You are going to have to talk to a professional piercer about this, and I'm not sure if they will be able to give you a clear answer.
The fact that your first navel piercing healed with a scar when you had to take it out is a significant fact. It shows that you have the genetic tendency to form scar tissue/keloids. Your repeated piercing of the area has probably resulted in more scarring in the skin area. Scar tissue is different than regular skin, and has more "memory," that is to say it will resist manipulation and is tougher than your regular skin.
No matter what you do, the tough scar tissue may push the ring down, which in the end is only going to give you more and more scarring around your belly. Scar tissue isn't usually chosen as a piercing site, and this may prevent you from ever successfully healing a navel piercing in the location that you want.
As I said before, you should talk with a professional piercer about this. Get an honest answer, and if they aren't sure or just shrug and say they can put the ring back in, DO NOT go ahead and get your navel pierced again. Repeated piercing will only make the situation more difficult.
It may also have been your home piercing techniques that encouraged some of the scarring in the first place too. Unless you have access to professional quality piercing needles, you are using instruments that are not as sharp as you would want to minimize tissue trauma.
- Rae
