There are different ways you might get your belly button piercing ripped out, including getting it tangled in your clothes or jewelry, getting it infected, or your body rejecting the piercing. If the piercing is a little bruised, you can take care of it at home by following the same aftercare tips you did after getting pierced; otherwise, you’ll need to get stitches. Following your doctor’s instructions, your belly button will heal in 4-6 weeks. After that, re-piercing can be considered by discussing with a professional piercer.
When summer is around the corner, everyone wants to get a fun little something to flaunt around and get the perfect pictures. While getting a tattoo is quite common, many people also show interest in getting a belly button piercing. Getting a belly piercing isn’t that painful, but you have to look after it, for it has a higher chance of getting ripped.
A lot also depends on the kind of jewelry you wear in your belly piercing. It can maximize or minimize the chances of getting it ripped.
The vital part is aftercare, and how you get it treated that matters the most. So, let’s look into the different ways your belly button piercing has the chance to rip out and the steps you need to follow afterward.
Different ways a belly piercing rips out
Getting your belly button piercing ripped out can happen in different ways and due to various reasons.
While the actual ripping out can also take place, but sometimes other factors are involved too. Let’s take a look down below:
1. Body rejects piercing
As a woman in her mid-20s who got her belly button pierced two years ago because of a bad break-up (rash decision), I can vouch that it doesn’t hurt that much.
If I equate it to any other piercing, it’s like when you get your ears pierced. While I got my piercing on a whim, I dragged my cousin sister into getting one too.
As excited as we were to get these piercings, I got to know that my sister’s body actually rejected her piercing out after a month.
As she told me over texts, her body literally pushed the metal piercing out of her body, rejecting it entirely within a month. On the other hand, my belly piercing is still intact and wholly healed even after two years.
From my personal experience, I can say that your body can reject your belly piercing if it doesn’t like it. Initially, your body will try to accept it, and maybe the piercing will even move a bit as your body tries to heal itself, known as migration.
Sometimes, the migration continues, and your body pushes out the belly piercing completely.
We got the piercing from a well-known piercer. As proof, mine is still going strong in good condition. The fact is your body can reject the piercing.
Other reasons include:
- Cheap jewelry
- Length of dumbbell
- Unprofessional piercing technique
2. Changing clothes
It’s a common reason for getting any piercing ripped out. But here, the belly button piercing is in double danger from the top and the bottom clothes.
It’s pretty easy that when you’re changing clothes, your t-shirt can easily get caught on the piercing, and you might end up accidentally ripping it out.
From the bottom, when wearing a pair of jeans, especially with the fresh belly pierced, you’ve to be careful as when you sit down, your tummy gets pushed forward.
It can cause the piercing to get tangled up in the button of whatever you’re wearing. Many other things could get caught in the piercing and rip it out like a bracelet.
3. Infection
After getting the belly pierced, care is essential to help heal the piercing faster and prevent any risk of bacterial infection. Again, from my personal experience, I also got an industrial piercing done when I got my belly pierced.
While the belly piercing healed quickly, the industrial piercing took 6-7 months to recover since cartilage piercings do take more time to heal. Unfortunately, during this time, I got a severe infection, so much so that I had to take antibiotics for it.
So, you should follow the aftercare diligently. If not, you’ll see signs of infection like redness, swelling, pus, even bleeding, and throbbing pain that even interferes with your sleeping.
Since the piercing never healed in the first place, it will be really easy for the jewelry to get ripped off.
Taking care of ripped belly piercing
Ripping out of navel piercing can be in many different ways. Your piercing can be a little snatched, making the piercing hole a bit wide in the process.
It could also get ripped to the point that it might need stitches. To assess the situation of the ripping first, you should:
- Wash your hands before touching your piercing, and don’t let anyone else touch it; otherwise, you can get it infected.
- Get a wet towel and slowly dab away the blood, if any, to make your piercing clean.
At this point, you’ll know the situation of your piercing. If need be, you should visit the closest hospital and get the proper treatment, which might involve getting stitches.
Your doctor would remove the piercing to provide you with the proper treatment for your wound.
- Keep your wound dry for the next 24-48 hours. After this, you should take care of your wound in the manner recommended without fail.
- Please don’t touch your piercing at all other than applying the ointment recommended by the doctor on it.
- Your physician might also recommend applying some silicone gel sheeting or injections if you’re facing some large or bulky scars.
- Don’t use soap on it.
- Try to wear clothes that can help facilitate easy maintenance of the piercing.
- Don’t do any activities that stress your belly for a week unless you see some healing.
- If you see a crust forming, that’s part of the healing process, so don’t pick at it.
Ripped belly piercing healing time
It’s not wrong to be curious about when will your ripped belly button piercing heal.
It’s traumatic enough to go through something like this, and for a while, you would be in pain too. It might take 4-6 weeks to heal for your ripped piercing.
Although, time may vary depending on your injury. Just keep following the physician’s instructions on how to take care of your wound, or you might increase the chances of risk of infection.
Re-piercing your belly button
Depending on your belly button piercing injury and how it got ripped out, you should consider if getting another belly piercing is a good idea.
If your body rejects the piercing, then clearly, it’s no good use to get it pierced again cause you might risk getting it infected.
After the wound has healed properly, you should visit a professional piercer, someone with knowledge of piercing, and get his opinion before jumping on the wagon and getting the piercing on a whim.
You won’t get the re-piercing on the same spot as before, so the piercer will suggest other locations.
You can also choose to get an inverted belly piercing where the piercing is done from below the belly button. It’s an excellent option to chose if you want to get a belly piercing.
FAQs
Why is skin coming out of my belly button piercing?
If you see a raised scar forming on the ends of your piercing on the skin, it’s called a keloid. They are created when your skin suffers a trauma, like getting your belly pierced.
They can develop right after you get pierced. They can continue to grow for years and even cause pain and itching.
Can a belly piercing get rejected after 2 years?
Soon after getting a navel piercing, if your body isn’t adjusting well enough with the new thing, it might reject it in the following days. But this rejection of piercing can also happen after some time.
If you suddenly oddly change your piercing and the piercing gets infected, it will start the migration process again.
How do I make my belly button piercing heal faster?
Use a saline water solution. This solution is for when you get your belly newly pierced for faster and better healing.
Dissolve 1/8 of a teaspoon sea salt in one cup of warm water. Use this solution to rinse the piercing, then gently pat it dry.
Can I put Vaseline on my belly button piercing?
Yes, you can use Vaseline to moisturize your belly piercing. This will help the skin from drying out and keep it soft. However, please don’t use any ointment with alcohol or hydrogen peroxide in it as it slows healing.
To summarize
Belly piercing sure is fun when you get it at the right place from a professional piercer and do the aftercare sincerely.
Then your belly piercing will look amazing. But you need to be a bit aware when changing clothes as they can easily tangle up with your piercing and accidentally rip out the piercing.
You could get it treated at the hospital and will probably be needing stitches if it made a wide hole. Just follow your physicians’ instructions, and your belly button will heal in no time. If you ever think about re-piercing your belly button, consult it with a professional piercer first.
