Nipple Piercing Additional Information

Can I play with my new nipple piercing?

Many people will play with their new piercings because the sensitivity is heightened.  You must be careful as healing piercings are not ready for stress due to play.  There is no “hurts so good” approach to healing piercings as slight pinches or pain during play on a healing piercing could be due to tissue tearing.  Contact with a partner’s skin or fluids can irritate the area as well as introduce bacteria to your healing wound.

How much does a nipple piercing hurt?

All piercings cause some type of discomfort and nipples can do that too.  People who have sensitive nipples do not necessarily feel the piercing more and people with little sensitivity do not necessarily feel the piercing less.  It is really a personal experience that cannot be predicted.  Most of our clients are pleasantly surprised with how easy the piercing experience was.

Inverted Nipple Piercings

Most people with inverted nipples can get nipple piercings.  We have successfully pierced many clients with grade 3 inversion that have kept their piercings long term.  However, each case is different and will be assessed by our piercing staff members that specialize in piercing them.  It is important to know that in a lot of cases it is necessary to pierce across the inversion in order to have the highest chance of success and this does not always allow for the standard horizontal placement.

Nipple Piercing Bumps

Nipples tend to develop little bumps even after they are fully healed. This normally comes from issues related to pressure. Many times this is attributed to the jewelry being slept on, caught by clothing, the length needing to be downsized, or simply subtle irritation from time to time.

In addition to this, pressure can come simply from wearing the jewelry. In a lot of cases nipples will rest flat on a person’s body and the simple pressure of having jewelry in there to stop the nipple from completely flattening out is enough subtle pressure to cause these little bumps. These bumps are a lot more difficult to take care of or to get rid of because the constant pressure of just wearing jewelry is all that causes this. They can certainly be a labour of love and these bumps can come and go as time goes on, even years after the piercing.

Other causes of bumps could be irritation from any personal care products that come into contact with the piercing.  Even if you have no reaction where you normally use the product it is possible it could create a problem with a piercing.

Sometimes the bumps can form fluid and look like a pimple. If this is the case, do not pop it as it risks bacteria getting into the hole and could create more scar tissue.

There are a multitude of products that can help with this, but not everything works for everybody. If this is happening for you, please contact us and we can discuss your treatment.

Will I lose sensitivity from a nipple piercing?

Having jewelry through a body part usually enhances the sensitivity in the area.  When a piercing is new, you will have heightened sensitivity and as time goes on your body will get used to it.  If you ever retire the piercing, you may notice that you do not have the same sensitivity and you may feel like you lost sensitivity.  This is simply muscle memory.

Will I be able to breastfeed if I get a nipple piercing?

You must never breastfeed with jewelry in your nipple piercing.  You must remove it each time you breastfeed as you do not want your child to swallow any part of the jewelry.  Each time you remove your jewelry you must put it back in shortly after to keep the piercing channel open; we sell the tools for this.  Removing and installing jewelry can irritate a healing piercing and we hope that your nipples will be fully healed by the time this is something you need to consider.

Since initial healing on nipple piercings is 6 to 9 months and since you should never be pierced while pregnant, the timing should be okay even if you get pregnant right after being pierced.  However, fully healed piercings are always preferred.

Body piercings do not core out tissue so damage to milk ducts is minimal.  As well, there are multiple milk ducts in each nipple.

Never get nipple piercings while breastfeeding.

Can I be pierced with a ring in my nipple piercing?

We love the way rings look in nipples!  However, most people will see significant migration and even rejection due to the way the body copes with a ring.  While rings could be successful, in order to accommodate the anatomy the ring diameter needs to be quite larger (larger than most folks want) and this can cause other issues due to the ring being caught on clothing, etc. because of its size.

There are ring alternatives that work well such as hinged rings (AKA clickers) or D-rings.  We normally measure the area and order them for our clients after the inflammation period has passed.

Otherwise, you can try wearing rings after the piercing is fully healed.

How will being a stomach sleeper affect my nipple piercing?

We recommend that people do not sleep on any piercings while they are healing as this could cause stress on the piercing and lead to migration or rejection.  However, we do have clients that successfully heal nipple piercings who are stomach sleepers.  Your piercer will assess your anatomy and discuss this with you at the time of your appointment.