Downsizing
During your piercing appointment, you will likely hear your piercer mention downsizing and how important it is. It is so easy to gloss over that information, especially if you’re excited about your piercing and you’re focusing on anything but the aftercare spiel. It sounds like such a small thing, especially since you already did the hard part! You got the piercing and you survived the swelling period!
We promise you, though, that downsizing is crucial to the healing of your piercing. Piercing studios, in fact, tend to earn very little money from downsizes. At Adorn Body Art, the downsize post costs just $20 with no installation fee. Any studio offering “free” downsizes has already charged you the cost of the post with the piercing fee instead of charging you for the downsize later. If you’re traveling and see the piercer only for this one visit, or if you move, you will have paid for the post without getting one. The great news is that we have the ability to reprocess your longer posts to use in a future piercing for you, so you don’t have to accumulate an endless supply of long posts.
The downsize itself is quick and easy: we simply remove the long post that you were pierced with, insert a new, shorter post, and pop the top back on the new post. When we see you for your downsize appointment, we are also checking on the health of your piercing and seeing if anything needs to be done differently in your aftercare. Think of this appointment as a little spa day for your new piercing!
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of downsizing piercings. What makes it so worth it? What are you risking when you do not come in for your downsize?
Movement
If you have ever worn a piece of jewelry that is not perfectly symmetrical, you have probably noticed that your jewelry does not always face the same direction. This is because, as we move and live our lives, our jewelry is also moving. With a healed piercing, this is hardly an issue, but when you have a fresh piercing, this movement can disrupt the healing tissue.
When the bar is long, our piercing is moving on multiple axes: lengthwise through the piercing channel as well as rotationally. By downsizing, we are negating the ability of the piercing to move lengthwise and also reducing the amount that the piercing will rotate in the channel, thus giving your body the grace that it needs to heal.
Migration
When we have a long bar in a piercing once swelling has subsided, the extra weight of the long bar will often start to cause your piercing to migrate and tilt. This is especially true of cartilage piercings. Other piercings that aren’t downsized can also start to push out of your skin like a splinter. Unfortunately, if this is left to continue without a downsize, the tilt becomes permanent or, in some cases, the piercing rejects entirely. When a piercing migrates significantly enough, three things may happen, depending on the piercing location.
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First, you may develop the dreaded irritation bumps that sometimes form on piercings. Piercing bumps from pressure and tilting can become a permanent feature on your ear if not addressed early on, even long after the piercing is retired. This may also mean that you may not be able to be pierced in the same spot again.
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Second, the piercing may develop a severe enough angle that your body will refuse to heal the piercing, in which case the only option is to retire the piercing.
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Third, depending on the piercing location, you may find that the piercing starts to reject. This is especially pertinent with eyebrows, vertical lip piercings, nipples, and floating navels. Constant movement, snagging, and irritation (all signs of not downsizing) can tip the scales and cause your body to treat the piercing like a splinter, slowly pushing the piercing out, leaving scars in its wake. This generally means that we cannot repierce this same spot.
If you suspect that you see any bumps, tilting, or migration, your first stop should be to book a troubleshoot appointment with your piercer, which is a free service that we offer to anyone, regardless of whether or not we performed the piercing. If we catch this migration early enough, it is possible to reverse the migration with a prompt downsize and, potentially, different jewelry on the front of the piercing.
If you suspect that you see any bumps, tilting, or migration, your first stop should be to book a troubleshoot appointment with your piercer, which is a free service that we offer to anyone, regardless of whether or not we performed the piercing. If we catch this migration early enough, it is possible to reverse the migration with a prompt downsize and, potentially, different jewelry on the front of the piercing.
Snagging
Anyone who has snagged a fresh piercing knows just how awful it can feel. That pain is your body sending you a signal that damage may be happening, which can cause significant setbacks while healing. Without a downsize, your jewelry will stick out much more from the piercing, meaning that it is begging to be snagged.
The higher likelihood of snagging can lead to greater irritation in the piercing. Any piercing that is being snagged regularly is going to have a much harder time healing, and these frequent snags can contribute to irritation bumps forming and prolonged swelling. Without a downsize, many clients find themselves paradoxically in a cycle of near constant swelling due to the regular snagging. This is why you need to downsize in a timely manner: if you catch the piercing when the initial swelling period ends, we can often bypass this cycle and keep the piercing from swelling up again.
Even though it is certainly possible to snag a downsized piercing, a snag will be less significant if a shorter bar has been inserted. If you can think back to your physics lessons in school, you may remember how levers work: a longer beam means that less effort is required to create more force on the other end. This means that a snag with long jewelry can create a much greater impact on your piercing than if the bar were downsized.
Another consideration with snagging is its contribution to loss of the jewelry. Constant snagging of the jewelry could eventually cause the top of your piece to come off. Whether it’s a series of snags causing the piercing to slowly come apart, until eventually all it requires is a small flick to lose the jewelry, or one giant snag pulling the piercing apart (painfully), losing a piece of jewelry is always a sad occasion.
Oral Health
If you have an oral piercing, downsizing is absolutely vital to maintain your oral health. If you have had a long bar in your lip or tongue, you know just how hard it is to keep the jewelry from catching or scraping on your teeth or gums. An oral piercing that has not been downsized can smack into your teeth, cracking or breaking them. Over time, even small interactions with your teeth can cause permanent dental damage, causing grooves and recession.
While it can be easy to put off downsizing your piercings, our teeth and gums do not regrow once damaged enough. When gum recession occurs, it is impossible to recover without expensive, painful procedures. Teeth, similarly, do not mend themselves once cracked or broken. Downsizing is one of the top ways to avoid permanent damage to your teeth and gums when you have oral piercings (along with not playing with the piercing)!
Aesthetics
We frequently have a specific image in mind when getting a piercing. Sometimes we will get instant gratification when we are able to be pierced with our dream piece of jewelry–other times, we need to wait until we can wear the jewelry we are truly looking for, such as dainty hoops. Whether you get pierced with your favorite piece or are waiting patiently until you are healed, downsizing can significantly affect the aesthetics of your piercing.
The longer bar itself can look silly when sticking out of piercings, causing the end to sit far above your skin instead of sitting snugly against it. Directional pieces (jewelry that looks best when facing a specific way) can also benefit from a downsize, as this can cause them to rotate less or even stop rotating altogether.
If a piercing becomes tilted after not being downsized, jewelry will also not face the correct way and instead may be pointed straight up towards the sky or towards the floor. Depending on the piece of jewelry, this may mean that you can no longer see the decorative part of the jewelry and can instead only see the side of it.
It is especially tempting to forgo a downsize when we are just biding our time until we are healed enough for a ring. Why spend the time and money to get a downsize when we are not even wearing our goal jewelry? Unfortunately, if a piercing becomes severely tilted due to the long bar, we may never be able to get a ring to sit comfortably in the piercing. Downsizing will also allow the piercing to heal faster, getting you into that ring as soon as possible.
Conclusion
More than anything, we want you to know that your piercer is here for the lifetime of your piercing. Your piercing appointment is always so exciting and fun for everyone involved. Maintenance appointments like downsizes and troubleshoots are also a critical part of our job and something that we are more than happy to help you with.
When downsizing, your piercer will be able to assess the health of your piercing and help you to avoid any of the negative effects that may pop up due to leaving the long jewelry in. It is also a chance to check in with you and see how you have been feeling while healing or if you have had any questions.
If you book a piercing appointment with us at Adorn Body Art, we will send you a reminder e-mail when it is typically time to downsize, so make sure to check your inbox! You will want to listen to your piercer carefully when they are discussing aftercare with you, however, as there are many factors that go into timing for a downsize. Your piercer may ask you to come in earlier, or tell you to expect longer before a downsize.
Need a little help? You can book for a downsize appointment with any of our skilled piercers at Adorn in Portland, OR; Beaverton, OR; and Vancouver, WA. Take some time for a little self care and let us make sure that you heal well!