Stage 2 of Piercing Healing: Inflammation

Once a scab is formed, the area remains swollen and may feel warm for up to 3 weeks. Reason being, the spleen is sending little fellas called monocytes to the area of injury where they join together like the Megazord (it’s a power rangers reference and that’s FINE) to form macrophages. “Macrophage” means “big eater” and their job is to munch up any cells or bits of gubbins that aren’t supposed to be there, break them down and reabsorb them. During the inflammation stage, the army is building but once everyone is assembled, the roadways that are the blood vessels can chill and the swelling will go down.

(Edit: I don’t remember EVER knowing anything about the power rangers. Where did that come from??)

With a gun: Well, since the body has already started trying to bleed and it can’t get out, it’s pretty likely to swell up and possibly bruise pretty quickly. That burning and stinging sensation Elanor felt after her gun piercing was her body trying to pump blood into the area and it not being able to escape, creating some sort of gross flesh-balloon. Additionally, the post is only 6mm long so there isn’t much room for swelling and the stud looks tight from the outset.

I expect the gun pierced ear to be more swollen than the needle piercing and worry a bit that the jewellery from the gun piercing might be too short and could start to embed.

With the needle: Using an 1.2x8mm labret means that not only is there room for blood to get out if it needs to but also, there is space for the ear lobe to swell. The titanium is inert so the body is able to crack on with healing it as if it’s not there at all.

8mm is a the most common length for us but I’m really good at measuring ear lobe thickness by eye so if your child has a particularly skinny or beefy lobe we use different sizes for different people - sometimes as small as 6mm but sometimes as big as 12mm. Ears are all different, it is bonkers to think you can just use the same length studs for everyone, especially if that length is just 6mm. Insanity.

I don’t expect much visible swelling on the needle pierced ear because it will be accommodated for by the jewellery so shouldn’t cause any further trauma.

One issue with the gun piercing could easily be that the shorter jewellery is too tight which causes further trauma which causes more swelling which causes more trauma which causes more swelling and you see where this goes? Additionally, all that turning and cleaning is going to traumatise the area even more and unnecessarily and make this cascade of pain all the more likely.