Re-Piercing Your Belly Button

Written By Dan Hunter on December 16, 2019
Last Updated: November 27, 2020

You may be reflecting on the days when you rocked a stylish navel ring, perhaps encrusted with gems or an array of metallic shapes and colors. The great idea about piercings is being able to remove them when you choose to. Rarely, the only remnant is a small mark; however, our piercings may close due to unexpected causes.

Re-piercing your belly button isn’t a problem. Reasons for doing so include:

Jewelry rejection or migration
Tearing or stretching
Infection or allergy
Removal or changing of jewelry

Why Did It Close and Can It Be Redone?

Belly buttons come in all shapes, forms and sizes, which is always the first thing that the piercer will observe for a piercing. In rare cases, the piercer could’ve been underqualified or may not have taken into account individual circumstances resulting in an unhygienic, low-quality puncture and jewelry.

There are many reasons why a piercing can close, and by inspecting the navel, you can see if another belly ring is a good idea.

Jewelry Rejection or Migration

The original piercing might’ve closed up as the jewelry position changed slightly from the original pierced location to a higher, closer-to-the-surface or more angled area. Due to the pre-mentioned outcomes and probably some swelling, redness and discharge, you may have decided to remove the piercing and let it heal or close up. If this is the case, you’re limited to re-piercing your belly button.

The reasons this may have occurred is that your body — being the intelligent and healthy system it is — noticed a foreign material and responded to remove it. This can materialize if you bumped it unusually, creating movement and calling for a systematic response.

In severe cases of rejection or migration, you may have a large amount of scar tissue in the previous area. If so, it’s advisable to not re-pierce this area as the skin is traumatized; rejection can re-occur, and tearing is likely.

Luckily, you have both a top and bottom area of your belly button that can be pierced, if it’s not recommended that you pierce the old scar tissue.

Tearing or Stretching

It could be really painful if a thread of fabric gets caught on your skin as you’re changing your clothes. We know, we’ve been there — ouch!

Anyone who’s had a belly ring is familiar with this situation or any other that may result in movement from your jewelry. Numerous times, no harm was done. In other cases, the hole got wider, or the jewelry complete tore from the skin gifting you with a lesion and seat in the waiting room for some stitches.

Some people choose to methodically stretch piercings to fit larger jewelry; this is less possible with navels and can result in tearing. Similar to above, scar tissue is common after this kind of trauma, and re-piercing can be difficult and problematic.

Infection or Allergy

Infections and allergies are big reasons people remove their jewelry — the result of unclean piercing equipment or poor aftercare. In other cases, you may have had a reaction to the metal quality or a disinfectant solution.

If you know you’re sensitive to a certain metal, you’re able to re-pierce your belly button. Just inform the professional, and they should be able to give you a suitable metal alternative. If you experienced a severe infection on your previous piercing, you need to check the level of scar tissue — rejection may have begun to occur before you removed it. Your piercer will be able to inform you on the best decision.

Removal or Changing of Jewelry

Your previous experience of removing the navel piercing may have resulted from situations where:

To prevent an injury during exercise, you removed your jewelry
The piercing fell out unnoticed
You ignored advice not to change the jewelry

If for some reason, the hole closed over, you may be scared to push the bar through. Keep that fear — it’s best to get a professional to help and keep the re-piercing clean. It can be frustrating, waiting months for it to heal and needing to get it re-pierced again; however, this is the easiest situation to fix.

After years of having a belly ring, you’ve likely removed it, but at some point further on, there’s a chance you’ll want it back. In this situation, the hole may have become smaller, but the passage may be free from one side to another. Here, a professional can assist with opening the area to fit a new navel ring through.

Pin-Point Your Decision

If you choose to go through with the re-piercing, check out all your options for a professional, hygienic and highly reviewed body piercer. Ask questions when you arrive about the metals of their jewelry and ask them to check the previously pierced skin — any piercing expert will do this anyway.

If you want to ensure your piercing heals as best as it possibly can, it’s imperative that you follow your piercer’s aftercare advice closely, and be sure to invest in a high-quality aftercare solution to aid recovery.

The best piercing aftercare product I’ve ever had the pleasure of using up to this point is the After Inked Piercing Aftercare Spray. Not only is it vegan-friendly, but it’s also completely alcohol and additive-free. The solution works well on all skin types including sensitive skin, and it comes in a generously-sized mist-spraying bottle for easy application.

When using it from the very start of the healing process, the spray helps to decrease healing times and aims to eliminate any lingering pain or soreness.