I got this second lobe piercing from Maria Tash (Houston location) in December 2025. 14k gold internally threaded labret with Maria Tash's flatback flower backing, front is the floating pear charm, original post length was 6mm, backing diameter is 3.5mm. I've had issues with swelling and crusting since the beginning, front embedded and had to upsize to 11mm in February, then downsized to 8mm in March, then back down to 6mm at beginning of April. Went back to Maria Tash each time, but had a different piercer each appointment; original piercer is no longer there. Now it's end of April, almost 5 months since initial piercing, and I'm still getting swelling, lots of crusting, and pain, even though I use piercing pillow, neilmed spray every other day, and dry with hairdryer on cool every time it gets wet, and I have never had issues with 14k gold in my existing piercings before. Each time piercer just said to clean the crusties and leave it alone. After some research on my own, I've realized that my anatomy causes the edge of the flatback to dig into my conch in the back, causing a persistent sore as you can see in the picture (this is at its best and least swollen, and you can see that still one edge digs in while the other edge floats). I also think the earring is at an angle and goes through or at least borders the cartilage because I have small pinned back ears. The backing has never been able to lay flush against lobe. I want to switch the backing to a smaller 2.75 diameter ball backing. However the internally threaded part is so stuck even the piercer at Maria Tash could not remove, even with pliers on both front and back. The tugging was so painful after 20 minutes I gave up and went home. I've only had this backing for a month, although last time I downsized piercer also struggled to remove, but managed to eventually with just hands and gloves. How can I get this off, ideally without cutting the post?
UPDATE: Got it off! Thanks for the advice, tried everything you suggested. Yesterday, Maria Tash piercer was able to unscrew about 1mm of visible threading but the rest was stuck. Ear swelled up really bad. Went home, iced ear, took long hot showers last night and again this morning, focusing water on front of ear, lots of NeilMed spray, nitrile gloves. Still couldn't get it off myself. Went back to Maria Tash today (because if I had to cut it off, I wanted them to do it so I could ask them to replace under their 6-month warranty). Luckily didn't have to cut it off. Their lead piercer Mary was able to remove with just hands and gloves and minimal pain. Don't know if it was the hot shower or if yesterday's piercer was just not as experienced. Switched to 2.75mm ball backing, ear already feels much better but still very swollen. Going to give it a few more weeks to see if new backing digs into ear once swelling goes down. If not, I'll let it heal then switch to a hoop. If it does still dig and cause a sore, I'm taking it out for good. My advice to anyone who finds this in the future and has a stuck earring: If it won't come out, don't let them keep yanking, go home and bombard it with hot shower to loosen, neilmed fine mist spray aimed at threads, give ear time to rest, then go back and ask to see lead piercer. If not coming out and causing lots of pain, just ask them to cut it off. Maria Tash can clip off the backing so that the front piece is in damaged and can be reused with different backing. And when in doubt, get a second opinion.