I have a small lump of scar tissue from clip-on earrings in my right ear lobe. I am interested in getting my ears pierced, but I don't know if it will be safe. I am concerned about the earring going through or touching the scar tissue. It feels like a small, firm sphere inside my ear lobe. I don't know if that will put me in extra pain or risk of infection. Should I just pierce near it, or should I not pierce at all? Thanks for you time.

alkaline

I have scar tissue on my ear lobes and in the cartilage from getting my ears pierced and repierced and from having them pierced with a piercing gun.

You should be fine getting them pierced, the ones on my lobes are ok and don't hurt. The issue that I have with them is that I have trouble wearing posts sometimes because they aren't long enough to make it through the scar tissue and stay on. Usually I wear leaver backs in my lobes, or anything with a hook. Hoops would probably work, too, though I don't wear them.

I did have an issue with piercing through scar tissue on my cartilage, however. In that hole I had originally put a barbell, but it fell out and I replaced it with a post earing. As I said before, posts can be problematic as they aren't long enough to make it through the scar tissue and stay attached. Well, things turned out pretty gross. I kept pressing on the back of the post to make sure it stayed on my ear, and eventually the skin on the back of my ear actually grew over the back of my earing! I ended up having to go to the ER one day (it was starting to really hurt, and my mom freaked out when I showed it to her lol) and have a doctor cut the earing out of my ear. It hurt less than getting it pierced in the first place, but it wasn't worth the 5 hour wait in the ER.

EDIT: I recommend you go to a piercer with a good reputation, don't go to some place in the mall to have this done.

JAMIET

I have over 20 years of professional ear piercing experience. DO NOT let anyone pierce your ears near that scar tissue, called a keloid. The tissue can actually start growing again and you could end up having to see about Doctor about having the excess scar tissue removed. ( not to mention, it's ugly!)