How do body piercings heal? What should I expect?

First, it is important to understand that healing a piercing is WEIRD!! Lol! By that I mean that your skin is not supposed to heal around a chunk of metal, or any other foreign object. The skin is programmed to reject, or toss out, the invading object - think of how it deals with splinters or how black heads form...

So, it is necessary to allow the body to figure this out on its own. It usually does because somehow it decides that the least amount of energy would be needed to slowly heal the area rather than rejecting the jewelry. Which is pretty freaking AMAZING!!!

This whole process begins with the sealing off of the gap between the edge of the skin and the jewelry - this is where tiny, microscopic junk can sneak inside and cause problems... This is what the "crusties" actually are - and its the same thing that you see after squeezing pimples... However, it is very risky to pick at this stuff with healing piercings. Your skin will give up its attempt to heal the area and instead opt to reject the piercing. So leave this stuff alone!!

Next, the skin heals the outside surfaces more efficiently than the deeper portions. It has a VERY vested interest in doing so - refer back to the energy conservation info above - because healing takes up a LOT of needed energy. The outer surfaces are where the greatest risks are, so your skin will heal there first. You may notice a slight redness or discolored "halo" around the piercing opening. Some dryness of the opening edges may also be noted - both similar to how it looks around a scab. New piercings may also get itchy due to this dryness. Totally normal, just resist scratching at it - that can cause the piercing to become damaged. We suggest the use of hot water compress for this side effect - usually just one or two 10 minutes sessions resolves things. The outer surface healing takes around 2-3 months to complete. But, just because it "looks good" from the outside -- don't let that fool you...

Now... On to the deep stuff... In order for your immune system to completely ignore this chunk of metal, it needs to wall it off so it can be ignored. Basically the skin starts to form a "tube" of new skin fully surrounding the piercing jewelry. Different parts of the body take very different rates to form this and it can be quite a bit longer than you would assume. Unlike the first step of healing, this part is not actively attended by the body. Instead, your skin lines the channel with new, specialty skin cells that are tasked with the job of making NEW skin to line the piercing channel. These cells do ALL of the work of lining the piercing channel. We refer to this as a "healing ridge" and all skin wounds get one as they heal - that's why little cuts feel more like little mountain ranges rather than flattened areas...

Most piercings will finish this tube formation by around 6 months, or so. There are a few exceptions to this time frame - Helix piercing, Industrial Helix piercing and Navel piercing all take closer to a year to fully heal - they're just pretty slow at healing, generally due to both circulation issues and skill (the mouth is the most skilled at healing itself, middle of the body is the least.) Also, any piercings done in multiple will add time to the healing period - a single Forward Helix will take around 6 months but a Triple-Forward Helix can be 12-18 months... They compete with each other for resources, among some other issues that cause healing to slow to a crawl. Be patient and protect them and they will heal... Eventually...

So, this thing called "healing" is much more complex a task than most of us assume. And that is largely due to the reality of not paying much attention to most of our run-of-the-mill mounds. Once we stop wearing a bandage, we usually tend to forget about them completely. Consider this, though - it can take anywhere from 6 weeks to several months just for a scab to mature and shed. Once that happens, the wound still doesn't look right yet, does it? Nope. Crinkly, and purplish, usually. Eventually the area is more brownish in color and eventually it either fully resolves or leaves whitened scar tissue behind... The expected time frame for that simple cut can be 6 months or longer, depending on the depth and severity. That should all sound very familiar. But where you can't wait to change to sparkly fun body jewelry, well, this process just seems to take F_O_R_E_V_E_R...  Hang in there! The end result is a stronger knitted piercing that will be around for you to enjoy for the rest of your life.