About a year ago I was contemplating getting the inside of my ear pierced. It was different and a relatively original piercing (at least for my crowd.) I dropped by a piercing studio and found out the piercing a I wanted was called a conch, however I thought the price was kind of much for such a simple piercing (or so I thought at the time.) I figured I should just forget about it, but I couldn't get the piercing out of my mind.
At A Glance Author camille Contact camille@bme.anon When N/A Artist Blair Studio Passage Location down town Toronto My friend decided she wanted to get her navel pierced and I offered to go with her. It was the perfect opportunity to finally get my conch pierced. The whole way there I was calming her down because she has a thing with belly buttons. She was more nervous with the fact it was a navel piercing than the actual piercing part. So I never had a chance to even think twice about my appointment. Plus its just a part of my ear it couldn't be that bad.
We finally got to Passage (down town Toronto) and met with Blair our piercer. We both got the usual after care procedure talk and he asked if we had any questions. We were told to clean the piercing with a mild soap, without colours or perfumes (such as original Spectro Jel.) Getting a good lather on the area and the jewelry was important and then turning the jewelry to get in the piercing. We were told to do this two to three times a day and make sure we rinsed thoroughly so all the soap was gone. He advised salt-water soaks to encourage the piercing to heal faster. If we had any problems he insisted we give him a call or drop by and warned us not to remove a piercing if we thought it might be infected but to come back and get it looked after. Neither of us had any questions seeing as he had covered everything so precisely and it was not our first piercing so we had heard it all before. (However Blair is very professional and will always cover the after care instructions.) My friend went first and I still wasn't worried about getting pierced. Finally after her squirming for a while she was pierced and her jewelry was in place.
My turn came and Blair cleaned my ear, we discussed the jewelry, the placement and he marked my ear. He got everything ready and asked me to lie down. "Breath in. Breath out" and CRUNCH. I think I was more shocked by the horrific sound the needle made as it was pushed through than the shooting pain in my ear. All I managed to say was AOWWWWWW! I sat up and I felt the blood slowly running down my neck. I got to look in the mirror and it looked awesome, exactly how I pictured it. My ear was cleaned several times and finally we were ready to leave. As I walked down the street the cold wind stung my fresh piercing.
That night it was a little sore, but as long as I didn't touch it, it was fine. I tried to clean off some of the dried blood off the bar, without much success and I went to bed. Unfortunately I have a habit of tossing and turning a lot in my sleep. I woke up at seven or so to a crusty, blood stained pillow. There was dried blood in my hair; all down my neck and the stain on my pillow was the size of my entire hand. I normally don't have a problem with blood, but after I cleaned up I was so queasy and in a panic. By the time I got to school my knees were still shaking and according to my friends I was as pale as a ghost. I'm pretty sure I swore I would never pierce anything ever again (I think I lasted two weeks.) By the end of the day I had freaked out half my grade with my continuously bloody ear and was really starting to have fun.
By the second night there was no more blood and it didn't hurt unless I touched it. I didn't make the same mistake of sleeping on it again. (I wish I could say the same for the rest of my piercings. I had a similar experience with a bloody PJ top.) Besides the few times my ear got bashed around in a self-defense class and by my friends, I didn't experience any problems with the healing. I did the sea salt soaks for the first few months, which I would really recommend and clean it regularly.
Regardless, I love my conch piercing, it is definitely one of my favorites and I'd do it again. It looks great and there is a great variety of jewelry to decorate it. (Right now I have and orbital through my conch and my lobe.) Have fun piercing and be careful not to sleep on fresh ones. Learn from my little mistake.