Piercing bumps and keloids are different skin conditions that can occur following a piercing. Piercing bumps tend to appear more quickly and do not grow in size, while keloids take time to form and can continue to grow over time. A doctor or dermatologist can advise on the best way to treat keloids.
Hypertrophic scars are contained within the site of injury and may regress over time, while keloids spread beyond the borders of the initial injury and do not regress. On histological examination, hypertrophic scars tend to have collagen in a wavy, regular pattern, whereas keloids have no distinct pattern of collagen.
Begin as a raised pink, red, or purple scar.
A keloid is usually a raised scar with a flat surface. The color tends to darken with time. It usually ends up being darker than the person's skin, with the border being darker than the center.
Keloid scarring is an enlarged, raised scar that can be pink, red, skin-colored, or darker than the surrounding skin. They are usually shiny and raised in appearance, and can be hard and rubbery. They are usually painless, but sometimes can cause tenderness, and have an itchy, burning feeling.
When a keloid first appears, it's often red, pink, or slightly darker than your natural skin tone. As it grows, it may darken. Some become lighter in the center and darker at the edges.
Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans is an extremely rare condition that can be confused with keloid, especially if growing to the size of 50 mm or not healing anyway (1, 4, 5, 7). In such cases, a detailed investigation covers core biopsy and CT-imaging to achieve an exact tissue evaluation.
Check if you have a keloid scar
A keloid scar usually appears a few weeks to years after you damage or injure your skin, such as after a cut, burn or acne. Keloid scars are usually raised, hard, smooth and shiny. They can be skin colour, pink, red, purple, brown, or darker than the skin around them.
You cannot get rid of a keloid on your own and it won't go away like other piercing bumps, even if you remove the jewellery. There are different treatments medical professionals may perform for keloid scarring. Keloids aren't common, a piercing bump is often mistaken as a keloid!
Larger keloids can be flattened by pulsed-dye laser sessions. This method has also been useful in easing itchiness and causing keloids to fade. Pulsed-dye laser therapy is delivered over several sessions with 4 to 8 weeks between sessions. Your doctor might recommend combining laser therapy with cortisone injections.
If a keloid develops around your ear piercing after the piercing has healed, contact a healthcare provider. They may recommend that you take your earring out right away and wear a pressure earring. Or they may recommend that you keep your earring in until they're able to conduct a physical examination of your ear.
Why does my piercing bump keep coming back? If your piercing bump keeps playing peek-a-boo with you, it may be due to infections or scarring. Be sure to use quality jewelry and keep your piercing clean even if there isn't a current bump.
Do keloids go away? Unlike a hypertrophic scar, a keloid doesn't fade with time. To reduce the appearance of a keloid, you need to treat it. When it comes to treatment, no one treatment works best for all keloids.
First, it's important to realize that a keloid often does not occur immediately after the skin injury. Therefore, it may take months after your piercing for one to develop. The primary and most obvious sign is a thick, irregular scar, which often occurs on the earlobes.
It is a result of an overgrowth of granulation tissue (collagen type 3) at the site of a healed skin injury which is then slowly replaced by collagen type 1. Keloids are firm, rubbery lesions or shiny, fibrous nodules, and can vary from pink to the color of the person's skin or red to dark brown in color.
The three phases to healing are the inflammatory stage, the proliferative stage and the remodelling stage. The inflammatory stage begins immediately and lasts a few days.
Duration of Keloids
Keloids can continue to grow for months or even years. They eventually stop growing but they do not disappear without treatment. In some cases, as mentioned above, keloids can return after they have been removed.
Although anyone can get them, keloids are more common among darker-skinned people. Keloids can be painful or itchy but aren't usually dangerous to a person's health. However, depending on where they are located, they can be a cosmetic concern. Fortunately, there are many treatment options to help remove keloids.
Conclusion: Keloids never completely disappear to leave skin with normal texture, however they can resolve (flatten and soften) so they no longer burden patients in approximately one third of cases. Scars resolving spontaneously do so early in the disease. Those that don't may resolve after many years of treatment.
Piercing bumps occur when the body's immune system responds to the wound and initiates the healing response. This response leads to inflammation, which is what causes the bump. A person may notice bleeding, bruising, and some swelling at the site of the piercing in the first few weeks after getting it.
Your piercing might be infected if: the area around it is swollen, painful, hot, very red or dark (depending on your skin colour) there's blood or pus coming out of it – pus can be white, green or yellow. you feel hot or shivery or generally unwell.
A pustule, or piercing blister, looks like a pimple on or next to the piercing. It is a type of localized infection. It is usually safe to treat these infections at home with warm compresses and frequent cleansing. Sometimes, the blisters go away and return.
Summary. Piercing bumps and keloids are scars that can develop in response to a skin injury. Piercing bumps may blend with your natural skin tone, shrink, or even disappear in time without any treatment at all. Keloids can develop from any scar, including a piercing wound, and become darker over time.