What are keloids?

How are they formed? What can cause them?

The reason is I'm wanting to get my nipples pierced, and my mom told me not to because she said our family is suceptive (spelling!) to keloids and she's afraid that could trigger it. Could anyone give me some advice? I have to admit, I tend to not trust my mom sometimes, she tells me things just to get me not to do other things, lol.

But could a nipple piercing trigger it?

keloids are very unsightly scars that happen from cuts or injuries. my sister got one after her c-section (poor thing!) and my husband has one on his arm after he got cut on a rusty fence. it looks like a worm is stuck under his skin. they are nasty and very hard to get rid of, your mom probably just doesn't want you to pierce your nipples but if there is ANY truth to what she said i'd reconsider.

A keloid is a special type of scar which results in an overgrowth of tissue at the site of a healed skin injury. Keloids are firm, rubbery lesions or shiny, fibrous nodules and can vary from pink to flesh-colored or red to dark brown in color. Keloid isn't lethal but a keloid scar exposed to the sun can increase the chance on getting skin cancer. A keloid is benign, noncontagious and usually painless (although sometimes can be accompanied by a sharp pain), but they can be a cosmetic problem.

Keloids should not be confused with Hypertrophic scars, which are raised scars that do not grow beyond the boundaries of the original wound and may reduce over time.

they are scars that stick out

In laymans terms.. it means that your body "over scars"..and you develop an ugly formation of skin above the Injury or piercing when it heals. Aloha

keloids are areas of raised pink or red fibrous scar tissue at the edges of a wound or incision.

What is a keloid?

Keloids can be considered to be "scars that don't know when to stop." A keloid, sometimes referred to as a keloid scar, is a tough heaped-up scar that rises quite abruptly above the rest of the skin. It is irregularly shaped and tends to enlarge progressively. Unlike scars, keloids do not subside over time.


What is the difference between a keloid and a hypertrophic scar?

After the skin is injured, the healing process usually leaves a flat scar. Sometimes the scar is hypertrophic, or thickened, but confined to the margin of the wound. Hypertrophic scars often subside by themselves (a process which can take one year or more). Treatment such as injections of cortisone (steroids) can speed this process.

Keloids, by contrast, may start some time after the injury and extend beyond the wound site. This tendency to migrate into surrounding areas that weren't injured to begin with distinguishes keloids from hypertrophic scars. Keloids typically appear following surgery or injury, but they can also appear spontaneously or as a result of some slight inflammation, such as an acne pimple on the chest (even one that wasn't scratched). Other minor injuries that can trigger keloids are burns and piercings.