Up until about a little over a year ago, I had nearly virgin ears. My mother had taken me to have my lobes pierced at a very young age, but, as I was about three months old, I have no recollection of that. In fact, I never have really been overly fond of my lobe piercings. I rarely wear jewelry in them, with the exception of when my mother would push through a pair of earrings for family pictures, weddings and whatnot when I was younger. Even growing up, I never really wanted them, or any other piercings for that matter.
At A Glance Author Andrea Contact Andrea@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Jayson Studio Altered Egos Location Champaign, IL That all changed when I was 19, during my sophomore year of college. I had seen pictures of tragus piercings, and I decided fairly spur-of-the-moment to have my left tragus done. I liked the experience so much that I returned soon after to get the matching set. This kind of started a chain reaction for me—when 6 months had passed from my first tragus piercing, I had a total of 8 new piercings in my ears—right and left rooks, right and left conches, and two upper cartilage piercings, and my tragi. I never really had much pain with any of my piercings, which is perhaps why I have kept coming back for more.
Nearly a year passed with no new piercings, and I really thought I was finished with them. I had been thinking about getting my anti-tragi done, but never very seriously. I am only allowed to have two piercings per ear with my job, so I figured that another one would just be a hassle.
However, I looked back on everything that had happened in the last couple of months for me, and I decided to get my anti-tragi done to sort of symbolize everything that I had gone through. My parents, who have been married for 27 years, decided to get divorced, I was in a car accident (I was not at fault) and totaled my car, and I broke up with my long-term boyfriend. I was fairly bummed out with all of these things, and I needed to get my mind off them, at least for a little while.
I have gotten all of my piercings (with the exception of my early lobes) done at Altered Egos in Champaign. Jayson, the piercer there, has the most piercing experience of anyone in Champaign, and everyone that had anything to say about him has sung his praises. I stopped by on the day before I planned on my piercings to check and see that the jewelry I had chosen, curved barbells with spikes on the ends, would work in my anti-tragi. With all of my other piercings, I had just gone with the CBRs that Jayson recommended. However, for my job (I started working there about 4 months after my last piercing) I need something that can be removed and replaced fairly easily, and I'd changed all my CBRs over to barbells with screw-on ends. I wanted to make sure my jewelry would be okay to use. Jayson said they would be fine, so I told him I'd be by tomorrow.
I headed to Altered Egos around 1 p.m., and I gave Jayson my jewelry to sterilize. I talked with some of the other people working there—who, by now, were quite used to seeing me. Jayson called me back into his room shortly thereafter, and we talked a little bit about what kind of positioning I wanted. He cleaned my left ear thoroughly, then stood next to me in front of a mirror and marked my ear. I sat back in the chair, leaned back, and Jayson clamped me. He explained that his hands were too big for him to do the piercing freehanded. I barely felt the actual piercing—the clamps were the only part of the process that was painful. As soon as they were removed, my anti-tragi just felt slightly warm with a dull pressure. We waited about five minutes, then Jayson repeated the process on my right ear.
The minute that the clamp was removed and I got to look in the mirror, I was very pleased with the result. My anti-tragi actually bled the most of any piercing that I've had done. With every other one, after Jayson initially cleaned up the small amount of blood, they never bled again. Tonight, though, I'm still getting the last of the blood off. I am very meticulous about cleaning my piercings—I use Dial Antibacterial soap carefully on each of my 10 piercings when I'm in the shower daily, and I use q-tips to apply saline solution to them 2-3 times a day.
I love the way my ears have turned out. I wear surgical-grade 16 gauge curved barbells with screw-on spikes on each end in my rooks, tragi, anti-tragi, and cartilage. In my conches, I wear 14 gauge labret spikes. Although they are well healed, I'm still a little nervous about leaving my piercings completely out when I am working, so I just unscrew the spikes and replace them with clear retainers. I do have a lot of piercings, but with the size of the jewelry I wear, they are fairly subtle.
I have gotten a lot of criticism for all of my piercings, mainly from my small, white "everybody-knows-everybody" hometown, but what is important is that the piercings make me incredibly happy. I would very much recommend an anti-tragus piercing, as well as any other piercing, to those who are doing it for themselves. After the slight discomfort, it is highly rewarding.