As you probably already know, downsizing your jewellery is an important part of the healing process. Once the initial swelling goes away, shortening the length of the post helps to avoid the jewellery getting caught on things and moving around freely through the piercing, which in turn leads to more comfortable and easier healing.
But what happens now that we’re temporarily closed, or all piercing studios are closed for that matter, and you can’t come back to see us for your downsize?
Some of you might think you can just purchase the jewellery from our online store so you can do it yourself at home… but this really isn’t a good idea, and here’s why….
When a piercing is healing it starts off as an open wound, and as it heals it will form a little channel of scar tissue around the jewellery which is what the piercing itself actually is. Your downsize is generally scheduled for anywhere between 2 – 8 weeks after having the piercing done, and in this time that channel won’t be entirely formed just yet and very, very delicate.
When we downsize your piercing, we use special tools that allow us to gently back out the existing jewellery and insert a new, shorter piece without leaving that delicate piercing channel empty at all. Our tools and jewellery are sterilised immediately before use, and just like performing piercings, performing a downsize gently and in a way that causes the most minimal disruption to the healing process is a learned skill.
At home you don’t have access to these tools or an autoclave to sterilise them in. This would mean that if changing your own jewellery at home you’d need to entirely remove the piece of jewellery and insert a new one without the use of these tools, which often will result in tearing/damage to the piercing channel.
Sadly, damaging the piercing channel leaves it more susceptible to infection, irritation and complications during healing. This is why we always recommend to never change your jewellery yourself until your piercing has completely healed, and downsizing is no exception!
We acknowledge that it’s inconvenient to not be able to downsize, and potentially disruptive to your piercing’s healing process, but never fear! Not being able to downsize your piercing isn’t the end of the world. What we would recommend is just to leave it be until we are able to reopen and assist you with your downsize, but also to be extra careful with it in the meantime.
The excess length on the barbell post won’t totally halt healing in it’s tracks, but will mean you need to be careful of the following things:
As a team here at The Piercing Urge, we have weighed up the pros and cons of each scenario and we’ve decided that potential irritations from leaving the long jewellery in until we are back open far outweighs the risk of downsizing yourself at home.
With proper love and care, not being able to downsize your piercing for a few weeks or even a couple of months will cause only minimal disruption to the healing process.
Should you have any problems or concerns about your piercing during this time we are closed, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We are still here to help as best as we can!
We wish you all good health and happy piercings during this time.
Love,
The team at The Piercing Urge
Please note that to perform piercings on people aged 15 or younger, the law in Victoria requires a signature from both the child, and the child’s parent or legal guardian; who must be present at the time of the appointment. We will also require some ID to ensure that the parent is legally responsible for that child.
You will need at least one of the following forms of ID for the parent/legal guardian:
You will also need at least one of these forms of ID to tie the child and parent together:
Both forms of ID must be valid, in date and in physical form. We cannot accept photos or copies of ID, and you must present them both in order for us to go ahead with the piercings.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding ID, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
