Healing Time for Body Piercings

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You may wonder if different body piercings take a different amount of time to heal. The short answer is yes, the healing time for a body piercing depends on the location and type of tissue it is going through. This is because some tissues (such as ones that are mostly skin and soft tissue) take more time to heal than ones that are filled with cartilage.
For example, the two body piercing locations that take the longest amount of time to heal are the ear cartilage and the nasal septum, with both requiring several months (and, in the case of ear cartilage, up to a year to heal). The quickest healing body piercing is the tongue, which usually only takes 4 weeks to heal. Ear lobes, eye brows and female genitalia are also relatively quick healers, usually needing between 6 to 10 weeks to heal. Piercing of male genitalia are variable, and can range from between 4 weeks to half a year for healing time. Finally, nostril, nipple and lip rings can all require a healing time of a few months.

About this Author

I am an MD/PhD student at the University of Chicago with a very strong writing background. I am committed to writing high quality content on a variety of subjects, especially health, medicine, entertainment, humor, and sports.

Last updated on: 07/02/09

Article reviewed by Roman Tsivkin

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