Making the decision to get a daith piercing was both the easiest and most difficult choice I've made about my body. It was easy because as soon as I first saw a picture of a daith piercing, I knew it was meant for me. No other ear cartilage piercing had ever seemed so appealing, but it was love at first sight. I obsessed about it a little: reading experiences and imagining how the placement would work on my own anatomy. But at the same time I was tormented.
At A Glance Author Rhapsody on a windy night Contact Rhapsody on a windy night@bme.anon IAM Rhapsody on a windy night When A week ago Artist Chris Studio Eagle Tattoo Location Oxford, England, UK I had always avoided ear cartilage piercings because I knew about the increased risks involved. If infections get trapped between two layers of cartilage, the problem can spread to the whole ear, even causing the cartilage to practically disintegrate. Antibiotics take a long time to act because the blood flow isn't a good as it is for any 'flesh' area of the body, and by the time drugs take effect you could already end up with a seriously mis-shapen ear. It didn't seem like a risk worth taking, when I pored over pictures of collapsed ears and swollen cartilage seeping pus. It seemed like keeping the piercing clean would be a pain in the neck, too, hindering the healing process and increasing the odds of getting complications.
But every time I looked a picture of a daith piercing, my heart literally ached to get it. I can't explain it! Although I have always been excitable and passionate about my other body piercings, I never felt such a mixture of nervousness, worry, joy as I did for the daith. My worries about the risks of cartilage piercings were gradually subsiding, because I kept noticing other people with cartilage piercings in the street (although none of them being daiths, oddly – it seems rare around these parts). It might sound cruel and judgemental, but I reasoned that if ditzy fourteen-year-old girls could care for their cartilage piercings, then surely I, after all my research, must have a pretty good chance at keeping mine out of harm's way! So despite the intense protestations of the doctors and relatives with whom I discussed it, I knew it was time.
I was visiting friends in Oxford at the time, and decided to coordinate the event with them. My friend Alex was itching to get his eyebrow done, and our mutual friend Rachel thinks piercing is barmy yet fascinating, so wanted to come along for the ride. We headed to Eagle Tattoo because it had come highly recommended, and the piercer there, Chris, has been adorning people with titanium for well over a decade. There's a lot to be said for experience. I very much enjoyed listening to him tut-tut over "young piercer upstarts who don't know what they're doing".
Chris was extremely helpful, and offered me free advice on my eyebrow jewellery before I even mentioned which piercings I wanted. I pointed out the ridge in my ear that I wanted pierced and we discussed placement. He agreed that it could easily be placed where it wasn't likely to grow out and it would still be sheltered by the rest of the ear. So while I pondered this, I sent Alex into the studio, and he emerged with a shiny barbell atop his eyebrow and a big smile on his face.
It was perhaps a mistake not to get the daith over and done with. I foolishly asked Chris to pierce my other lobe first. (I wanted to get a third piercing in one of my lobes done at the same time.) Although that was fairly uneventful, the pain made me nervous because it reminded me that the daith would be far, far more painful than a mere earlobe. I remember feeling a little shivery and worried as Chris changed his gloves and started marking dots on my ear for placement of the daith. I was more jittery when he said that, unlike with the earlobe piercing he'd just completed, he would have to push the needle through the cartilage quite slowly because of the nature of the piercing, it's awkward position and so on. But I was determined not to back down. I braced myself, trying not to think of all the experiences I'd read about the daith being the most painful piercing ever...
And it wasn't so bad. It hurt, sure. And the insertion of the CBR, the fiddling around while Chris closed it up and so on all felt extremely uncomfortable, but it was over too quickly for me to shriek with pain. I was ecstatic when I went over to the mirror to glimpse the ring peeking out of my ear, and Chris even lowered the price for me, seeing as I'd got two piercings done at once. Excellent!
My unpierced friend Rachel felt a little queasy after seeing her friends come out flushed with pain, but she had to admit that Alex's eyebrow and my daith looked fantastic. This is high praise indeed, coming from someone with such conventional tastes.
The only problem was the lingering pain. My ear ached for the rest of the day, and it only let up quite late into the evening. Falling asleep was awkward, since I had to get used to sleeping on my back, not wanting to disrupt either the daith in my left ear or the fresh lobe piercing in my right! A few days on, the ache in my left ear went away, but it still hurts a little if I smile too widely. So please don't IM me jokes that are liable to make me double over in laughter: I'm more likely to double over in pain because of the tugging effect it has on my new daith!
I love the way it looks, and it's worth the hassle of caring for it, although I am still very paranoid about it getting infected. I check it constantly for any signs of increasing redness, pus or anything else that might signal something going wrong. To give it sea salt soaks, I've found that the easiest way is to place a bowl of sterile sea salt solution on the floor and then lie on my side, submerging the ear in the water. It's a little more awkward than, say, soaking a navel, but you get used to it. When I don't have the legroom to do this, I soak cotton wool in the solution and hold it to my ear, or dip cotton-wool swabs in salt water and wipe the jewellery carefully. The CBR is still slightly difficult to rotate – it will move a little, but I don't want to force it too much, and I think it's normal for it to be stiff in the first week. All I hope is that things will continue to go smoothly in the healing process and that my beautiful daith will also be a healthy a nd happy one!