so yeah as it says above^should i just wait till it no longer hurts, or do you have to wait a certain amount of time...
well it depends because some bars are thicker than others, if your changing to a bar as thick as the one you have now then i say about a month is good but if its the slightest bit thicker i suggest you wait maybe 2 months and in the mean time make sure your turning it and wiggling it so after the 2 months go by you can change it to a thicker bar without it hurting
I wouldn't suggest changing it for at least 6 weeks. You have to allow the skin to heal before touching, turning or changing the bar. If you do change it beforehand, you risk damaging the skin and cartilage surrounding the piercing. I know that I didn't change mine for about 8 weeks, and I haven't ever had a problem with it.
I'd give it a decent amount of time before changing it. They take awhile to heal, often times for most between 6-12 months, but for most it's closer to the 12. So I'd give it a few months at least, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask your piercer about when would be the best time. Often times too they'll help you with changing jewelry jewelry insertion for little to no charge, so you may want to do that. I've had mine pierced for about 12 yrs, and actually, I still have the original bar in that it was pierced with, but I remember it was quite a while before I felt comfortable taking it all the way out to clean.
Industrial piercings take 9-12 months to heal completely and you never want to remove an unhealed piercing unless the jewelry is causing problems and at that point it should be done by a professional in a sterile environment. Taking the jewelry out before it is healed could cause it to close up, become infected or irritated, and can cause hypertrophic scarring (scar tissue) to form on your piercing. I took my industrial out after having it for 3 months. It was out for less than a minute and when I went to put it back in it went through the first hole easily but wouldn't go through the top hole no matter how hard I pushed. It immediately started bleeding and hurtling like crazy. Awesome. Waste of time, pain, and money. So, you might get lucky and just have it get a little irritated or prolong the healing time by changing it early. But you could also end up like me or worse, with any infected piercing. Why risk it?
