I had been looking on BME for some time, deciding what to get pierced. I knew I wanted to do something with my ears. I really liked the look of the tragus, also liked some of the orbitals, rooks, inner conch, and cartiledge. Had gotten my lobes done a few months before, wanted to have something more. I decided on the tragus because I liked the way it looks, and it was something not a lot of people in the area have down (outside the piercing world). I knew of two other people who had it, had never really seen anyone on the streets with it, so I went for it.
At A Glance Author Tom Contact bluedarkred@lycos.com Artist Megan Studio Tribal Ways Location Boston, MA There are only a few places in Boston to get piercing done, and while Tribal Ways (it cost me fifty two dollars here) is probably the most expensive, they're also extremely clean and operated by a very experienced staff. Well worth the extra dollars in my opinion. I had some tattooing done at Chameleon in Boston, and didn't really have a good experience (Tattoos turned out great, but the staff was sub par, seemed like a bunch of slackers and people who didn't really take their job seriously). My roomate had gotten his tongue done at Tribal, with no problem, so I knew they were reliable, did a good job, and gave great instruction to aftercare.
I was getting a little nervous while walking to Tribal. I had read so many different experiences on here, some saying it was extremely painful, some saying there was no pain at all. Of course I tended to lean more towards it was going to hurt, all the time knowing full well it couldn't hurt that much. They're great at Tribal though, and much like a dentist, explain every little thing they're doing, keeping one very calm.
I showed up to Tribal for my appointment, they went over all the cleaning and after care procedures, I filled out the piercee's bill of rights form, acknowledged that care was in my hands and was on my way.
First, they cleaned the area, then put the ring on my left tragus, asked if that would look good, then proceeded to mark the spot. They next clamped my tragus, told me to take a deep breath in and pierced. There was no pain, no noise of any kind, and some blood. She said some people bleed, some people don't. There wasn't that much though. She put the ring it, cleaned up any of the access blood and put a small bit of cotton in my ear to soak up any more than may come out.
Two days after I had it done, I woke up to my ear (outside, not in) being filled with dried blood ... but was told this would probably happen. There's a good chance of it bleeding up to 48 hours after. It was no problem though, cleaned it up, ear still felt fine.
It's now been about three weeks since the procedure and it still feels a little tender, but looks great. No problems with infection (cleaning it with Bactine and hot salt water while turning it a few times a day) or anything of that nature. From what I was told, it's about a two to three month healing process, which is just fine for me. Giving me ample time to decide on what I will do next.
If you are thinking about getting this piercing, I do recommend it! Like I said, I personally felt no pain. I was fully expecting to feel something, but there was nothing. It happens really fast, so I don't remember every little detail, I wish I had written this sooner. There was definetly no noise, as some people have described. They did inquire if I felt light headed or anything, which I wasn't. The day was pretty hot and humid, which would have aided my becoming dizzy. All was well though.
I highly recommend Tribal. I know there are plenty of places in Massachusetts that'll do your tragus for thirty dollars instead of fifty, but I really feel you get what you pay for. Tribal has free walk in help, you can email them or call them up, and they'll look at / fix you up, free of charge. I'm not made of money either, believe me I'll take a deal when it comes around ... but when it comes to things concerning my body, I don't want to screw around.
As of now, I'm looking into a rook or conch piercing for my right ear.
I'm sure all of your experiences will help sway me into one of them!
Go forth, have fun, be safe
Tom