Reply #134: No, the holes don't close up. After not wearing earrings for 52 years,

[tblue37]

my grandmother put in a pair given to her by her great grandchildren. I haven't worn earrings in 24 years, yet last year I checked to see if the holes are still open--and they are. I know several women middle-aged and older (I am 60) who don't bother with earrings, but whose ear piercings are still perfectly functional when they try them out again after many years--or even decades--of not wearing earrings.

A pierced tongue will normally close up I believe (my son's did fairly quickly), and perhaps even pierced noses normally do (my friend's did). But a pierced earlobe doesn't--at least not the ones I have known of firsthand. I suspect the parts that close up do so because they are richly supplied with blood vessels.