I really hadn't wanted this piercing for very long when I decided to get it done. Really all that happened was that the piercing bug bit me square on my ass and something needed to be done about it. I have seen people with vertical lower conch piercings before but not many, and most are done at a fairly small gauge to begin with. Not me, I'm a crazy ass who likes to start big. So, the beginnings of this little adventure are rather dull but I'll tell you anyways.
At A Glance Author Doldrums Contact Doldrums@bme.anon IAM Doldrums When A week ago Artist Kevin Studio Splash of Color Location East Lansing, MI I decided about two weeks ago to make a "short" list of the piercings and tattoos I want to get in the next year or so. When I started to mentally make this list, I came up with the idea to pierce my conch vertically, and then I decided that I wanted to do it at a 4 to 6 gauge to start with. I took my idea to Emrys at Splash of color in East Lansing. Now, Emrys is not my normal piercer but I wanted an opinion that day as we were there shortening my wife's nipple barbells anyways. He offered me suggestions about the procedure and when I told him that I wanted to dermal punch it, he told me how one of his friends was performing the procedure and how his aftercare was different than most (it was quite interesting). So, we finished up with the purchase of shorter barbells and were on our way.
On May 12th, which is our anniversary, we decided spur of the moment to go to Splash to talk to our regular tattoo artist about some pieces he will be doing in the near future on both of us. In the process, my wife wanders up to the counter and asks about a daith piercing and while I'm being photographed by my tattoo artist, she ends up in the piercing room getting ready to do her daith piercing. She was pierced by Renee. So, while Renee is measuring and spotting up the daith piercing, Kevin walks in, checks her work, and my wife tells Kevin that I wanted to punch my conch. Kevin then "calipers" my ear and tells me that I could more than likely accommodate the piercing and that I should probably heal it with o-rings rather than the balls because of the weight. Renee wants to watch the procedure and possibly assist, as she's never done a punch before. No problem. On to the punch itself.
So we go back to the same room and I hop up on the table and Kevin begins cleaning my ear with Provon and then drying it. Not only did I get a little extra paper under my head, but I also got a drape around my ear, so, I figure they know something I don't know about the bleeding. Kevin then scores my ear and tells me to take a deep breath in and let it out, and to tell you the god's honest truth, IT did not hurt at all... The cork that was wedged in my ear hurt pretty good but the piercing was cake. Ok, so punch is through, stuck in cork. Now the fun begins. Punch is removed, the first thing that happens is that I can't really hear out of my right ear, no big deal, I kind of thought they stuffed some gauze in there. Next a warm trickle across the back of my neck, nope, not gauze. My ear canal filled with blood and all I could do was laugh...I laughed so much they thought I was crazy. So anyways, back to it, a six gauge taper is slid through, stings a little, not bad. then th e jewelry (6gauge 9/16" SSBB) is put into place, and o-rings are placed on either end. They begin to work feverishly on cleaning me up, because obviously I bled badly. They cleaned for like ten minutes or so (it was during this time that I realized my ear was full of blood). Then they announced me done. I sat up and cocked my head over to one side and let the blood trickle out, then I got some q-tips and cleaned out the clots with my wife's help.
The aftercare has been rather tricky on this piercing. Later that day we went for a long walk and I sweat quite bad sometimes, and needless to say I had blood down the side of my face again. I did nothing to my piercing that night. The next day, which I had off from work, was the first day of sea-salt soaks, three times a day for three days. This is where I made my first mistakes. I, like a dumb-ass, wasn't satisfied with the cleaning job I had done, especially under the o-ring, so I played with the o-ring and pushed the piercing around a bit to try to clean underneath it, man it got pissed at me. I went to work the next day, sweated, got home and soaked, showered, went to bed. I couldn't sleep, the pain was constant, I figured the o-rings were too tight, took them off (here comes dumb move #3), removed the piercing and placed the balls on it. Went back to bed, no big deal. Next day at work, I had to work 18 hours and about 9 hours in, my ear is throbbing. The weight had bec ome too much and was pulling on the piercing. I had to get the balls off and o-rings back on, so in the most sanitary way I knew of I took off the balls, removed the piercing (again) and put the o-rings back on. Instantly It was better. I took a bath and soaked my ear in there for about 20 minutes, and went to sleep.
Sunday at work, it was quite sore and swollen so big the jewelry wasn't even moving up and down. I got home and soaked the piercing again. On Monday, Provon treatments started. Later Monday night I soaked again. As a post script, it is now Wednesday and my piercing is doing exceptionally well. I just took a shower and washed the inside of my piercing with Provon. So, yes, I took it out again, but this time, it isn't all pissed off at me. All in all, I would most definitely recommend this piercing to anyone, especially if it's done with a punch, it's so much better than a needle when you're dealing with larger gauges. There are pictures on my IAM page if you have access. And, if you have questions feel free to drop me a line.