About 2 years ago I was pierced using a 6g needle in my upper left cartilage. At the time I was unaware of the dermal punch method and its recommendations for being used in large gauge cartilage piercings. It had taken me a little while to find a shop that would do an initial cartilage piercing on something bigger than an 8g. Needless to say the place that I was pierced at has since closed down.
At A Glance Author Ricco Q Contact Ricco Q@bme.anon When A month ago Artist don't know Studio Smoke This Location San Diego, California I got the piercing-no problem. Being used to pain, I actually enjoyed it...Okay I really enjoyed it. It healed up fine with no problems but I really wasn't satisfied. I wanted to go bigger. I decided to get it stretched to a 4 gauge so I headed back to the shop. The stretching went even easier than I had expected-apparently the wooden plug I had in was already slightly larger than the 6 gauge I was used to. I was super happy with the look of it. People would freak when I told them how large of a hole I had in my cartilage. After about 8 months with the 4 gauge however a keloid began to develop, much to my concern.
I tried everything I could to get it to go away but to no avail. Aspirin paste, vitamins, oils-nothing worked at all. After 2 months or so of doing battle I finally decided to remove my beloved piercing. This did nothing to curb the growth of the keloid. It seemed to grow faster after the piercing was removed. It continued its growth for about 3 months after the plug was removed. When it finally stopped it had reached about half the size of my thumb pad (fairly large).
It didn't bother me that a keloid developed, but at times it was very painful. Some days I would have to sleep on the other side because any pressure would cause searing pain. At the time I was also involved with sports (water polo and wrestling) which required a lot of contact that didn't help much either. After ignoring it as long as I could, I finally decided that something had to be done.
After several doctor consultations and half a dozen pictures later, I was finally able to see a surgeon that agreed to remove it. This again was after a cortisone shot failed to shrink its size. I found myself sitting in a chair much like the one I was initially pierced in, feeling much of the same adrenaline rush as I had previously felt. About 3 anasthetic shots the doctor began cutting away, the keloid was so large it required eight stitches to seal up the skin on the back of my ear! The doctor put the removed keloid in a jar so I could actually look at it and it grossed me out because it actually looked like a small fetus. At first I was kind of sad to lose it, as it had always reminded me of my piercing. I was uplifted by the fact that my ear still did not look "normal" but more on that later...
The doctor explained to me that some people are prone to developing keloids and that was probably what my problem was. I had also developed smaller ones on my left ear from an industrial piercing I had. I thought it was a bit odd though since I had also had my nipples, eyebrow and lip pierced before with nowhere near similar results. I even have about 24 hours worth of tattooing on my body and none of that keloided up either. He warned me never to put another hole in my body again or I could end up with the same results, but with at least another dozen or so hours planned in the tattoo chair I basically rolled my eyes and replied with an unenthusiastic "Sure thing, doc!"
The removal was about a month or so ago and my ear is now completely healed. Now back to the part about my ear still not being normal: Initially the entire hole had keloided up into scar tissue and I had figured this would all be removed by the doctor. It wasn't until after the procedure when the doctor explained that the whole scar tissue could not be removed or I would be back to a 4 gauge hole in my ear. What he did do was remove the large part of the keloid that had grown off the back/top of my ear. From the front however there was still a small "plug" of scar tissue that would remain visible. It now looks like I have some kind of disc implant in the upper cartilage of my right ear. From the back of my ear everything looks as if I had never been pierced, only from the front can you see the remnants of my plug. Several people have since asked me what type of mod it is, and I end up telling them with a smile that it's just a souvenir.