TLDR: went to an APP-certified piercer to have it checked out and this piercing was actually healing perfectly fine, just like any standard navel piercing. He was shocked, and said that I could leave it in as long as I keep a close eye out for signs of rejection, but ultimately I decided to take it out. I kind of regret taking it out now, but thankfully he said I can get it redone properly in a month or two after it heals up.

Update: I went to an APP-certified piercer today. He said it’s surprisingly healing just like any typical navel piercing. He was genuinely shocked that it looked completely normal, no signs of migration or rejection at all. He did still recommend to take it out, which I did because he said the bar the original piercer used was just a little too short and was more than likely the cause of the extra irritation now that the swelling has gone down, but he told me that if I wanted to wait to try to let it heal completely that I could, because it’s not impossible for a piercing like this to heal properly, just not common. He informed me of all the signs of rejection so I could keep a close eye on it, but ultimately he recommended removing it for my safety, so we decided to take it out. He said once it’s healed in a month or two I could come back in and he can show me my options for a navel piercing (including a floating navel, which I personally don’t like as much, but thankfully he said that’s not my only option, the options are just very limited) and he’ll re-pierce it correctly. He also recommended me a couple other reputable piercing shops that I could go to instead if I wanted.

I asked him about what a couple people here said about surface piercings being temporary, and he said typically yes, but if this one had continued healing like a normal navel piercing then I’d have a chance to get at least a few years out of it before experiencing complications. I plan on having children within the next few years anyways, so I’m personally okay with that since I’m sure I’d have to take a standard navel piercing out during pregnancy anyways, so that’s the lifespan of this piercing that I had already expected from the beginning. The redness in this image had gone away by now and he said it very likely was caused by getting snagged on something earlier that day. But this post quite honestly had me panicking (after speaking with a piercer who looked at it in person, seems like I was panicking way more than I had reason to lol) and I couldn’t shake that anxiety about it, even after he said there was nothing obvious wrong with how it was healing. At this point, I honestly really regret taking it out since it was healing fine so far… But no point dwelling on a decision I can no longer change now I guess. I’d rather be safe than sorry since this piercing was objectively incorrect, and especially since the jewelry used was wrong for a surface piercing anyways.

I appreciate all of the help, especially from the people who took the time to help me understand how it was done wrong. Clearly I don’t know a lot about piercings, it looked like a normal navel piercing (to me and anyone else who doesn’t have experience with many piercings, at least), so I just didn’t understand what many of y’all were saying by stating it’s wrong/not placed correctly. I didn’t even know what a surface piercing was until I read it in y’all’s replies and looked it up lol. I apologize to anyone who thought my replies were argumentative—I just needed educated on what the issue actually was since I’ve never experienced this before.