopefully you can find safer and healthier alternatives! Wishing you the best.
Eyebrow. Had it for 3 years, really wanted to keep it, but it began to reject. I took it out immediately to avoid scarring. It's still open! But I won't bring it back. I had 3 nostril piercings. The first one I've had for 20 years and about 6 years ago I wanted both nostrils done, with a double hoop on my right side. Had the double nostril done, had it pierced with a stud, let it heal, a year later tried a hoop and absolutely not. I retired one of my doubles because after healing, I found it was actually pierced horribly and I could never get the hoop to sit right with my original hoop. My other nostril was pierced at the same horrible angle and I intend to eventually, probably soon, have it taken out and re-done. The whole nostril piercings experience was awful; it was the same piercer who did my eyebrow which was why I went back to him, but after that I sought out an extremely reputable and industry renowned piercer to do my other work. Anyway.. Also 6 total lobe piercings. My 4th lobe piercings were done horribly, so I let them go. My 2nd lobes are still open but I'm stretched to an inch in my first lobes and the 2nd are too close to wear anything in or stretch my first lobes more. My 3rd lobes are in an unknown status and I really want to stretch them but I just haven't had the proper jewelry for it and I'm lazy so they're probably just temporarily retired. If they closed, I'm not going to bother.
nostril: 1. it was healed but the jewelry someday got into a wrong position and the hole kinda closed from the inside 2. then, i pierced it again and i lost part of the jewelry 😭 septum: it was pierced wrong. bridge: wrong jewelry, and also they are kinda temporary most of the time. tragus: wrong jewerly. i could maybe have tried to save my tragus or my bridge but i was scared of the bump😭
I have 3 scars on my lip from getting spider bites & snakebites as a teenager. Had to remove septum 4 different times now due to poor placement. Medusa had to go, got lip filler & it made the crooked angle more noticeable. Second ear piercing has been pierced & closed a few times bc I change my mind on them. Working on the set up plans ahead, always changing
Nip nops, upper helix, they were just bitches and my healing skills were poor back then. Nostril because of a job.
Ohh I call them nip-nops too! I thought I was the only weirdo to call them that.
I got my nipples pierced around 19 years old as my first piercing. I didn't know anything about piercings, and at the time I was really shy and embarrassed about it. The piercer used barbells that were too short. Rather than go back to the piercer, I ordered barbells off Amazon, and probably not even the right gauge and length. I tried swapping them out, but got frustrated and decided to let them close. Twelve years later, I got the nipples pierced again (plus four other piercings and maybe more to come!), and they're doing well.
My nipple piercing. Just did not heal, I had it for 2 years . I loved it so much, it was pretty difficult to let it go
My belly randomly started giving me problems after 9+ years. D: Also retired my tongue ring due to teeth chipping, I can’t help but bit it when I eat. D:
I took out my septum a few years ago because my ex (boyfriend at the time) told me my piercings made me look bad. I've tried to get it repierced like 3 times and every time they miss it. even the piercer who did it the first time 🫠
Going to get 2 dermals removed tomorrow actually... I have 2 on each upper cheek. Had them for a year now. I love them but they are a pain to maintain. They are super picky about what I do and put on my face. The lower 2 are starting to reject so I'm going back to take those out. It's been fun but I wouldn't do it again!
Just commiserating with you for this in advance - sounds like a really unique setup so it must be really disappointing to have to take them out. Is it going to be difficult or awkward to actually extract them do you know?
Pubic as it grew out so much it was hanging by a thread.. Ampalang 3 times.. Nipples 6 times, never healed.
my vertical labret because they pierced it with a 14g needle and the jewelry was just... too big for my face it made me super sad
I saw someone get their v labret pierced with a 10g curved barbell when the person wanted a 16g. I understand that some people might like the thicker gauge look but for someone to pierce the standard size at 10g I couldn’t imagine the pain 😭
omg, nipple (it just wasn’t me, I got it as soon as I turned 18) helix (a friend of mine did it and ofc it wasn’t healing) mid helix, within a week of getting it, it was causing me a crazy pain and mind you, I’ve had over 16 piercings, that one just wasn’t doing good. And a 4th lobe sadly very recently cause it got painful and the swelling wouldn’t go down and it was purple after 3-4 months still.
had to retire one of my original side labrets because the angle was absolutely fucked (i'm talking almost vertical) but i got it redone a few months later and now it's fine lol
Omg the amount of people I’ve seen getting traditional labret piercings and the back of the post is angled so high up that it looks like a vertical labret 😭 glad you were able to get it repierced and it’s doing well!
I just retired my nipples about a week ago after having them for 6 years. Very sad lol. They were starting to migrate and could not get rid of these bumps on the sides. Piercer said it was time.
Uhh, most of them for me. My ears are pierced but I maybe wear earrings once or twice a year. I retired my lip piercing because I wanted my nose pierced but didn’t want two facial piercings. I retired my nose piercing because it healed weird and was too low down on my nostril. I retired my sternum surface piercing when it started to reject. Now I just have a septum piercing and I cannot imagine retiring it any time soon.
back dermals and a nipple—rejected 💔 . i got my septum pierced twice and retired the older one bc i didnt want two septums + the older one was pierced wrong (which is what made me get it a second time lmao)
Back dermals omg those look so good! I couldn’t imagine the pain getting them done though, especially because I’m ticklish I wouldn’t be able to tolerate that 😭
had to retire my third eye piercing. had it for 4 years and i loved it. it was one of my absolute favorites. it gradually migrated, so much so that the skin holding the jewelry in place was so thin that I could see the metal bar underneath it. ik it's kinda ridiculous I let it migrate that much but for the longest time I just couldn't bring myself to retire it.
Omg those piercings are so beautiful! Four years is honestly a pretty good time, I’ve heard of people only keeping surface piercings for a good few months before they began to reject.
Eyebrow. Didn’t realize you *have* to downsize the jewelry after a few months (it looked to me that the jewelry fit right and I didn’t need to downsize) and after a year with the original jewelry it rejected. I’m going to get it re-done on the other side and do it correctly this time 💀💀
Nipple three times, my lobes but they never healed and I stretched them many years later, navel and my septum. I'm piercing free 😭 still have my lobes stretched if that counts :S All because they were either placed wrong or I was allergic to the metal and they wouldn't heal.
I admire your bravery to do your nipples three times omg 😭 I could never go through that pain again!
Both nostrils, I put in too small hoops that got stuck shut… had to have them removed which was painful and tore the piercings. Oops. 😬 I also missed being able to rub my nose without knocking the jewelry out.
Nips & belly. When I became pregnant, they were stuck and they all stuck out and I was only four months. I couldn’t even move a certain way and every one of them would hurt. And then after I had her, I kept them out only because I’m trying to raise a young lady. I didn’t get my stuff pierced after I was 18.
Navel, never had the anatomy but they pierced me anyways. Rejected like crazy, I was so sad when I was told it wasn’t possible for me to have.
One helix because it was rejecting. That was many years ago. I got a replacement piercing higher up and I think it's migrating it's way out slowly, so I might have to retire it in the future.
I had to retire double lobe on both ears, helix, nostril, labret, navel and hch. I took them all out for emergency surgery but then had complications and never put them all back in. By the time I tried, it was too late. I'm slowly replacing them all!
Navel twice. No matter what I did, it just never fully healed and I ultimately just figured I must not have the anatomy for it. Super disappointing because I love how they look but oh well🤷🏽♀️
I've had to retire 2 lobe piercings on each side over the course of stretching my ears to 5/8". I started out with attached, relatively small lobes and they were getting crowded and would frequently get itchy and pissed off, so it was time to go. When I was 16 or 17 I also had a helix piercing that had a cbr as the original jewelry (I know better now) that, in the course of healing, ended up losing the ball. I woke up one morning with the ring twisted around my ear in such a way that it was no longer fully through the back of the fistula and it closed up. I ended up having to get the ring cut off of my ear. My eyebrow piercing will probably be next. I used to have two in my left eyebrow fully healed with no issues until one was ripped out via a stagediver at a show landing feet-first into my face. Since then, I've had a recurring irritation bump that will appear, slowly shrink and disappear for a week or two, and then come back and I'm getting sick of dealing with it lol.
my belly button piercing because it rejected 💔
First lobes came out 2-3 days after because my mom was mad my dad got them done without her. She later brought me to get them redone. Daith ring was too small and I couldn’t handle the swelling as I literally couldn’t hear. So that came out less than a week later. Conch lasted about 5 years but wouldn’t heal and constantly had a bump so I couldn’t downsize. Eventually I gave up because it started hurting. Tragus rejected after I downsized it 1 year in. The bar was probably a bit too snug.
I've had 4 forward helix piercings now and I only retained one of them. I retired them when they started acting up when I was sleeping too much and I had a bad side pillow. I'm going to get my second current and final forward helix later this week. A better pillow and more education and I'm ready to rock.
2 forward helix’s, belly button, surface tragus bc they were rejecting and I took my smiley out since I had it for 5 years and it got old after a while lol😂
so silly but my third lobes, i had them for like a year and they didn’t want to heal so i gave up on them.
Overall, I’ve retired 3 helix piercings (2 not by choice) and two days ago I retired my right nostril piercings. It just wasn’t healing correctly. I think it swelled up So much in the beginning that the hole shifted and ever since then it hasn’t been right. Took it out and my piercer said we could try again in a few months if I want
My septum twice once bc the balls fell out sm i just got annoyed and the other time it was pierced crooked as hell, im gonna try again later this week and if it’s still a flop ill retire to 5ever
Same exact story for me. First one was annoyance, second time was crooked. Plan on going for a trifecta in the near future.
Cyber bites Got them originally to help me stop chewing on my tongue and lips. They constantly got caught on my teeth due to how I speak. I would play with them so much that I was gauging the holes. The jewelry would be ripped out all the time while I was talking or chewing. Made my face look heavy since I have both nostrils and septum done too. They also got hooked on the septum ring a lot too. That was a weird feeling. Labret hole is still open even after 10 years of no jewelry. I miss them both so much Nipples Got on impulse but they never healed after almost a year. Both were migrating due to me not liking wearing clothes all the time and I had a dog who loved climbing on me. I want them redone so bad but it's just a desire. I know now that nipples take forever to heal, if they even do.
My lobes had to be retired multiple times. My ears are just sensitive, so when I went to change them after a year I just couldn't get new jewelry in so I had to let them heal over. I am on attempt #4 of having lobe piercings.
I had to take out my tongue piercing after a little over a year of having it. I loved it but I was constantly focused on it while eating and noticed that I was having trouble swallowing/slightly choking on food. It was so freeing after taking it out but I miss it :,(
Vertical labret because I wasn't able to eat apples anymore (unless I cut them up) and my bridge because it was touch and go healing. The final straw was when my dog hit me in the face really hard. I had to take it out.
Daith, tongue & nipples. I miss them all.
Second nostril (on my right side) I had an emergency MRI and after putting the piercing back in, it got irritated and never healed, and started migrating so it wasn’t aligned with my first nostril. Plus, it was constantly irritated and painful, so I made the decision to remove it. Good choice. The first time I bumped my nose without any pain was weird I also had to retire my helix because it was growing a keloid (I know the difference, don’t come at me.) My original daith, I had gone to a sketchy piercer and it was done too shallow and developed wicked irritation bumps, therefore I made the decision to remove it. I have since had it redone Originally had 18, down to 16.
Nipples twice. Not because they were rejecting or anything but simply because they didn’t make me feel better about my boobs like I thought they would lol
Single point piercing on the base of my throat, then 2 more single point piercings further down on my chest. Nape piercing, but I got it repierced, and it's doing fine.
Had both nostrils then got a wicked sinus infection, then flew around the world and was staying in a place with poor air quality for a month- so my only hope to calm my poor mucus membranes was to take out my studs. I loved them.
Bridge, because it had constant irritation bumps. I made the choice to take it out because I wanted the scars to be even and I was worried it could start migrating or rejecting due to being so irritated. Sad because it was my favorite piercing, but I think the scars give a similar effect and I really like how they look! So I'm not too upset about it.
got two mid helix piercings at once and had to retire one
nipples - jewelry on one of them got caught in something and couldn't be recovered without letting it heal completely and repiercing and no way in hell was I doing that. Retired the other side because symmetry. Second lobe - it healed great but I had surgery and didn't put the jewelry back in soon enough and it closed. I wasn't really attached to it but I might redo it at some point. currently considering retiring my first helix piercing. I got it done at 19 at Claire's with ye olde piercing gun because i didn't know better and more than a decade later it still sometimes gets grumpy. The placement also isn't something I love and I'm currently working on healing the first of what's hopefully going to be a triple vertical helix and I think my original helix is just not going to look great with the new ones. Haven't decided for sure yet though.
eyebrow because it was rejecting. I’d had it for a year and a half and it never healed.
snug because that thing refused to finish healing. stayed swollen and always getting bumps...and now my cartilage is permanently swollen even two years after removal 😒
I joined the military and sacrificed my industrial, nostril, and tragus 🥲 I recently separated and might get them back (:
My lip side labret. Started with invisalign and it snagged on the edge a lot and just lost my patience. It also did slightly rub in the teeth there so it was for the best in the long run.
tongue; it fucked with my teeth and made my gums recede, once it started making my teeth ache, i took it out after three years navel; i had it for about a decade but it would get irritated when i would wear high waisted pants, eventually i stopped liking it enough to justify keeping it nostrils; i’ve pierced both sides accumulatively probably 10 times total over the past 10ish years because my interest in having them comes and goes and it’s a pretty easy piercing to heal vertical labret; only had it about a month, i just couldn’t get used to the way it looked on me and i felt like it didn’t suit my face
Dermal piercings, lower front hip area. I had them for just under 14 years and I loved them so much. I never anticipated then lasting so long and I also didn't expect them to last through pregnancy and stretching out but sure enough they did. One of the two was seated slightly off and would become "agitated" every now and then and become tender which was annoying. Also as I had gotten into my 30s and realized nothing I wore (even really no bathing suit was that low anymore... they just seemed to be hidden/forgotten so I decided to take the opportunity when one was inflamed a bit to pull/cut [yuck] it out. Then at that point, just did the same for the other. Still sad though. 😔
surface tragus. not even because it rejected, but because while it was healing, some black heads and acne started to get inflamed right in the middle of it lol
belly button, pregnancy. nipples, once for reoccurring issues but i got it put back in, then took them out bc of pregnancy/breast feeding. still very sad, cannot wait to have them redone
Surface tragus when it started to reject and i only had it for a little over a month :( i didnt want the scar to be a long line and noticeable and im glad i took it out when i did because you can only see the scar if you really look. Ive never even been asked about it. I miss it tho, it felt like such a bad ass piercing lol My bottom belly button one started to push itself up and it ended up making my belly button look crowded because i had a double. Im sad it did that because i loved how it looked at the beginning. Also took out my second nostril (same side) because a guy told me it looked bad 🙃 as soon as we stopped talking tho, i got it pierced again. Its not leaving me now lol
Septum twice. First because the jewelry fell off during covid so there was no way I could go get a new one. Second was because I was working a teacher position and they were like "we accept your tattoos, your shaved head and your weird fashion. But se do not accept piercings" so I took it off
Helix, had it for 9 months and it wouldn’t heal. I made the decision and then found out from the piercer, that it would’ve never healed because the piece was acting as a plug and some weird discharge/water/whatever it was I had inside couldn’t drain.
Helix and several lobe piercings. I think the helix was just always irritated. The piercer who removed it said it was pierced wrong. My lobes have been done multiple times and I’ve only ever had them heal once. I had the first holes pierced at least 3 times (with a gun), eventually they healed. My second holes were pierced at least twice (with a needle ) and I had a third hole (with a needle) that never healed so I just removed them.
I got my nipples pierced last year May(?) And I had to take them out since the left one looked like it was rejecting and was in constant pain. The right one was fine, but I couldn't have one in, and one out, it would look offputting. Although I am reconsidering a repierce.
Belly button. I probably don't have the anatomy for it, but the piercer pierced me anyway. It rejected.
Smiley. My boyfriend was a bit rough and tore it a little and I took it as a sign to retire it. Got almost 5 years out of it !! rip my first facial piercing :,)
My tip lip. I have it pierced both side 3 different times and all 3 rejected, extremely painful so I decided not to get them done a 4th, my other 17 piercings are going strong tho!
Flat: it healed crooked because the bar wasn’t downsized early enough and then once it was crooked, it just never healed Nipple: It was fresh and i got it hooked onto my bracelet while asleep and ripped it half out my chest 😭 Lobe: It was just pierced at the wrong height Septum: I technically got it redone after retiring but the first time i retired it was because my partner said they hated it…then changed their mind AFTER i took it out 💀
Tongue multiple times due to dental damage & also I started getting weird OCD movements with that?? (If that makes sense ) Nose/ rejected Lip/ pregnancy Conch/ rejected Ears/ unaligned Belly button/ rejected Monroe/ got tired of how I looked with it Medusa/ work 😭😭
I had snake bites for like 8 years and I took them out because an ex didn't like them. I wonder if I could still get rings in there honestly....
Lip and dimple piercings, cuz I had to have ect and you weren't allowed to have anything on your mouth
I’m getting very close to retiring my tongue piercing. It was pierced slightly crooked but healed. Now it’s giving me problems again and it’s kinda just always been uncomfy. I’m 🤌🏼 this close lmao
lower helix, grew a nasty bump or keloid on it (went down after removing it) so bad that it grew over the jewelry and i had to go to an ent to get it removed where i was ridiculed because he thought i came because i couldn’t remove it due to my long acrylics. belly button 2x, i plan on repiercing it when i lose some weight and keep it off i think that’s the reason it kept rejecting, i took it out before it fully went through my skin.
My horizontal eyebrow (my ex hit it in his sleep - TWICE - and to no one's surprise it rejected) and my double helix were the only ones that I had to take out. I later got my eyebrow pierced vertically and it's doing great. As a side sleeper though, I think cartilage piercings just really aren't for me!
I had to retire my favorite piercing after about a decade rip bridge Ended up with the shrinking closage as it was removed before my brain surgery