So you're interested in having your anti-tragus pierced? All I'm going to say to you is that I have 14 piercings and that was the most painful ever!
At A Glance Author Fran Contact franisurfiend@aol.com When Six months ago Artist Tony Wolf Studio Ancient Art Location Hayes End, West London I shall begin...
Right, my parents hate piercings, lets just say that they think they are common, but I on the other hand think they are so cool! Id already had 7 piercings in my ears and I wanted another. My boyfriend had just gone on holiday, so I thought I would take the opportunity to surprise him. Id decided that my anti-tragus was the way ahead, so I plucked up the courage (and the cash of course) to go and get it done. I first of all went to my friend's house, who thought I was weird for wanting that part of my ear pierced. We hopped on the bus outside her house, and it stopped right outside ancient art. I walked in the door and I was welcomed with the low humming of a tattoo machine, and a couple of people sitting nervously in the waiting room. I walked through to the piercing waiting area and my piercer Tony came out of his little room accompanied by a girl who'd just had her belly button pierced.
After a couple of minutes, Tony came over and asked what he could do for me, I told him that I wanted my anti-tragus and he agreed to do it.
I sat in the chair with the broken valve (meaning it dropped an inch every 30 seconds or so) Tony then put some latex gloves on, marked the spot where I was to have pierced and showed me in the mirror, I was happy with the placement. My heart was beating so hard I could have sworn I could hear it. I was asked if I wanted a bar or a ring, I said a bar, which I now regret.
Tony was doing something, I felt a sharp pain and then I thought it was all over! But I was nastily mistaken "that was just the clamp" explained Tony, who was laughing at me for thinking it was the actual piercing. (I hope everyone reading this is now thinking, shit this piercing must fucking hurt if the clamp is that painful!) When the needle went through, although it was over quickly, I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me.
(Before I go on, I don't want to deter you from getting this done, its just it really hurts!)
To insert the jewellery, my piercer then had to bend the needle upwards which hurt so bad! He then put a bar in it and I looked in the mirror and it was all bruised, it hurt to smile, but I was happy with it. I paid Tony his 25 pounds and I was on my way. I walked out of the shop and was already thinking, "what the hell have you done Fran" I thought I was mutilated; it hurt so bad, I didn't know what to think. My friend treated me to some wonderful KFC and I was feeling much better about it afterwards. For the next few days it was a fucker to clean, the ball at the back was really hard to clean around. It really hurt when I was salt soaking it but I stuck through it.
I occasionally had a few knock of it, especially when I was listening to my Discman. The earphone was really hard to put in my ear because it was still unhealed, it was even worse when an earphone got ripped out of my ear because it would tug! Argh! It was so painful!
I learnt a good thing since I've been having piercings and that is that when you have a new one, either wash your bed clothes frequently or wrap kitchen roll over your pillows, this can help stop your piercing from getting infected due to all the oils from your hair and skin getting into it.
After a while, I thought my anti-tragus had healed, so I stopped cleaning it (BAD IDEA) I got one of them lumps above it, it hurt like nothing I could describe, I couldn't even move the bar around (one of the advantages of having it pierced with a ring) I thought about going back to my piercer, but after a few weeks of constant cleaning, it was back to normal.
6 months down the line and I had the bar changed to a ring, the ball at the back made my ear feel really dirty and oily, so I changed it. It still becomes irritated every so often but im happy with it now. To all the people that will read this, I really don't want to put you off having it done because it's a really cool piercing to have, but it just fucking hurt. I always get people coming up to me at school and places asking me if it hurt, all I say is "like you wouldn't believe"