I got all my piercings done at the piercing shop rather than at the jewelery, meaning that my ears are done in 1.2mm.

Regular earring have pretty thin posts, I can even put two earring in the same hole, and if go toward larger ear pendants I start to worry about the cheese cutter effect (but may-be it’s just my anxiety).

Any idea why regular earring posts are so thin,? Is there any risks in switching between regular 0.8mm earring and piercing style 1.2 (or even 1.6)mm rings ?

  • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    10 days ago

    It isn’t that regular is smaller, but that piercing tends to be larger both because it needs to be strong enough to pierce the skin and because of the body swelling as a response to being injured.

    • noseatbelt@lemmy.ca
      5·
      9 days ago

      I’m not trying to be argumentative, but that’s not really how proper piercing works. I think what you’re explaining is what a place like Claire’s would do, use a thicker earring in a piercing gun to push the surrounding flesh out of the way in order to make a hole.

      A piercing studio uses a hollow needle inserted by hand, so it goes in gently and easily and the flesh in the hole is actually removed since it’s inside the needle now. Then the earring is inserted afterwards. It’s far less traumatizing to the body this way.

      • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        9 days ago

        There is still swelling to account for and a need for more rigidity whether it is punched through or they use a hollow needle.

  • noseatbelt@lemmy.ca
    5·
    9 days ago

    As someone who has a lot of piercings, I suggest sticking with 1.2mm and up, for stability. Cheese cutter effect is a real concern, and may or may not be able to be fixed by repiercing.

    I’m actually looking for cute jewelry for my mom because she was complaining about how the posts on “regular” earrings were so thin, but she doesn’t know how to shop for legit piercing jewelry.

    I would say it’s riskier to stay at less than 1mm as it’s so thin that it’s more likely to just rip out your ear if it gets caught on hair or clothing. There isn’t really a risk in switching between different thicknesses, just be careful when stretching to a bigger size so you don’t harm your piercing.