Crooked piercings

Is my piercing crooked?

A piercing should be pierced at the right angle, so perpendicular, to the tissue. This ensures the easy healing with as few complications as possible. Sometimes it seems as if a piercing is placed crookedly, but in reality it’s pierced perfectly with the curve of the tissue. So if you have multiple piercings next to each other it sometimes happens that they are not 100% parallel to each other. That can make it difficult to estimate whether a piercing has been placed at the right angle. Contact your piercer if you think the piercing is crooked or contact another piercer for a second opinion. It is often necessary to drop by the piercing studio so that the piercer can assess it properly as it’s very difficult to assess the angle properly on a photo.

There may be some swelling during healing that sometimes pushes a piercing to an angle. It can then give a distorted picture because when the swelling disappears again, the jewelry often pulls back to the place that was pierced. So check immediately after piercing whether it is straight or ask for a second opinion as soon as possible. If swelling has already occurred, it is difficult to estimate and you often have to wait until it has completely disappeared before you can be sure that it is straight but if the piercing is pierced under a wrong angle, it will not straighten out later.

One reason that a piercing can grow crooked during healing is when you sleep on it. This risk is especially high when you still have the long bar with which you were pierced. Pressure is put on the piercing through your head and the pillow, the long bar provides leverage and the piercing grows crookedly. Do not sleep on it (see “what happens when I sleep on my healing piercing” later in the FAQ for tips on how to prevent this) and downsize the jewelry in time to prevent it from growing crookedly. If a piercing has grown crooked, nothing can be done about it and the piercing will have to be removed.