Healed, but wrong for the piece you want

A piercing can be safe, settled and completely healed, and still be wrong for the piece you want. The ring tilts. The cluster lifts on one side. The three lobes you planned as a line read as three separate decisions. None of that is a healing problem. It's a question of angle and place, and it has plain answers.

This post is about the piercing itself: where it sits, which way it runs, and what it can carry. It doesn't matter where it was done. Anywhere, any time ago, the questions are the same, and so are the options.

Safe is where a piercing starts

A well-healed piercing is the first job done. Where it sits, and what it can hold, is the rest of it. A piercing can tick every box for health (no soreness, no bump, nothing weeping) and still sit at an angle or in a spot that doesn't suit the jewellery you have in mind. A ring or a cluster that fights the hole it's in will look wrong however good it is.

Why the piece won't sit right

This is how I put it on the second look page, and it's what I say across the table:

“Every piece has a line it wants to sit on. A ring follows the hole. If the hole runs at an angle, the ring hangs at that angle, and no ring will straighten it. A cluster or a shaped end wants the post to meet the skin square, so it sits flat; on an angle, one edge lifts. And a set of piercings only lines up if each was placed knowing about the others.” (Tom)

A ring follows the hole

A ring has no say in where it points. It runs through the channel and hangs from it. If the hole runs upwards, backwards or out from the ear, the ring does too. This is why a crooked helix piercing can go unnoticed until someone moves from a stud to a ring: the stud hid the angle, and the ring shows it.

A bigger or smaller ring won't change the direction of the hole. It only changes where the ring lands. If your ring won't sit straight, the jewellery usually isn't the problem. The hole is telling it where to go.

A flat-backed piece wants the post square

Clusters, flat ends and shaped pieces are made to sit flat against the skin. That needs the post to come out of the ear square, at a right angle to the surface. When a piercing is angled, the post leaves the skin on a slant, and the face of the piece follows it. One edge sits down, the other lifts. You see a gap under one edge, and the stones face slightly away from where you meant them to.

A set lines up when it's placed as a set

Uneven ear piercings come down to this. Two lobes at slightly different heights, a line of three where the gaps don't match, a helix that sits too close to the one beside it for the pieces to share the space. Each piercing on its own can be fine. Together they don't read as one thing, because none of them was placed knowing about the others.

Ears vary, and your two ears may not be a mirror image of each other.

What can be done

It comes down to one of three things. We look, tell you which, and why. Sometimes the plain answer is that it's fine as it is, and you leave with nothing done.

Change the piece

Some pieces suit an angle that others fight. If the hole runs a little forward, a piece that faces that way can look as though it was always meant to. A small end shows a tilt far less than a wide cluster, because there is less face to lift. If new jewellery is the answer, it goes in at the same visit. You hold it up to your ear in the mirror first, so you see how it sits before you choose.

Plan around it

Leave it where it is, and place what comes next so the ear reads as one thing. An existing piercing at an angle can become the line the rest of the ear follows. That's what The Designed Ear is for: an hour at the table with Tom, every spot drawn, the order they go in, and the BVLA piece for each, with the piercing you already have in the drawing. You take the drawing home. If you'd like to see every spot side by side first, they are all on the placements page.

Pierce it again

If the spot itself is right and the scar is small, the same spot usually works. If the spot or the angle is wrong for the piece, going back through it repeats the problem, so we mark a fresh spot 1 to 2mm beside it, in healthier tissue. You see the mark in the mirror and agree it before the needle.

It doesn't always have to come out first. Where there is clear tissue, a new spot can go in beside the old one while it is still in.

On timing: if the jewellery came out of a healed piercing with no problems, there's no need to wait. Come in and we'll look. If it had a problem, we ask for three to six months for the tissue to settle first. The repiercing guide goes further into scar tissue and closing.

Piercing again costs the same as a fresh piercing: $150 in implant-grade titanium, or from $350 in solid 14k BVLA gold, the piece chosen at the table. It's a 45-minute appointment, your checkup four weeks later is included, and you pay at the end.

Will there be a mark?

A healed piercing that comes out keeps a small mark. Placing the new one beside it, rather than through it, means the piece usually sits over or near the old mark. I won't promise it disappears.

The second look, $30

If your piercing has healed but sits at an angle, in a place that doesn't suit the look, or can't take the piece you want, bring it in. It's twenty minutes with Tom or Kat, no needle, a plain answer, and the options with their prices before anything happens.

It's $30, and it comes off a piercing booked afterwards or a piece fitted the same day. Tom is in Wednesday to Sunday, Kat Sunday to Tuesday. If you want the whole ear planned, that is with Tom.

We're at 389 Parnell Road, Parnell, by appointment and open seven days, with one client in the room at a time. What you get is what every client gets: the right spot, a piece you love, and all the time it takes. Book a second look, or call 09 949 0940 if you'd like to ask first.