Inner Conch Question

Lilee

I’ve an inner conch piercing on my left ear. I’ve had it pierced for around a year and a half now and it’s been behaving perfectly. But in the past month I’ve noticed it’s become extremely loose. If I tilt my head to the side, the ring will swing. When I would wake up on a morning I’d find the closure ball would have twisted itself all the way around and be at the back of my ear and frequently does this now during the day, too, even without me touching it.

Then last night I woke up and it had crusted over. I did a sea salt soak this morning which got rid of the crusties but it’s still very loose. Is there anything I can do to counteract this other than get a larger sized jewellery?

Unfortunately I can’t change it to a bar because of the placement. I tried it a few months after getting pierced as it was playing up but it was more hassle than it was worth.

Will

You're pretty restricted since you dont want to up the size of the bar, maybe even half a millimeter might help. Best bet is to go into a piercing studio and get them to suss it out since they will see you in person

Sofaspud

I wish I had your "bad luck"!

I've a bar in my conch that I want to be a ring, but whenever I put a ring in it it gets all lumpy and red!

Although it's possibly because the ring I have for it is 2.4mm, when the bar is 1.6.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would getting a 1.6mm ring help with that?

and OP, why don't you want a larger gauge ring? I think they look much better in conches.

Will

piercings will self stretch over a long period of time e.g my labret had it at 1.6mm for 5 years, stretched it up to 3.2mm, just slid in.

Cartilage doesn't stretch easily especially in the conch area because there's an actual sheet of cartilage there spanning part of the ear. Get a 1.6mm bar, or get it punched to 2.4mm if ya want a bigger hole.

thinking about it more you could just wrap the smaller jewellery in ptfe tape and stretch it bit by bit to 2.4mm? barely noticeable and what i use for my labret now

Lilee

Sofaspud wrote: »

and OP, why don't you want a larger gauge ring? I think they look much better in conches.

I only have small ears - and it's already quite a large-looking gauge. I can't remember which it is, but I remember there being a huge big fck-up when I got it pierced and me ending up with a larger guage than I should have had. It's by no means huge...but it's about as big as i'd like to go, you know.

Gauge

If it's healed enough, you could try going without jewellery for periods of time to see if that encourages it to shrink a bit. Do you have any idea what size the jewellery is?

Lilee

Gauge wrote: »

If it's healed enough, you could try going without jewellery for periods of time to see if that encourages it to shrink a bit. Do you have any idea what size the jewellery is?

I have no idea at all on the jewellery size...i'd be a bit wary of taking it out though, I had it pierced before and I ended up with it stuck on a different part of my ear, unable to open the gap enough to slide it off the rim of the ear! Almost wrecked my ear trying to remove it. I'd be scared that'd be the same getting this one off and on again. I might give it a shot though coz my ear is starting to get rather tender from all the movement. Especially in my sleep. Thanks!

Star Lord

Lilee wrote: »

I have no idea at all on the jewellery size...i'd be a bit wary of taking it out though, I had it pierced before and I ended up with it stuck on a different part of my ear, unable to open the gap enough to slide it off the rim of the ear! Almost wrecked my ear trying to remove it. I'd be scared that'd be the same getting this one off and on again. I might give it a shot though coz my ear is starting to get rather tender from all the movement. Especially in my sleep. Thanks!

Your best bet then would be to call into a friendly piercer, talk to them about the issue, see what they say, and they could even take it out for you if you wanted to go down that road.