I have 5 lobe piercings (2 on left lobe, 3 on right lobe). I have had these piercings for over a decade. I cannot wear any jewelry in them (this started about 2 years ago). Solid gold, silver, stainless steel, etc. My ears swell up and get itchy within 1 minute of wearing any type of jewelry at all. After I take out the jewelry, a hard ball forms around the piercing itself. It goes away by the end of the day.

I have two nostril piercings and a web piercing with stainless steel jewelry, septum and cartilage with titanium, and a daith piercing with surgical implant grade titanium.

I have had no problems with any of these piercings. They have all been done in the past 2-3years.

Anyone know why my lobes cannot handle ANY jewelry at all but I can have all these other piercings with no problems?

Edited by kiki81 - June/04/2014 at 4:07am

Ah yes, my daith is implant grade titanium (I wrote steel in the original post)

I have not tried that in my lobes, what kind of jewelry do you have in your lobes that is implant grade titanium?

Thanks

it is possible that extensive use of low quality jewellery has deposited slightly toxic metals in your lobe's fistulas, you could try allowing the holes to close therefor releasing this materials onto your general blood stream (it's probably a very low amount in a very high concentration, if they spread they'd be effectively harmless) and repiercing

then again, this is a theory i could never actually proove, it might not even be possible, it's jut what i assume from hearing stories like your's

Unless gold is 24K it can cause a lot of problems due to reactive metals like silver, copper, or tin. 24K gold may be an option but it will be an expensive one and you'll need a reasonably thick gauge as the metal is too pliable for really thin gauge jewelry. Most gold tends to be 12, 16, 18 or 22K which won't work for your ears.
Your best option, as has been already mentioned, would probably be implant grade titanium.