Symptoms of Piercing Rejection

Your body is all about self-defense. It spends every minute of the day protecting you from an incalculable number of hazards: airborne diseases, bacteria on your skin, fungi, germs, and more.

When you injure yourself, your body’s immune system kicks into gear, helping you heal as quickly as possible.

The symptoms of piercing rejection are actually signs that your body is working to protect itself from what it perceives to be a threatening invader: your jewelry.

If your body is rejecting a piercing, you may experience the following symptoms:

• The jewelry has noticeably moved from its original place.
• The amount of tissue between the entrance and exit holes gets thinner (there should be at least a quarter inch of tissue between holes).
• The entrance and exit holes increase in size.
• The jewelry starts to hang or droop differently.
• The skin between the entrance and exit holes is:
• flaky
• peeling
• red or inflamed
• calloused-looking or unusually hard
• nearly transparent (you might see the jewelry through your skin)

Rejection usually happens in the weeks and months following a new piercing, but it can also happen years, even decades, later. If you bump your old piercing in an odd way or have an infection that kicks your immune system into overdrive, you might suddenly see signs of migration and rejection.