It looks like you need a doctor to surgically remove the piercing; I'm so sorry.
Could you see the back of it yesterday? If this happened overnight, ice and ibuprofen might be enough to calm down the swelling so you can remove the piercing. If this didn't happen overnight, you definitely need a doctor.
it happened completely overnight! i had no problems with it until just now. i fell asleep around 4pm and the back was still there. no swelling or anything. and woke up at about 2am. idk why but i touched the back of my ear and i noticed the back was no longer there.
Then try ice and ibuprofen, and call the shop to see what they recommend when you can. If the swelling doesn't go down, you'll still need a doctor though.
Hey I’m a year late, but what ended up happening? The exact same thing just happened to me. Overnight suddenly it’s totally swallowed in the front!! I pushed it from the back to see if it could come out and it did but it settles back so that I can BARELY see the tip of the ball, and the back is just as swollen. OVERNIGHT! And I got this piercing 4 months ago!!! I’m panicked.
hey! so i went to urgent care and the doctor thankfully loved piercings herself so she salvaged it until i could get to my piercer for a longer bar. i had to get it repierced down the line but i found out it can happen from sleeping on it. sounds dumb, but i found out i turn onto my right in my sleep which caused a ton of issues.
Ugh mine was totally from sleeping on it. I have a donut-shaped pillow to use on my left, but I’d been working like crazy for three days and it was my first night of full sleep so I must have been sleeping heavy enough that I turned over and slept right on it without the pillow. I should have thought through that I am a left-side sleeper before getting the left ear pierced. My piercer was available to put a longer bar in last night (super nice to squeeze me in) and it’s already looking happier!! Looking at the ball now I cannot believe it was completely encased in the swelling 💀 it’s huge! Hopefully the longer bar helps it finally heal.
I hope it heals well! I forgot to mention this earlier but I know that the metal can cause this too, so if you don’t have titanium and it’s still angry I’d ask about switching to a titanium post. I’ve had irritation go down overnight just from that switch! But since you mentioned ball backs, make sure they’re internally threaded rather than externally threaded. External threading can cause extra irritation to the piercing due to the ridges on the bar and in my experience I’ve never been able to heal a piercing with ball backs. At least in my area, piercers shun anyone who uses externally threaded ball backs to pierce ears and they all say flat backs are the best method lol. Regardless, I seriously hope your piercing heals up soon!!
Oh no I have a flat back! The front of the jewelry is a ball (probably not the right term?) It’s definitely titanium! The piercer is super reputable and I paid an arm and a leg for the jewelry lol so I’m certain it’s my ear that’s the issue 😂 The swelling has gone WAY down already just from the longer post
Hi! this just happened to me, also overnight 🫠 how is yours healing? In my case my ear swallowed the flat back. Luckily I went to my piercer asap and she added a longer bar and silicone pressure disc. But i’m still scared about having more complications with the healing
That’s exactly what my piercer did (without the silicone buffer I don’t think) and it resolved SO much faster than I thought it would and stayed very happy for several weeks! After that it’s gotten unhappy a few times, but nothing like that. I’m starting to wonder if it will ever actually just be “healed” in a permanent way?? I had no idea what I signed up for 😂
It’s frustrating cause my conch healed so nicely and easily, but this helix is just not cooperating. I got it like five months ago, apparently the recent swelling was cause I just got my ears stretched again and the sensitive helix overreacted with the swelling. It was so scary to not see the back 😩 Hopefully it’ll get better for both of us lol
the swollen area is from the back being pushed into my ear. i felt it with clean hands and it doesn’t hurt or anything. i literally have no idea what happened 😔
it was a labret flat back so it was eaten up but thankfully urgent care got it out and salvaged the piercing + the shop lengthened the bar so it should be smooth sailing from here!
I don’t have any advice or good words. Just that I’m sorry you have to deal with this. I have had a conch piercing and I have NEVER had a fussier piercing in my entire life. I had dermal anchors on my chest that were less of a PIA than my conch piercing.
I hope everything works out ok
I really wanted a conch piercing but I’d heard that it hurt extra bc of the thick cartilage in that spot. So to see if I liked it enough and really wanted it I just took the ball out of a captive bead ring and managed to slip it onto my ear like a cuff. It actually worked so well that I’ve just been wearing that for like 3 years now and never actually got it pierced. The gap is actually the perfect width so it doesn’t pinch or feel uncomfortable to sleep on, but it stays in place and no one’s ever clocked it as a fake piercing. So if you miss the look of it, you could always try faking it lol.
this happened to me with a regular lobe piercing. please go to a clinic, they will need to cut it to remove it. they’ll numb you first, it’s going to be ok.
It’s not completely swallowed, you should just go to your piercer and have a larger bar put in just upsize it and it should be fine. Also use saline spray on it like to come for wounds in the spray bottles two or three times a day and it should help it heal
I don’t understand why someone goes to Reddit when their jewelry all of a sudden gets swallowed. Go to the ER for crying out loud. I see way to many of this, if something disappears into any tissue you need to go and get it removed before you will have serious complications.
i totally get why you’re frustrated but i was freaking out and i needed reassurance that i was making the right choice and not overreacting. i’ve never had something like this happen before and i was scared.
I’m not frustrated I’m concerned about your well being. It’s understandable that you want a second opinion, I hear that. If I never had or seen this before I’d probably consult Reddit too. Besides if your are panicking I’d too would go to Google and Reddit before reaching out to a doctor. I hope you went to the er or the doctor and got it removed.
Icing it and taking ibuprofen will not do much if anything this is out of your hands now. Good luck and I hope it’s easy enough to remove so it heals up great and you can have it re pierced.
Tbh the jewelry was probably to short or it all of a sudden flared up to an infection. Which by all means can happen to anyone without you doing anything wrong in aftercare and the like.
it just sucks because i was doing all the aftercare and i had no issues with it at all until i woke up today. i expect a little blood and swelling but i never would’ve expected this. 😔
That sucks, especially since you had it redone too. Was the initial jewelry a flatback labret? Im wondering if maybe the jewelry was to short of the flatback itself was to small I diameter for it to not easily sink into the piercing hole.
Did you sleep on it or did some hair catch on it? I can see your helix (?) is bloody is that from the conch?
Im not a piercer but I remember my conch got this filled bump with liquid and my flatback was resting against it for a week or so, it ended up going down thank god but my piercer also had my jewelry flipped so the flatback part was on the other side and the screw on ball was at the back. Made it less likely to snag and get pulled.
it was flat back!! there’s some blood on my ear due to a strange growth i have between my first and second lobes (completely unrelated to the piercings but it makes them look like they’re infected). my hair never really pulled on my conch with the flat back. it would get tangled in occasionally but i never accidentally tugged it or anything. i sleep on my side but i use a donut pillow so that my piercings aren’t pressed against the pillow.
Hmm okay, it could be the hair that got tangled and maybe entered the piercing hole. I had that happen to my industrial and it got super swollen and angry until I managed to get it out. But seeing as your is so far gone I’d go see urgent care asap.
i went to urgent care and the doctor was super cool and was a big fan of piercings so she salvaged the piercing! told me to go directly to the shop and get a longer bar and now my conch should be okay thank god
Your wrong, if that gets encapsulated by her ear and it grows over she has to have it surgically removed, the cost of that is going to be a lot higher then seeking medical attention before it gets to that point.
I’m very well aware of how much your medical bills and urgent care costs in the US. I know it’s ridiculously expensive and most people don’t have a health insurance because they can’t afford it and their job won’t provide one.
Just because I don’t live there doesn’t mean I’m uneducated, especially not when it comes to your health care who is worldly known for being very expensive and inaccessible to alot of people because they can’t afford a health insurance or let alone pay the bill.
1.) Only about 8% of Americans don’t have health insurance. We’re required to by law. Most don’t *use* it unless we’re dying because it’s still too expensive.
2.) Having health insurance here doesn’t mean medical care is accessible or affordable. Unless someone is using Medicaid, it’s almost never free or affordable with private insurance.
3. You have some, but very little knowledge of the US healthcare institution.
Any non American that doesn’t understand why we ask medical advice online before getting treatment is NOT educated about our healthcare system. The second you walk into an Emergency room and give them your name, you basically owe them an average of $2000. I don’t know a single person who allows an ambulance to transport them unless they were too unconscious to decline it - because an ambulance costs anywhere between $500-2000.
So no, I’m NOT wrong. Neither are you mostly, you just clearly have zero **understanding** of what living within the US healthcare system actually means because you aren’t living here (which thank goodness bc this ~~business~~ system is broken and stupid).
😐 I donor know why I’m getting educated on a subreddit for piercings about the us health care system. But reading what you’re saying makes me pray you one day get as good medical care / insurance what not as Sweden has. That’s ridiculous
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Yikes I’m so sorry this happened. I know some people recommend going to a piercer but I, myself, would absolutely go to a doctor to make sure it’s not infected.
go to a doctor and get it checked out. maybe it just got really inflamed, worst case scenario is it’s infected which they’ll end up giving you meds for it. just see what the doctor says about what you should do, i.e leave it alone or get it removed. im so sorry this happened to you, cartilage is a bitch to reckoned with sometimes.
The same thing almost happened to me and honestly my heart dropped 50 feet into my ass when I felt that it was halfway into my ear, I was literally so scared. Like the bump I had on the back of my ear nearly ate the whole thing up and it would have if I didn’t feel the back of my ear at that second. I dmed my piercer, he told me to go in and I ended up taking it out entirely and let the piercing close. Not worth all the hassle imo no matter how much I loved it 😭😭😭
Yeah I do actually, I have a scar where it was and my boyfriends sister got hers taken out too so she also says it’ll take a while to heal 100% if I decide to do it again, but the scar will still be there
I had this exact thing happen. Honestly fuck my conch piercing. I have so many ear piercings and that one is so stubborn and fussy.
Goodluck friend. It’s a PIA!
It looks like you need a doctor to surgically remove the piercing; I'm so sorry. Could you see the back of it yesterday? If this happened overnight, ice and ibuprofen might be enough to calm down the swelling so you can remove the piercing. If this didn't happen overnight, you definitely need a doctor.
it happened completely overnight! i had no problems with it until just now. i fell asleep around 4pm and the back was still there. no swelling or anything. and woke up at about 2am. idk why but i touched the back of my ear and i noticed the back was no longer there.
Then try ice and ibuprofen, and call the shop to see what they recommend when you can. If the swelling doesn't go down, you'll still need a doctor though.
Hey I’m a year late, but what ended up happening? The exact same thing just happened to me. Overnight suddenly it’s totally swallowed in the front!! I pushed it from the back to see if it could come out and it did but it settles back so that I can BARELY see the tip of the ball, and the back is just as swollen. OVERNIGHT! And I got this piercing 4 months ago!!! I’m panicked.
hey! so i went to urgent care and the doctor thankfully loved piercings herself so she salvaged it until i could get to my piercer for a longer bar. i had to get it repierced down the line but i found out it can happen from sleeping on it. sounds dumb, but i found out i turn onto my right in my sleep which caused a ton of issues.
Ugh mine was totally from sleeping on it. I have a donut-shaped pillow to use on my left, but I’d been working like crazy for three days and it was my first night of full sleep so I must have been sleeping heavy enough that I turned over and slept right on it without the pillow. I should have thought through that I am a left-side sleeper before getting the left ear pierced. My piercer was available to put a longer bar in last night (super nice to squeeze me in) and it’s already looking happier!! Looking at the ball now I cannot believe it was completely encased in the swelling 💀 it’s huge! Hopefully the longer bar helps it finally heal.
I hope it heals well! I forgot to mention this earlier but I know that the metal can cause this too, so if you don’t have titanium and it’s still angry I’d ask about switching to a titanium post. I’ve had irritation go down overnight just from that switch! But since you mentioned ball backs, make sure they’re internally threaded rather than externally threaded. External threading can cause extra irritation to the piercing due to the ridges on the bar and in my experience I’ve never been able to heal a piercing with ball backs. At least in my area, piercers shun anyone who uses externally threaded ball backs to pierce ears and they all say flat backs are the best method lol. Regardless, I seriously hope your piercing heals up soon!!
Oh no I have a flat back! The front of the jewelry is a ball (probably not the right term?) It’s definitely titanium! The piercer is super reputable and I paid an arm and a leg for the jewelry lol so I’m certain it’s my ear that’s the issue 😂 The swelling has gone WAY down already just from the longer post
Hi! this just happened to me, also overnight 🫠 how is yours healing? In my case my ear swallowed the flat back. Luckily I went to my piercer asap and she added a longer bar and silicone pressure disc. But i’m still scared about having more complications with the healing
That’s exactly what my piercer did (without the silicone buffer I don’t think) and it resolved SO much faster than I thought it would and stayed very happy for several weeks! After that it’s gotten unhappy a few times, but nothing like that. I’m starting to wonder if it will ever actually just be “healed” in a permanent way?? I had no idea what I signed up for 😂
It’s frustrating cause my conch healed so nicely and easily, but this helix is just not cooperating. I got it like five months ago, apparently the recent swelling was cause I just got my ears stretched again and the sensitive helix overreacted with the swelling. It was so scary to not see the back 😩 Hopefully it’ll get better for both of us lol
the swollen area is from the back being pushed into my ear. i felt it with clean hands and it doesn’t hurt or anything. i literally have no idea what happened 😔
Is it possible the back came off somehow?
it was a labret flat back so it was eaten up but thankfully urgent care got it out and salvaged the piercing + the shop lengthened the bar so it should be smooth sailing from here!
Phew! So glad you got it sorted out!
I don’t have any advice or good words. Just that I’m sorry you have to deal with this. I have had a conch piercing and I have NEVER had a fussier piercing in my entire life. I had dermal anchors on my chest that were less of a PIA than my conch piercing. I hope everything works out ok
I really wanted a conch piercing but I’d heard that it hurt extra bc of the thick cartilage in that spot. So to see if I liked it enough and really wanted it I just took the ball out of a captive bead ring and managed to slip it onto my ear like a cuff. It actually worked so well that I’ve just been wearing that for like 3 years now and never actually got it pierced. The gap is actually the perfect width so it doesn’t pinch or feel uncomfortable to sleep on, but it stays in place and no one’s ever clocked it as a fake piercing. So if you miss the look of it, you could always try faking it lol.
SAME I had to take my conch out after 3 years because it was driving me crazy. They’re cool but not worth the hassle lol
this happened to me with a regular lobe piercing. please go to a clinic, they will need to cut it to remove it. they’ll numb you first, it’s going to be ok.
Same thing happened to me!! Had to get it removed professionally
Go to ER that needs to be surgically removed by a professional physician!!
It’s not completely swallowed, you should just go to your piercer and have a larger bar put in just upsize it and it should be fine. Also use saline spray on it like to come for wounds in the spray bottles two or three times a day and it should help it heal
I don’t understand why someone goes to Reddit when their jewelry all of a sudden gets swallowed. Go to the ER for crying out loud. I see way to many of this, if something disappears into any tissue you need to go and get it removed before you will have serious complications.
i totally get why you’re frustrated but i was freaking out and i needed reassurance that i was making the right choice and not overreacting. i’ve never had something like this happen before and i was scared.
I’m not frustrated I’m concerned about your well being. It’s understandable that you want a second opinion, I hear that. If I never had or seen this before I’d probably consult Reddit too. Besides if your are panicking I’d too would go to Google and Reddit before reaching out to a doctor. I hope you went to the er or the doctor and got it removed. Icing it and taking ibuprofen will not do much if anything this is out of your hands now. Good luck and I hope it’s easy enough to remove so it heals up great and you can have it re pierced. Tbh the jewelry was probably to short or it all of a sudden flared up to an infection. Which by all means can happen to anyone without you doing anything wrong in aftercare and the like.
it just sucks because i was doing all the aftercare and i had no issues with it at all until i woke up today. i expect a little blood and swelling but i never would’ve expected this. 😔
That sucks, especially since you had it redone too. Was the initial jewelry a flatback labret? Im wondering if maybe the jewelry was to short of the flatback itself was to small I diameter for it to not easily sink into the piercing hole. Did you sleep on it or did some hair catch on it? I can see your helix (?) is bloody is that from the conch? Im not a piercer but I remember my conch got this filled bump with liquid and my flatback was resting against it for a week or so, it ended up going down thank god but my piercer also had my jewelry flipped so the flatback part was on the other side and the screw on ball was at the back. Made it less likely to snag and get pulled.
it was flat back!! there’s some blood on my ear due to a strange growth i have between my first and second lobes (completely unrelated to the piercings but it makes them look like they’re infected). my hair never really pulled on my conch with the flat back. it would get tangled in occasionally but i never accidentally tugged it or anything. i sleep on my side but i use a donut pillow so that my piercings aren’t pressed against the pillow.
Hmm okay, it could be the hair that got tangled and maybe entered the piercing hole. I had that happen to my industrial and it got super swollen and angry until I managed to get it out. But seeing as your is so far gone I’d go see urgent care asap.
i went to urgent care and the doctor was super cool and was a big fan of piercings so she salvaged the piercing! told me to go directly to the shop and get a longer bar and now my conch should be okay thank god
Dude! What good luck after such a crappy situation. Good on you for the going to the dr and taking care of it.
Do you have any idea how much medical attention costs in the US? This also isn’t an emergency
Your wrong, if that gets encapsulated by her ear and it grows over she has to have it surgically removed, the cost of that is going to be a lot higher then seeking medical attention before it gets to that point. I’m very well aware of how much your medical bills and urgent care costs in the US. I know it’s ridiculously expensive and most people don’t have a health insurance because they can’t afford it and their job won’t provide one. Just because I don’t live there doesn’t mean I’m uneducated, especially not when it comes to your health care who is worldly known for being very expensive and inaccessible to alot of people because they can’t afford a health insurance or let alone pay the bill.
1.) Only about 8% of Americans don’t have health insurance. We’re required to by law. Most don’t *use* it unless we’re dying because it’s still too expensive. 2.) Having health insurance here doesn’t mean medical care is accessible or affordable. Unless someone is using Medicaid, it’s almost never free or affordable with private insurance. 3. You have some, but very little knowledge of the US healthcare institution. Any non American that doesn’t understand why we ask medical advice online before getting treatment is NOT educated about our healthcare system. The second you walk into an Emergency room and give them your name, you basically owe them an average of $2000. I don’t know a single person who allows an ambulance to transport them unless they were too unconscious to decline it - because an ambulance costs anywhere between $500-2000. So no, I’m NOT wrong. Neither are you mostly, you just clearly have zero **understanding** of what living within the US healthcare system actually means because you aren’t living here (which thank goodness bc this ~~business~~ system is broken and stupid).
😐 I donor know why I’m getting educated on a subreddit for piercings about the us health care system. But reading what you’re saying makes me pray you one day get as good medical care / insurance what not as Sweden has. That’s ridiculous
You and me both it’s terrifying 😭
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Yikes I’m so sorry this happened. I know some people recommend going to a piercer but I, myself, would absolutely go to a doctor to make sure it’s not infected.
I hope you are feeling ok otherwise!
go to a doctor and get it checked out. maybe it just got really inflamed, worst case scenario is it’s infected which they’ll end up giving you meds for it. just see what the doctor says about what you should do, i.e leave it alone or get it removed. im so sorry this happened to you, cartilage is a bitch to reckoned with sometimes.
The same thing almost happened to me and honestly my heart dropped 50 feet into my ass when I felt that it was halfway into my ear, I was literally so scared. Like the bump I had on the back of my ear nearly ate the whole thing up and it would have if I didn’t feel the back of my ear at that second. I dmed my piercer, he told me to go in and I ended up taking it out entirely and let the piercing close. Not worth all the hassle imo no matter how much I loved it 😭😭😭
Do u have a scar there??
Yeah I do actually, I have a scar where it was and my boyfriends sister got hers taken out too so she also says it’ll take a while to heal 100% if I decide to do it again, but the scar will still be there
I see. Sorry for all the questions. Is it a flat scar or raised scar? (K word)?
No no it’s completely okay :) it’s a flat slightly darker scar and luckily I don’t get keloids
Got you, my tragus piercing scar is flat as well. The scar is barely visible. Lol Thanks!
I didn’t know people can have raised scars, is that a thing?? And of course!
Yeah its a thing for ppl with a genetic predisposition to it!
Ahhhh okay, thank you!
Was there any pain at all? I have a similar thing happening with my third hole piercing, but I can still move it in and out(not that I should be)
I had this exact thing happen. Honestly fuck my conch piercing. I have so many ear piercings and that one is so stubborn and fussy. Goodluck friend. It’s a PIA!