Ok, I've had my right tragus pierced now for about 6 months and my desire for symmetry finally got the better of me, and so one Tuesday afternoon, in a free period from college, I decide I shall go and make myself a little more symmetrical. I announce to my girlfriend I'm going to go and get pierced, but she decides she'd rather not watch so I'm all on my own, which didn't really bother me, I don't mind who's there as long as a come out with a safe piercing. And so I march into the city centre and make a withdrawal from the lovely cash point, and embark on my walk to the piercing studio. Now there's two piercing studios in Durham city, (at least when I got pierced there was, Steel Paint Brush has since moved away from the area). The first, Dare u, is brilliant for hygiene and for the staffs attitude, but they don't know shit about piercing, and still refuse to pierce tragus's because, 'it can kill you'. Steel Paint Brush aren't exactly wonderful, hygiene isn't great, but never mind, I like the people, the attitudes, and the atmosphere. So I walk in, and announce to the counter guy I'd like my left tragus piercing, please. 'Certainly sir', came the reply, 'take a seat, be with you in a minute'. So I take a seat, and pick up one of the tattooist's portfolios and have a browse while I wait. A couple of minutes later the piercer pops his head round the corner and shouts 'When you're ready buddy'.
At A Glance Author Tim Contact Tim@bme.anon When A year ago Artist forgot the guys name :( Studio Steel Paint Brush Location Durham So I'm all set and ready to go. I walk into the piercing room and take a seat on the dentist chair while the piercer readies his supplies and lays them out on a tray along side me. Jesus, I hate the look of needles. He starts off by cleaning my ear down with some antiseptic wipe, and then dotting my tragus, front and back with a surgical marker. All of the time he talks to me, which is good, because it stops me from looking at the needle for too long. I think its nice to be a little distracted, it stops my nerves from taking over.
He then announces that he is ready to go as long as I am ready to go. Sure I say, go for it. So the clamps are picked up, and my little tragus is held still, (I should mention that the piercer has changed his gloves about 3 times now) and he lifts the needle with his free hand, dropping the paper and plastic wrapping as it comes towards my ear.
He says, 'Ok Tim, we'll pierce on three' which is what he always says. However, he always pierces on two before I manage to tense myself up. So I'm expecting the stab when he hits two, but no. He said 'One' and the pow, it was through. He knew I was expecting him to pierce me on two and so did it straight after one. 'You fucker' I said, half through gritted teeth, half-laughing at him for taking me by surprise. Nevermind, I don't mind, I'm pierced, I'm safe, and it doesn't matter if I was expecting it or not.
So he effortlessly slides the needle out of the catheter and releases the grip on the clamps. I can see the catheter out of the corner of my eye; it's kind of cool. So he picks up a 1.2mm ring, with a 8mm diameter and feeds it into my tragus, gently sliding the catheter out and pushing a tissue up towards my tragus as a small trickle of blood emerged. He held it there for thirty seconds and then proceeded to clip the little ball into the ring, which proved trickier than the rest of the piercing altogether. Great, I'm pierced, feeling good and ready to go. He went over the after care with me very briefly, he knows I know what to do, having already pierced me 5 times.
I wont lie, its not a painless piercing, it hurts a little, but its nothing soul destroying. It made me grit my teeth for a few seconds and that's it, nothing major.
About a month after I had been pierced I began to notice a small lump on my piercing where it was getting irritated; the ring was catching on everything. My other tragus healed no problems with a barbell, so I decide that's the way to go. So I changed the ring to a 10mm curved barbell and left that in for quite a while, the lump disappearing as quickly as it came and healing up fine.
But one thing that always annoyed me was I now had a ball inside of each ear from the barbells, which made wearing headphones near impossible. And so I made the best decision ever regarding my tragus piercings, which was to stretch them up to 1.6mm and put labret studs in them, with the flat backs inside my ear. I find the labret studs a lot more comfortable than anything I have worn in my tragus before, and can wear earphones in peace. They are definitely a pair of my favourite piercings.