How Long Will My Piercing Take to Heal?

If you are reading this, you are probably in the midst of planning your next piercing, or about to take a huge step to get your first one! Whatever it is, we hope that this guide can help you with your decision-making process.  

Understanding the healing times for different piercings can help you anticipate the time and effort needed to care for your new piercing, and how long you will need to wait before you can swap out the jewellery. We will take you through the various factors that can impact your healing time and how you can be sure that a piercing is fully healed. 

Why Do Piercings Take Such a Long Time to Heal?

When you do any sort of piercing, you are introducing a foreign object into your body. When the area around the piercing swells, it is a sign that your body is rejecting the jewellery while trying to heal the wound. I mean, you have just inserted a foreign object into your body, it needs a lot of time to heal! 

Depending on where you got your new piercing, some might take a longer time to heal or be more prone to getting infected than others. However, there are steps that you can take to ensure that your new piercing gets the best environment to heal properly. 

How Long Will My Piercing Take to Heal?

Depending on where you’re looking to have pierced, the length of time it takes to heal differs. This is due to factors such as the thickness of your skin, if cartilage is involved, and if the area is prone to disturbances during the healing period. 

	Piercing	Average Healing Time
Ear	Lobe	3-5 months
	Helix, Conch	6-12 months
	Tragus	6-12 months
	Daith	9-12 months
	Rook	6-12 months
	Forward Helix	6-12 months
Body	Nipple	9-18 months
	Navel	6-12 months
Face	Eyebrow	2-4 months
	Nostril	6-12 months
	Septum	3-4 months
	Lip	2-3 months
	Tongue	1-2 months

 

What Factors Affect a Piercing’s Healing Time?

There are several main factors that determine how long your piercing takes to heal. It depends on,

• Your own body’s ability to heal
• Method of piercing
• Choice of jewellery 
• How well you follow the aftercare instructions
• Eating right .

Method of Piercing

You may have heard of some people getting their ear or nose pierced with a gun. This is quite common especially for someone getting their first piercing. While gun piercings might seem like a cheaper and more convenient option, getting your piercings done any other way aside from a needle by a professional can be risky. 

Simply put, gun piercings can be traumatic for the body. The impact and shock your body experiences after being pierced with a gun is often the cause of bumps and keloids which can develop as your body recovers from the trauma. This can add unnecessary time to the healing process. 

Your piercings should ALWAYS be done with a new, sterilised surgical needle, and by a professional. Needle piercings cause less trauma and minimise the formation of keloids and other deformities. 

Choice of Jewellery

There is a wide range of materials available for your piercing jewellery. At Mantra Collective, you can choose either titanium, or 14K gold jewellery to accompany your piercing. 

The type of jewellery can impact the time your body takes to heal a new piercing as some people might have a reaction to the material. For them, their bodies will have to work double time to heal both a fresh wound and react to a foreign object in the body. All of the materials we recommend above are corrosion-resistant, sturdy, and the least likely to give you issues while you heal. As gold does not tarnish or oxidise, it is the safest option for those prone to have allergic reactions or are more sensitive to metals. 

Aside from the type of material, the type of jewellery also impacts the healing period for a new piercing. We always recommend internally threaded or threadless jewellery so that the newly pierced skin is not subject to the textured surface of threaded jewellery. The insertion and removal of threaded body jewellery can make it harder for your body to recover. 

Importance of Aftercare

As with any wound, keeping it clean and being kind to it is of the utmost importance. You want to give your body everything it needs to heal well. A good piercer will provide you with a list of aftercare instructions which should include how often to clean your wound and what products to use. 

While it might be tempting to ask Google, we recommend that you fight that urge! Your piercer knows best and can guide you to help your new piercing heal as quickly and as well as possible. 

Avoid twisting or touching your new piercing as this will only aggravate it further. You also risk infecting it if your hands are not 100% clean. In general, you should clean your piercing twice a day using a sterile saline solution which you can purchase from your piercer. 

You can expect some initial tenderness, redness, and swelling right after your piercing. This should go down within 48 hours. If it does not, and you experience pus or develop a fever, you should contact your piercer and seek medical attention immediately. 

How Do You Know if Your Piercings Have Healed?

It can be tricky to know when your piercing has fully healed. Piercings heal from the skin inwards, so even if the area around your piercing appears to have healed, it might need more time to heal beneath the skin. Always seek the advice of your piercer if you are unsure and stick to the recommended healing time before attempting to remove or change your jewellery. 

For reference, a piercing is likely to have healed when the jewellery can move around freely and the skin pulls inwards. 

Conclusion 

1. Depending on where you’re getting pierced, the average healing time will vary. Soft tissue piercings tend to heal much faster than those in the cartilage as they go through more than just skin.You may be surprised to know that a Nipple piercing heals faster than an ear piercing or nose piercing .
2. The time required for your piercing to heal is dependent on a number of factors; method of piercing, choice of jewellery, area pierced, and how closely you follow the aftercare instructions. 
3. Remember, your piercer knows best so resist the urge to look things up on the Internet!
4. Everyone heals at own pace, you can't apply any magic formula to make your piercing heal fast ,Best Mantra to ensure your piercing heals well ,is to eat right ,get enough rest ,avoid touching your piercing, and sleeping on it for the first month.

If you follow all the advice listed here, you should be on your way to enjoying a new look with your well-healed piercing!