You can find some of my other experience on BME, septum piercing and lobe cauterizing.
At A Glance Author Alex Ireton, a.k.a Lex Contact Alex Ireton, a.k.a Lex@bme.anon IAM crazybrujo When A week ago Artist Nikki Studio London Piercing Clinic Location South Norwood, London
For quite a while I had been admiring conch piercing, after doing some further reading through BME and other websites I decided that I should have my left and right inner conchs done at 2.4mm, because the balls on 1.6mm barbells always get lost and are very difficult to put on and for some reason 1.6mm seemed like rather a "wimpy" size to me (1.6mm=14gauge, and 2.4mm=10gauge) I knew that having one done at a time would be the wisest choice because I'm one of those people who can not sleep on their back, I sleep on my side, which be irritating if I had both inner conchs done at the same because of the pain that would be caused in my sleep.
So on the 15 January 2002, I had originally intended to have a 2.4mm x 12mm barbell fitted into my septum piercing because I had a job the next day and I don't think that my employer would like a retainer hanging out of nose (I have a septum which I had done far back) and the retainer wouldn't flip up, so I had to go to the London Piercing Clinic (home of Patrick Bartholomew) which is my local studio, to get the barbell inserted, Nikki, who was the on-duty piercer, I asked her how much inner conchs were and she said that they did them for £25 and I said that I wanted both of my inner conchs done but I wasn't sure if I wanted one of them done that day, she put the barbell through my septum with a bit of a struggle, on a scale of 1 to 10 that was an 11, while I sat there recuperating I decided to have one of my inner conchs pierced, I took a while to decide which side to choose but I went with my right ear.
First off she put on some gloves and asked me how big I wanted to go on this piercing, I said 2.4mm and she then proceeded to get out a 2.4mm and a 2.4mm x 15mm barbell, which she then changed to a 12mm barbell because she didn't like the threading, she then cleaned my inner conch and the back part of the inner conch with a paper towel soaked in a chemical disinfectant (I don't remember being told the name of the chemical agent but I trust Nikki entirely) She asked me whether I wanted it pierced at an angle or straight, I told her that I really didn't mind and she suggested that I had it done straight, so I did. Now came the marking process, she got her purple ink pen out and asked if I wanted to mark it myself, I said yes and proceeded to accidentally scribble all over my inner conch, she cleaned it and marked it roughly where I had initially marked it myself, I asked if I could have it done closer to the anti tragus section but she said that it would be harder to clean so she marked it again and it was to my liking, at this point she changed her gloves and unpacked the needle and the jewellery and asked if I wanted this done lying down or sitting up, I opted for the lying down on the "examination" table because if I was sitting up I probably would have moved a lot when the needle went through. I asked on a scale of 1 to 10 how much this would hurt (1 not hurting at all and 10 like getting stabbed with a blunt object) she said that it's usually about 4.
So there I was lying down on my back with my head tilted to my right so she could work at a decent angle, she then told me to take deep breaths, so inhale-exhale-inhale-ex-push the needle through-hale, I felt the sharp needle making it's way through the cartilage and coming out the other end, this hurt a lot, she then let me rest for a minute or two to let the pain subside before she put the jewellery through, as it went through I said "5.... 6!", after the pain was hardly noticeable I told that she could put the jewellery through, she told to keep my breathing even as she did it because it helps relax people, the barbell slid through the hole very well after the needle but the movement hurt quite a bit, anyway, she then proceeded to place the ball on then end of the barbell. She then said "You're out to hurt yourself today, aren't you?" in that American accent of hers, I laughed at how true comment was.
At first she left about 1.5mm of the bar free on the inside of the conch but then thought that it would be hard to clean, so she pushed the bar back through leaving about 5mm on either side of the hole (the skin thickness was about 2mm) She let me rest on the table for a while so I could get my head together before I headed off home on my bike, once I was feeling ok I proceeded to pay via credit card and thank her for the piercing, she gave me the aftercare advice which although I already knew I decided to take it anyway, for your information it's 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt, not heaped teaspoons but flat ones, and mix it with a mug of hot water and let it cool down, then dip a tissue in it and place it against the piercing and then proceed to clean off any discharge formations with q-tips/cotton buds soaked in the saline solution. She also told me that once it had healed I should come back so that she could change the bar for a shorter one and that I shouldn't clean it on the first day but that it was ok to do so afterwards.
I got home and looked at it in the mirror and admired the piece of work and I then proceeded to take a couple of Neurofen for the pain which has only just now begun to disappear.
Skip forward one week:
I had my inner conch pierced over a week ago at 2.4mm and the healing process has only just begun. The ear was painful for about five days and hurt very much every time it touched something or was touched by someone, I've managed to realise that I have no sea salt and therefore can't make a decent saline solution.
The first day after the piercing I soaked my ear in a saline solution in which I used table salt, which didn't exactly help during my septum healing, but when I was down in Spain I used rock sea salt and it helped my lobes heal beautifully, anyway I soaked my ear and then proceeded to put on some disposable gloves and use some cotton buds/q-tips that I soaked and compressed on the afflicted area, one simple word describes the following feeling, ouch! realizing that crustiness probably wouldn't start forming for about a week I decided that to protect my fresh piercing from myself that I would refrain from cleaning it other than in the shower with the water.
When in the shower, which was about twice a day, I proceeded to tilt my head to one side and let the water fill the conch area and let it soften any blood that may have built up, I then wet some cotton buds/q-tips and very, very, gently probed the area and removed any blood that had built up, sufficient to say there was none.
Sleeping was another issue I had to deal with, knowing that I couldn't sleep on my right side sticking to my left side was the most advisable plan unless I wanted to wake up screaming in the night like a full grown man who just got kicked in the nuts. I woke up a few times in the night when I was putting a slight amount of pressure, at least I'm not a violent sleeper or I would have been in pain!
Clothing, putting on t-shirts and jumpers was done with ease, just simply pulling the t-shirt in the direction the ear was pointing made it avoid the ear altogether, which is good because I didn't really want to suffer any more pain at the hands of this lovely new hole.
Friends, with the relationships I have with some of them I sometimes hug them as a greeting and one friends in particular wraps her arms around my around my head, quite fast as a matter of fact, once she did this and I was in so much pain I nearly cried, it took me about three attempts to get through to her to warn about the fresh work.
Today I woke up and felt no more pain when pressure was put on the ear, I couldn't exactly lie down on it because it was uncomfortable, but the pain was virtually gone and I was glad that I didn't have to worry about the amount of pain that I could have been in if somebody accidentally hit my ear.