My anti-tragus piercing, as most of my piercings seem to be, was completely spur of the moment. I had no plans of getting it when I did but I had done some research on BME on it weeks and weeks before today. I was sitting in my house today with one of my best friends and I muttered something to her about really wanting a new piercing. She had been begging me to get her a cartilage ring for her birthday which was coming up, so we just jumped in the car. We headed for the bank first since I had almost no cash on me at the time. Then we headed down to my usual piercing place, 23rd Street Body Piercing. It's always a nice little 25 minute drive down there but I'm devoted to that place; they ALWAYS do such a great job.
At A Glance Author Amanda Contact FirstClassSchizo@aol.com IAM AmandainOK When It just happened Studio 23rd. Street Body Piercing Location Oklahoma City, OK My friend was nervous, however she usually is. She's not that used to getting piercings on any sort of a regular basis and definitely not at the spur of a moment... she only had three at the time. I wasn't, but yet, I'm usually not, but again, I had 12 at the time. That's a pretty typical feeling for the two of us.
Anyway, we walked in, filled out all the paperwork, paid what I think about just about forty dollars for mine... well you all know how this whole process works hopefully. We had to chill in the front for a little bit cause they had to autoclave the jewelry for mine. I had decided to go with a 14 gauge instead of a 16... I tend to like the bigger sizes better.
After about 5 to 7 minutes, it was our turn. My friend had to go first because my jewelry wasn't quite ready yet. She wasn't too happy about that, she usually likes to see "pain" inflicted upon me before her. She did agree to it after a little bit of coaxing on my part. She looked at the size of the needle and almost balked. Everyone should know by now this if you are nervous about a piercing; looking at the needle does absolutely zero good in helping you get through the procedure. She got through it just fine, if any of you were wondering. Anyway, after that it was my turn.
We switched places on the table and I told the guy (I need to figure out NAMES... I'm really, REALLY bad about that) that I wanted it on my right ear. He cleaned my ear and marked it and after I had OK'd the placement, he had me lay down on the table. I did my regular pre-piercing process of focusing on a certain object and projecting myself somewhere else while he got the needle ready. Surprisingly if I can project myself into some sort of another realm, the piercing doesn't hurt at all. I'm being totally serious when I say that too. I vaguely remember him telling me to breathe in and then on the out breath, I felt a little sting and then needle was through. I always hear about how you are supposed to hear some sort of snap or pop or something when it goes through the cartilage but I never have and didn't this time either. A couple seconds and some pressure later, the barbell was in. He had to fiddle with the ball end of it for a little while. Those damned things a lways give me trouble too so I wasn't surprised at all. He asked me if I was ok a lot while he fiddled with it, but it wasn't hurting me at all. After a minute of fiddling, we both just sort of laughed about how those things are a pain and somehow, thanks in part to my friend and her undying drive to see me fulfill my dream of becoming a piercer, we wound up talking about how he got his job there and stuff like that. Definitely interesting to know, even if I know that I've got a long, hard road ahead of me if I'm ever going to do that. Finally the ball was in and everything was over and done with and I now have a really pretty anti-tragus piercing to go along with my 12 others. Piercing lucky number 13 I suppose.
That was about 9 hours ago. It's currently doing fine. I'm surprised at how little it aches. I remember some of mine ached for days after I got them (like my conch) but I even attempted to sleep on it for a little while and it didn't object one bit. I have a feeling that it and I are going to get along quite well. It's definitely a cute piercing and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone.