Piercing bumps and keloids are different skin conditions that can occur following a piercing. Piercing bumps tend to appear more quickly and do not grow in size, while keloids take time to form and can continue to grow over time. A doctor or dermatologist can advise on the best way to treat keloids.
When a keloid first appears, it's often red, pink, or slightly darker than your natural skin tone. As it grows, it may darken. Some become lighter in the center and darker at the edges.
Around the area where you received the piercing you may have noticed a large, lumpy, raised scar. This could be a sign of a keloid, and they can appear on ears or as a keloid on nose piercings. They typically occur in places where an injury is healing.
Keloids on your ear grow slowly. They may take up to 12 months before they become noticeable, and they may continue to grow for years. They'll eventually stop growing, but they won't go away without treatment.
They can happen on any side of the piercing, front or back, or both sides. They look like small red or skin colour bumps or lumps pressed up against the jewellery. They can be painful to touch or to apply pressure to for example: when you are wearing headphones or sleeping on them.
In general, a piercing bump will go away after about six weeks, while a keloid is permanent. The exception is a piercing bump caused by an infection, which will get worse over time. When in doubt, visit a doctor, especially if the bump is growing quickly or releasing pus and/or blood.
Piercing bumps are part of the body's natural response to injury, and they do not typically require treatment. However, people can take steps to keep the area clean, prevent infection, and allow the piercing to heal. These include: keeping piercing jewelry in, without changing or removing it, for at least 6 weeks.
A keloid scar isn't harmful to your physical health, but it can cause emotional distress. Prevention or early treatment is key.
In most cases, scars usually grow smaller and fade over time, but in some people, the skin can overreact to the damage and lead to scars that are much larger than the original wound. These scars are called keloids. Keloid scars, which are typically thick and irregular, rarely go away on their own.
A keloid scar usually appears a few weeks to years after you damage or injure your skin, such as after a cut, burn or acne. Keloid scars are usually raised, hard, smooth and shiny. They can be skin colour, pink, red, purple, brown, or darker than the skin around them.
After the wound heals, apply silicone gel sheets or silicone gel. You can buy both of these products without a prescription. They can help prevent a keloid. To get the best results, you apply a new sheet or gel to the area every day.
"While piercing bumps can be hard to prevent, they can be treated or addressed with different topical creams or ointments, such as Vaseline Healing Ointment ($4) or antibiotic ointments such as a prescription called mupirocin ointment, or topical steroid creams to reduce the inflammation," says Garshick.
Cover the silicone gel with a bandage or wrap to keep pressure on the cut or other injury. If you get keloids, you may want to avoid body piercings, tattoos, or any surgery you do not need. Keloid scarring can happen after these procedures.
Keloids sometimes show up 3 months or more after your skin is injured. Some continue to grow for years.
Another study also found cryosurgery to be effective in the treatment of keloids, particularly the types of smaller keloids that develop on the earlobes. The average flattening noted after three cryotherapy sessions was 30.76% and 58.13% after six sessions.
Some pain and redness are part of the normal healing process for pierced ears. It can be easy to confuse those with signs of infection. If there's a bump on the back of the ear piercing, it's not necessarily infected. Small bumps called granulomas can sometimes form around the piercing.
Applying tea tree oil to piercing bumps can help reduce redness as well as keep the area sufficiently clean - allowing them to reduce in appearance over time. While piercing bumps are totally normal during healing, they shouldn't be ignored.
If you find a keloid has become very tender it may be infected. There will usually be some inflammation or the skin will be warm to the touch. If this happens it's a good idea to see a doctor. Some keloid infections can develop into pockets of pus.
The bump may be a sign of infection, in which case you shouldn't have taken the piercing out because you can trap the infection under the skin. Try using a saline solution of sea salt (NOT table salt) and boiling water to clean it every day and see if it goes away.
They are generally small, starting soft and getting firmer over time. If the piercing is removed, the lump will almost always disappear. They can be sore, itchy and bleed easily. While it is possible that you have a keloid, they are incredibly rare.