I got my tragus pierced in September 2001. My reasons for wanting this piercing were purely aesthetic, and it forms part of a larger ear project, consisting of a total of ten piercings around the edge of my right ear. Another reason for choosing the right ear was that having had another four cartilage piercings on that ear in the previous year, I had more or less trained myself to sleep on my left hand side, so the right ear would experience less problems due to pressure on piercings while sleeping.
At A Glance Author Titanium Angel Contact Titanium Angel@bme.anon IAM titanium_angel When Six months ago Artist Julie Studio Cold Steel Location London (Camden), UK After reading through some experiences on BME, I was convinced that I wanted the piercing, and that the procedure wouldn't be too hellish. I went into Cold Steel and booked for the piercing a few days in advance - this isn't always necessary, especially if you want piercings during the day in the middle of the week, but since I was passing the studio, I decided to book and pay my £5 deposit. Julie is an apprentice at Cold Steel, but as she was already qualified on tragus piercings, I paid full price - £20 plus jewellery - a blue titanium BCR - a total of £24.
On the day of the piercing, I arrived and did the usual routine of signing my life away, confirming I'd had no alcohol or drugs in the last 24 hours, had slept well, didn't suffer from various medical conditions, and that I was over 18. I also selected my jewellery and paid at this point, and was given my aftercare sheet. I waited a while, because they had only just opened, and were preparing the piercing room, then I was called up.
The piercing rooms at Cold Steel are really nice, they are bright and have very positive decor, such as clouds painted on the walls. Its a really calming experience. From this particular room, you could look out of the window over the Camden rooftops, which is good for taking your mind off you impending pain!
Julie was friendly and talkative as ever, and we chatted about this and that as she prepared the instruments, and marked my tragus. She was extremely enthusiastic about the piercing, because it involves lots of neat implements like clamps and receiving tubes "its like a little operation!" she enthused. And her enthusiam was infectious. It totally took the edge off any nerves I had, if anything I just became really intrigued about the procedure.
Once we were happy with the placement, Julie lowered the bench and made me lie down, with my head on one side so the right ear was uppermost. She then clamped my tragus, which wasn't particularly uncomfortable, let alone painful. The moment of truth was now approaching. As always, she lined up the needle, made me take a big breath in, and then breathe out, at which point she pierced me. The piercing procedure didn't hurt too badly, I was mostly aware of a lot of pressure being used to get through the cartilage. Before I knew it, the needle had been safely removed without any undue impaling, and the BCR was in. A little adjustment with the pliers to make sure the ball wouldn't fall out too easily, and the procedure was over.
Julie reminded me of aftercare, and also stressed that I should remember to use my left ear on the phone, the tragus is quite a prominent piercing, so there are issues of pressure from the phone pressing against it, as well as hygeine considerations.
In terms of aftercare, I relied mostly on salt soaks twice a day. I did briefly use benzalkonium chloride - although this can be problematic if it gets too old, with 5 cartilage piercings simultaneously needing cleaning, the solution didn't last long enough to start festering! More recently, I have moved away from this, however, and have gone for salt soaks, and occasionally cleaning with provon in the shower, being extra careful to ensure that all traces of the provon are rinsed away. That seems to work quite well.
For the first three months, all was well, hardly any problems at all. I caught the BCR with a hairbrush a couple of times, but it wasn't much of a problem. After 3 months, however, the problems started. At this point, my beautiful piercing became the Deviltragus. First there was just a little bit of hypertrophic scarring, and also a tendency to flare up just before my period. About 6 months after the piercing, the swelling was noticably worse, both on the front and the back of the ear. Eventually I concluded that the problem was the BCR - not pressure on it, but pressure caused by it. Essentially a vicious cycle in which pressure had caused swelling, but the BCR was not allowing the tragus room to swell, and was causing it to become more irritated. I decided to change the BCR and see if it made a difference.
I went to Tattoo Crazy in Cambridge to get the jewellery changed. I am not at all convinced by the studio's cleanliness, but in the circumstances, given that I could not get to London for a while, I decideded that not too much could go wrong with a simple jewellery change. I got the original jewellery (a 1mm x 8mm BCR) to a larger gauge and diameter (1.2mm x 10mm). The jewellery change itself was a nightmare, the woman panicked that she wasn't going to be able to get the jewellery in, even dropped the ring on my clothes, yet proceeded to put it in anyway (something Cold Steel would not do - they would get a new, sterile ring). The whole experience was frankly appalling, and I seriously considered getting up and leaving - but I was rather hemmed in in their tiny cubicle, and also I was desparate to save my tragus piercing. Eventually, she got the BCR in, and I left greatly relieved, to soak my piercing which felt remarkably tainted from the whole experience! The swelling m iraculously went down over the course of the next few days. When I am convinced that the piercing is well and truly over this incident, I may change the jewellery to a barbell, but at this stage, I am giving it a little more time with the larger BCR.
For all the problems I have had with my tragus, I still think it is a beautiful piercing, and I am really glad I managed to save it. Next time I will be sure to question the size of jewellery put in a piercing... since the original ring in this case was clearly too small. Cold Steel are an extremely reputable studio, and this was the only time I have had this problem (and it was not the piercer that prepared the jewellery for me, so it could have been a mistake). The small BCR was aesthetically pleasing, and would probably be fine in a totally healed tragus piercing but could not accommodate the pressures of the healing process.
I would recommend a tragus piercing to others, but would stress that by its nature, being a prominent piece of cartilage, it is likely to be slightly problematic. It takes a lot of patience to heal a tragus.