At A Glance Author apocalyptica Contact apocalyptica@bme.anon IAM apocalyptica When Two years ago Artist Matt Studio Creation Body Piercing Location Thunder Bay, Ontario I love, adore and am simply crazy about conch piercings. I have three of my own and I love seeing them on others. Currently my three conch piercings are at four, six and ten gauge respectively. The four gauge that my right ear is currently sporting has been the longest and most troublesome of the three. Thus, I write an experience about it. About two years ago, I had my piercer Matt pierce my right conch and put a regular 14 gauge cbr in. It was lovely and the piercing went smoothly. I had heard horror stories about the loud crunch and the extreme pain associated with conch piercings. Luckily for me, I experienced neither of these and rather enjoyed the whole procedure.
Probably about six months to a year after the initial piercing, I had decided to stretch to a 12. Well, as it turns out, Matt slipped the 12 gauge cbr into my ear and I didn't feel a thing. So, he decided we could try going to a ten gauge. Again, I felt nothing as the ten slipped rather easily into my ear. We were tempted to try going straight to an eight gauge, but decided against that plan. The ten gave me no trouble whatsoever and I enjoyed the new weight that I had in my ear. I kept the ten gauge for a few months, before stretching up to an eight gauge cbr. I expected that we'd have to taper everytime I stretched my conch, but if memory sevres me correctly, I think the first time we used a taper was the 10 to 8 jump. Around this time I think I had both my second and third conch piercings added to my left ear and had stretched one of them to a 10.
Luck had been with me up till this point, when I decided in August of 2003 to stretch the 8 to a six. The cbr was very nice but also very heavy and I started developing scar tissue around the piercing. Downsizing to an 8 and using hydrocortizone cream cleared the scarring up within a week and as soon as it was healed, I attempted the stretch to a six gauge again but using a single flared tunnel, this time with great success. After a few months however, I observed the tunnel "sinking" into my ear which caused a great annoyance and worry. I decided that I should stretch to a four and over the period of a few weeks dealt with the greatest pain and hassle my ear will (hopefully!) ever cause me.
We started out with a four gauge tunnel which looked great but it hurt like no pain I have ever experience before. After 24 hours with the new tunnel in, I ended up ripping it out of my ear at work, then leaving work early to have Matt fix up my ear. I've never felt pain like the pressure that this tunnel was putting on my ear. After removing it from my conch with the help of a co-worker, I literally collapsed with relief and spent the next few minutes cleaning all the blood from my ear. At Creation, Matt cleaned up my ear(ow ow ow) and we put my 6 gauge cbr back into my conch. Days later we ordered a beautiful rivet style four gauge tunnel and had high hopes after installing it in my ear. After a few days though, the sinking happened again and I was all out of ideas until a friend from BME suggested using a barbell. So, the tunnel was replaced with a four gauge barbell which turned out to be the best idea ever as my ear quickly took to it and the four gauge healed no pro blem whatsoever. From now on, I think I will stick to barbells once I get the four gauge point or larger. The weight of a ring is too much and tunnels do not seem to work for me. I would love to get a double flared tunnel into my ear, but I don't have faith in it lasting longer than a few days. As for my other conches, they have stretched to ten and six with no major problems and at some point I will try taking those up to an eight and a four as well.
Lately I've noticed that most people have their conches dermal punched at a big gauge right away instead of doing the pierce and stretch method. The reasons that I haven't used dermal punching are twofold. For one, my piercer hasn't had much exposure to dermal punching and although he and I discussed punching before, I don't believe he would agree to it at this point. The second reason is that I have found my conches stretch extremely well and adapt to the larger rings with ease. In the future I think I will try dermal punching instead of piercing and stretching, just to compare the two. But for now, I rather enjoy my four gauge conch and eagerly anticipate the stretch to two gauge.