I've had mine done for 5yrs in April, lol. I <3 them.

The first day or two they were super sensitive, but then that died down once your body gets used to it. As for healing time - that depends on the person [obvi] but within the first week I was at work in a pool [swim lessons / lifeguarding... small kids and lots of random hits, lol, and pool gross-ness] and I had a guy playing with them w/i the first week and a half without issues.