If you’ve been pierced before, you’ve probably had this experience: You are super excited albeit a tad nervous, you pick out the perfect piece of jewelry, wait for it to be sterilized, the piercing happens, and you’re ecstatic, you finally have that dream piercing and dream jewelry you’ve been wanting!
A few months go by, and you’re still super happy with your new piercing, but you notice that it’s starting to get caught and snagged on your hair and clothing. If it’s a nostril piercing you might have noticed the “turkey timer” popping up, where the post is starting to stick up out of your nose. Overall the whole thing just seems…long. You think about talking to your piercer about it, but hey, life comes up, there are bills to pay, kids to take care of, so you put it off.
And then…things start to get a little wonky. The jewelry isn’t really sitting the way it used to, it’s starting to look a little crooked even. You may even have the dreaded IRRITATION BUMP (Cue the lightning and thunder noises)
What could’ve caused this? How could this happen to a sweet cinnamon roll such as yourself? Have you angered any gods recently? Been unkind towards the local swamp witch? Inconvenienced the fairies?
Well, the answer could be quite a few things, but most likely, you forgot to downsize!
We always start a fresh piercing a tad on the longer side to accommodate for the normal swelling that happens. Depending on the area we’re piercing, we normally recommend anywhere from two weeks to two months before downsizing.
Now you may be thinking, “two weeks to two months? That’s a pretty vast difference!” And you’re right, it is, but it’s a difference that absolutely MAKES a difference! For example, most oral piercings tend to swell considerably, but also that swelling tends to dissipate quicker as well. That’s why if you’ve ever had an oral piercing, once the procedure is finished, you may think “Huh, there’s an antenna sticking out of my face.” Then maybe an hour later, you go “Ohhhhh…yeah that’s why.” Apart from increasing the risk of snags and tugs, leading to a longer and more difficult healing process, not downsizing an oral piercing can cause some serious damage to your teeth and gums. That excess length is more likely to whap on your teeth or dig into your gumline, whereas a simple downsize will give you much more snug jewelry, preventing that from happening. As someone who has cracked not one, but two teeth because of an overly long tongue bar I neglected to downsize, I can say from experience that it was not fun, or cheap to have those fixed.
On the flip side, many other areas, a helix for example, tend to get much less swelling, but what swelling does occur tends to go down slower, and even fluctuate a tad, with some days having more or less than others. Usually around the 8-12 week mark is where we look at downsizing most cartilage based piercings. Of course no two people heal up exactly the same, so some folks need slightly less, and some need slightly more time for that downsize to be safe. Neglecting to downsize piercings like this can lead to quite a few issues, the likelihood of catching or snagging them on hair and clothing increases, and over time it can shift the placement of your piercing. A human head on average is about 11 pounds, similar to a bowling ball. Once that extra length is no longer necessary, the weight and pressure of your head from sleeping on it can start to shift the piercing from that nice perpendicular angle into an undesirable location. Sadly, if the angle has shifted drastically, there isn’t a fix outside of pulling the piercing, letting it heal up completely (about a month to a month and a half on average) and piercing again. Shifted angles can lead to severely limited jewelry options, it can even eventually start completely pushing the jewelry out of your body, commonly referred to as “rejection.”

What happens during a downsize?
Many people erroneously assume that when downsizing we are “cutting” or “trimming” the post for a better fit. Not true! We simply remove the piece in its entirety, and replace the longer post with a shorter one. You can of course keep the same top, but this would also be an appropriate time to switch that top out if you decide you want something a little different.
Does this mean my piercing is healed?
If you’re on time for your downsize, most likely your piercing is not fully healed yet. We will be able to take a look though and give our educated guess as to where in the healing process you are!
Can I switch to a hoop yet?
Again, if you’re on time for your downsize, most likely that means you’re too early in the healing process to switch out to a ring just yet. I know it can be hard to be patient, but I promise you the wait is worth it! This is also an important reason to downsize on time, if your end goal is a ring in your piercing, preventing that angle from shifting is very important, otherwise a ring most likely won’t sit well, if it’s still an option at all, and will also most likely have to be a much larger diameter than if the piercing was still straight.
Do I have to pay for it?
Yes, although we do waive the change fee for any downsizes that are on time, if you come into the same piercer who performed the initial piercing, the only cost would be for the new post.
Does every piercing need to be downsized?
Not necessarily! While for the vast majority the answer is a resolute yes, some areas such as daiths, septums and rooks rarely require a downsize, although it is still often possible to switch to a smaller diameter in these areas, they tend to not have the same risks associated with not downsizing. Ask your piercer what they recommend and we’ll be happy to advise you! Remember, our job isn’t done when you get pierced, our job is done when you’re healed, happy, and ready for your next one!
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