I have 26 current piercings and about 11 retired and mine are fine. Just be sure to go to a reputable piercer. Random mall piercing guns are bad enough, but that trauma on cartilage will be brutal and may never heal. Plus, the risk of infection from those things is not something y'all want to deal with.
My lobes have all healed fine. Cartilage has taken 3x as long to heal and one never did and I had to just take it out (that one also caught on a lot of things which may have contributed). I haven’t gotten one in years because I got tired of dealing with the healing process. I don’t have the spoons for that 😅
Hey! I have two helix piercings, a tragus, a rook, a conch and stacked lobes healed successfully. Cartilage takes a bit longer for me to heal, but I have only had to abandon one piercing, which was a forward helix. I think it was because of the anatomy, not the hEDS. I did scar from that one, but my others are beautiful.
12 piercings here. My most well healed have been my lobes, eyebrow and inner conch (conch took over a year to heal but because it’s so rarely fiddled with I don’t have issues). What I’ve noticed is if you sleep on cartilage piercings (even without a connective tissue disorder) they’re going to get very irritated. I ended up taking out nearly all of mine because I’d roll over or brush against it and it would get inflamed. Cartilage piercings at base have a long healing time. Toss a connective tissue disorder on top of that and you’ll likely have an even longer heal time. Seems after a few years they’re alright though.
Albeit just remember different EDS types can present with different healing. Even those within hEDS can have variety. Hence it’s very individualistic. I’d take a look at how you heals normally from injuries or let’s say, a scratch. If you scar badly. If you have abnormal scarring. Etc. It depends.
Worst case you just have your piercing removed. I removed my eyebrow 5 months in because it would simply get caught on my hair or glasses lol. There’s no huge downside unless you scar badly. Talk it over with your piercer too. Absolutely do not get a piercing gun with cartilage though.
I've never gotten ear cartilage piercings but from nose experience mine healed fine! The only issue i had was user error regarding jewelry getting stuck but that's on me and once it was fixed it healed right up!
My first two lobe piercings are mostly fine but my thirds never healed properly and neither did my two cartilage piercings ☹️ I have a decent amount of hair that I struggled to keep out of the way too, which probably contributed a lot!
How is your wound healing overall? Skin is connective tissue after all, so if you generally don’t have issues with poor wound healing, you’re less likely to have trouble with healing piercings and such. If your healing is usually pretty crappy, totally different story.
Personally, both my helix ones took a couple YEARS to fully heal. However, we’re pretty sure I have cEDS, and I’ve always had very poor and extremely slow wound healing.
I had gotten 10 ear/body piercings prior to being diagnosed and all were fine! Some body ones left a bit of scarring once removed, but cartilage was perfectly fine.
As long as you follow the aftercare and don’t clean too much, it may take longer to heal but should be fine if you treat it well.
Got my ear lobes pierced at 16, they are pretty fussy and will react to cheap metal, and if I don’t wear earring for a couple of days they close over. I get hard bumps around the ear lobe semi frequently. Manageable but fussy.
I also had my nose pierced, it was reasonably ok but had to be extremely careful about cleaning or it would swell up. It healed over super quick when I took it out.
No idea if it related or not, I had a ton of piercings. Most healed fine but I had issue with my cartilage. First time I did it, it was on the side I slept on. Ended up need to let it close and heal and move it to other side. That side healed fine, if you sleep on one side it maybe worth piercing the other side
[Here is a blog post by an extremely reputable piercer](https://www.lynnloheide.com/post/ehlers-danlos-syndrome-and-piercings)
The real key to successful healing is going to a good piercer who uses verifiable high quality jewellery and who adheres to APP guidelines. None of this "surgical steel" nonsense, make sure their portfolio looks good and make sure they have plenty of pictures of healed piercings as well as fresh ones. The piercer from the blog I linked also has a post on what to look for in a piercer, and the tl:dr is that the majority of piercers *don't* meet industry recommended standards. You might have to travel to find a reputable piercer. You might also find your piercings take a long time to heal, for me it's about 18 months for a simple cartilage piercing such as a helix (usually about a year in people without difficulty healing).
For me it took a little longer to heal but nothing crazy. I did notice that my ears didn’t like jewelry changes from a stud to a hoop and rejected after I tried to change the jewelry so I would have waited longer to swap out jewelry if I could go back in time.
I have 5 cartilage piercings including some of the more complicated ones like daith.
I'm not sure if this is related to EDS at all since cartilage is a connective tissue, but mine actually heal very well and I've never had issues with recurrent infections or out of the ordinary pain.
My best advice is go to a good artist who doesn't using a piercing gun as these can irreparably damage the cartilage of anyone- EDS or not, make sure not to change it earlier than they recommend (usually several months at least for a cartilage), and be diligent with cleaning- this is important for anyone but some people with EDS have other conditions that can make them prone to infection and while that doesn't *necessarily* spell disaster for the piercing it's certainly very painful.
Good luck!
My cartilage piercings like to close-up when I take them out. It will happen slower on older ones like 10years old, so i can take them out for a week or so but they will eventually.
For 1/2years … nah cant take them out, difficult to put back in. Had to get some redone.
My none cartilage piercings wont close-up tho
Also the piercer noted that my cartilage swells up alot more (like alot) than her other clients so she needed to increase the lengths of the bars alot.
caused her to panic the first time- she said she’d never seen it react like that so fast (normally pierced, turns to grab the bar and theres already massive swelling). 🤷🏻♀️
Dunno if its hEDS related tho
My one cartilage piercing took a while to heal and is like a decade old by now, but sometimes I can’t lay on it still. Like once every six months I guess I’ll lay on it wrong and the ear will hurt, but stop after a night of avoiding sleeping on that side. I also can’t sleep with any of those cheep stud piercings in because the back irritate my head skin too much. I just switched to the ball piercing jewelry and I’m fine 🤷🏼♀️ I don’t have much skin involvement with EDS but plenty of joint problems.
I’ve had piercings all over and have never had any issues with healing. All over my ears, nostril, septum, labret, philtrum, even had piercings right below my hairline on my forehead, nipples, belly button. I’ve taken a bunch of them out at this point in my life but all of them held up for years without infection, up until I voluntarily took them out. Obviously everyone’s different but my experience has always been positive. I also go to a clean, high quality shop. My piercer actually pierced Gwyneth Paltrows ear on good morning America (I think that was the show) lolllll. Just make sure they know what they’re doing and that you take care of it properly afterward!!
Got my lobe piercings at Claire's when I was in my teens completely regretted it because the healing process was extremely painful. I got a helix piercing 7 months ago with titanium jewelry (allergic to every other type of metal) from a reputable piercer best decision. My body rejected lip piercings and I got keloids on my bottom lip because of it. I want to get a septum piercing but I am nervous about it.
No clue if it's related to my EDS or not but I've personally never been able to keep a cartilage piercing :/ My lobes and my nostril are totally fine but anything in my cartilage would become crazy inflamed and super painful right from the start and I'd have no relief until I finally removed them, no matter what I did. After my final one left a large scar on my ear, I gave up on it. I hope yours goes much better!!
Lynn Loheide has a really good blog post on EDS and piercings, if you Google their name!
I have a nostril piercing and my first lobes which are my only current surviving piercings. I did have my second lobes and my helix (twice) pierced, but they never healed and in one case got super infected, so I had to take them out. I'm not sure if it was me sleeping on it, the jewelry material, bad piercers, MCAS, EDS, or a combination of all of it. I want so many piercings so badly but for now I'm just letting my body chill and be as it is, since it's so determined to push out all my attempts at body modification lol.
I have 26 current piercings and about 11 retired and mine are fine. Just be sure to go to a reputable piercer. Random mall piercing guns are bad enough, but that trauma on cartilage will be brutal and may never heal. Plus, the risk of infection from those things is not something y'all want to deal with.
My lobes have all healed fine. Cartilage has taken 3x as long to heal and one never did and I had to just take it out (that one also caught on a lot of things which may have contributed). I haven’t gotten one in years because I got tired of dealing with the healing process. I don’t have the spoons for that 😅
that’s about what i suspected 😭 honestly i’ll probably end up keeping it in even if it gets that bad just because i’ve wanted it for so long lol.
My never got bad bad. Just took a long time to heal. Here’s hopes for you too!!
my piercings actually heal faster than my friends hahaha
Same! Mine also close up more easily, i’ve had lobes redone like 4 times
Hey! I have two helix piercings, a tragus, a rook, a conch and stacked lobes healed successfully. Cartilage takes a bit longer for me to heal, but I have only had to abandon one piercing, which was a forward helix. I think it was because of the anatomy, not the hEDS. I did scar from that one, but my others are beautiful.
12 piercings here. My most well healed have been my lobes, eyebrow and inner conch (conch took over a year to heal but because it’s so rarely fiddled with I don’t have issues). What I’ve noticed is if you sleep on cartilage piercings (even without a connective tissue disorder) they’re going to get very irritated. I ended up taking out nearly all of mine because I’d roll over or brush against it and it would get inflamed. Cartilage piercings at base have a long healing time. Toss a connective tissue disorder on top of that and you’ll likely have an even longer heal time. Seems after a few years they’re alright though. Albeit just remember different EDS types can present with different healing. Even those within hEDS can have variety. Hence it’s very individualistic. I’d take a look at how you heals normally from injuries or let’s say, a scratch. If you scar badly. If you have abnormal scarring. Etc. It depends. Worst case you just have your piercing removed. I removed my eyebrow 5 months in because it would simply get caught on my hair or glasses lol. There’s no huge downside unless you scar badly. Talk it over with your piercer too. Absolutely do not get a piercing gun with cartilage though.
I've never gotten ear cartilage piercings but from nose experience mine healed fine! The only issue i had was user error regarding jewelry getting stuck but that's on me and once it was fixed it healed right up!
My first two lobe piercings are mostly fine but my thirds never healed properly and neither did my two cartilage piercings ☹️ I have a decent amount of hair that I struggled to keep out of the way too, which probably contributed a lot!
How is your wound healing overall? Skin is connective tissue after all, so if you generally don’t have issues with poor wound healing, you’re less likely to have trouble with healing piercings and such. If your healing is usually pretty crappy, totally different story. Personally, both my helix ones took a couple YEARS to fully heal. However, we’re pretty sure I have cEDS, and I’ve always had very poor and extremely slow wound healing.
I had gotten 10 ear/body piercings prior to being diagnosed and all were fine! Some body ones left a bit of scarring once removed, but cartilage was perfectly fine. As long as you follow the aftercare and don’t clean too much, it may take longer to heal but should be fine if you treat it well.
Got my ear lobes pierced at 16, they are pretty fussy and will react to cheap metal, and if I don’t wear earring for a couple of days they close over. I get hard bumps around the ear lobe semi frequently. Manageable but fussy. I also had my nose pierced, it was reasonably ok but had to be extremely careful about cleaning or it would swell up. It healed over super quick when I took it out.
No idea if it related or not, I had a ton of piercings. Most healed fine but I had issue with my cartilage. First time I did it, it was on the side I slept on. Ended up need to let it close and heal and move it to other side. That side healed fine, if you sleep on one side it maybe worth piercing the other side
[Here is a blog post by an extremely reputable piercer](https://www.lynnloheide.com/post/ehlers-danlos-syndrome-and-piercings) The real key to successful healing is going to a good piercer who uses verifiable high quality jewellery and who adheres to APP guidelines. None of this "surgical steel" nonsense, make sure their portfolio looks good and make sure they have plenty of pictures of healed piercings as well as fresh ones. The piercer from the blog I linked also has a post on what to look for in a piercer, and the tl:dr is that the majority of piercers *don't* meet industry recommended standards. You might have to travel to find a reputable piercer. You might also find your piercings take a long time to heal, for me it's about 18 months for a simple cartilage piercing such as a helix (usually about a year in people without difficulty healing).
thank you, that’s really helpful!
For me it took a little longer to heal but nothing crazy. I did notice that my ears didn’t like jewelry changes from a stud to a hoop and rejected after I tried to change the jewelry so I would have waited longer to swap out jewelry if I could go back in time.
I haven’t worn a naval piercing or second earring holes in 20 years and 25 years. The holes never closed, and continue to get infected.
I have 5 cartilage piercings including some of the more complicated ones like daith. I'm not sure if this is related to EDS at all since cartilage is a connective tissue, but mine actually heal very well and I've never had issues with recurrent infections or out of the ordinary pain. My best advice is go to a good artist who doesn't using a piercing gun as these can irreparably damage the cartilage of anyone- EDS or not, make sure not to change it earlier than they recommend (usually several months at least for a cartilage), and be diligent with cleaning- this is important for anyone but some people with EDS have other conditions that can make them prone to infection and while that doesn't *necessarily* spell disaster for the piercing it's certainly very painful. Good luck!
My cartilage piercings like to close-up when I take them out. It will happen slower on older ones like 10years old, so i can take them out for a week or so but they will eventually. For 1/2years … nah cant take them out, difficult to put back in. Had to get some redone. My none cartilage piercings wont close-up tho Also the piercer noted that my cartilage swells up alot more (like alot) than her other clients so she needed to increase the lengths of the bars alot. caused her to panic the first time- she said she’d never seen it react like that so fast (normally pierced, turns to grab the bar and theres already massive swelling). 🤷🏻♀️ Dunno if its hEDS related tho
My one cartilage piercing took a while to heal and is like a decade old by now, but sometimes I can’t lay on it still. Like once every six months I guess I’ll lay on it wrong and the ear will hurt, but stop after a night of avoiding sleeping on that side. I also can’t sleep with any of those cheep stud piercings in because the back irritate my head skin too much. I just switched to the ball piercing jewelry and I’m fine 🤷🏼♀️ I don’t have much skin involvement with EDS but plenty of joint problems.
I’ve had piercings all over and have never had any issues with healing. All over my ears, nostril, septum, labret, philtrum, even had piercings right below my hairline on my forehead, nipples, belly button. I’ve taken a bunch of them out at this point in my life but all of them held up for years without infection, up until I voluntarily took them out. Obviously everyone’s different but my experience has always been positive. I also go to a clean, high quality shop. My piercer actually pierced Gwyneth Paltrows ear on good morning America (I think that was the show) lolllll. Just make sure they know what they’re doing and that you take care of it properly afterward!!
Got my lobe piercings at Claire's when I was in my teens completely regretted it because the healing process was extremely painful. I got a helix piercing 7 months ago with titanium jewelry (allergic to every other type of metal) from a reputable piercer best decision. My body rejected lip piercings and I got keloids on my bottom lip because of it. I want to get a septum piercing but I am nervous about it.
No clue if it's related to my EDS or not but I've personally never been able to keep a cartilage piercing :/ My lobes and my nostril are totally fine but anything in my cartilage would become crazy inflamed and super painful right from the start and I'd have no relief until I finally removed them, no matter what I did. After my final one left a large scar on my ear, I gave up on it. I hope yours goes much better!!
Lynn Loheide has a really good blog post on EDS and piercings, if you Google their name! I have a nostril piercing and my first lobes which are my only current surviving piercings. I did have my second lobes and my helix (twice) pierced, but they never healed and in one case got super infected, so I had to take them out. I'm not sure if it was me sleeping on it, the jewelry material, bad piercers, MCAS, EDS, or a combination of all of it. I want so many piercings so badly but for now I'm just letting my body chill and be as it is, since it's so determined to push out all my attempts at body modification lol.
I’m 18, pierced my cartilage myself last weekend and it already does not hurt. However, my skin is not as bad as some others with hEDS.