I have a nipple ring and I want to know how long I can take it out for before it closes up?

Question

I've had it pierced for lets say 6 months.

Answer 1

Your body does NOT like having holes poked into it, especially under the layer of skin on the surface. It is continually trying to close the hole. The reason why this happens is that skin cells do not grow inside the hole, but rather live connecting tissue which stops the bleeding but is NOT skin. The metal of the piercing prevents bridging cells attaching to other bridging cells and connecting the sides and closing it up. So, from the minute your remove the piercing, your body gets the chance to continue healing itself so the hole WILL start to close almost immediately as bridging cells now have no impediment to attaching to another bridging cell. The softer the tissue, the less cartilage, the faster it closes because there are more bridging cells to make the cross connections. Your ears take many days because of cartilage. Cartilage means fewer bridging cells at the surfaces trying to grow back together, so with fewer cells to start with, the process takes longer. Piercings through only skin, fat and muscle take much less time to start closing because the number of bridging cells is increased compared to cartilage. The thing is, it is easily opened back up at first because there are only a few bridge connections through the gap. but as the bridge cells increase the number of bridge connections made, the harder it is to RIP them apart to open the hole. I would venture a guess that after a couple of days, you will virtually have to have it pierced again rather than simply replace the piercing back in the hole. Having had it for 6 months makes little difference. After a week or two, the bridge cells lining the piercing hole have closed over as much of the damaged tissue as the piercing allows. So, after a few weeks the piercing has healed as much at it is going to do, until you remove the piercing and the process you stopped can resume. The only way to prevent a piercing from closing is to increase the size of the hole over time. Use a larger piercing to expand the hole just a little bit, wait a few weeks, then use a slightly larger piercing. Repeat this, using bigger and bigger piercings until when you remove the piercing, you can literally SEE through the hole. African natives have been doing this for years, centuries, all over the body, some with very large items through the skin. The bigger the hole, the longer it takes to close over, but rest assured, it WILL close over eventually because you did not STOP the healing process, just suspended it for the time the piercing is in place preventing the healing from continuing normally. Of course, I am not so sure you want a hole the size of a pencil in diameter or larger in such a sensitive part of your body... as with a hole that big, the breast and nipple will never work as it was intended as the milk ducts will have closed over as a result of all the internal damage caused by enlarging the hole to such an extreme and likely will never open again even if you remove the piercing and let the hole close over and heal completely. This is only a problem for females, of course, as males have no use for the ducts even though they have them. If you want a piercing that will not close, or at least will take a long time, it has to be relatively large, then you pay the price, internal damage which results in scarring.

Answer 2

kinky. ;]

and you can deff take it out but not for a month or anything like that.

Answer 3

i don't think it will close if you've had it for that long!

but my boyfriend had them for about 3 or 4 months and his closed right away! so i recommend not to leave it without a ring for more than an hour!

GOOD LUCK!  (: