On Valentine's Day 2004, all my current beau wanted was his nipples pierced, but didn't know what he wanted to get me. So we came to a compromise that if I went to his favorite studio and paid for half of his nipple piercings, he would then drive me across town to MY favorite studio, and pay for half of any piercing that I wanted to get.
At A Glance Author cuthalcoven Contact frozenfire98@hotmail.com IAM cuthalcoven When A year ago Artist Dorian Studio Steel Addictions Location Toledo, OH We went to his shop, NeedleMasters, and he got both of his nipples pierced. I expected him to be a big baby, but he wasn't, although he did make me hold his hands. Next, we got into the car and headed all the way across town to Steel Addictions. They're the only place I'll get anything pierced, since they've been nothing but great and I got my first piercings there when I turned 18.
All the way, I was trying to decide what I wanted. Usually I don't do things on a spur of the moment, I like to check out risks and rejection rates, look and pictures, read experiences, etc. Since I'm so nit-picky, I knew that I had to choose something that I had already looked at. This way, I wouldn't be so nervous and I wouldn't regret it. I chose to get my right anti-tragus done. Right because I'm hearing impaired, and my hearing is better on my left, so I usually use that side for the phone and things.
So we go into the shop and I walk up to the counter. It wasn't very busy, so Sean came over to help me out right away. I told him what I wanted done, and was quite embarrassed when he corrected me...apparently I pronounced it wrong. It's tra-gus, not trag-us. Hmph, who would've thought?
I sat down and waited about 10 minutes for the piercer, Dorian, to disinfect the room and get his supplies out of the autoclave. When I was called back, I demanded that David come with me and hold my hand, since I had held his!
The room was spotless, as usual. I climbed onto the little doctors bed thing that they have, and listened as Dorian explained the piercing. Basically, healing time is 3 months usually, as long as you take good care of it. Cleaning is with mild Dial soap once a day, and a sea salt soak once every couple of days. The jewelry used was a 16ga captive bead ring , etc etc etc. This piercing would be absolutely nothing to worry about since I had already gotten my nipples pierced there.
Basically, I laid down and he clamped my ear, marked it, and pronounced that I had exceptionally "soft" cartilage, which would make a great spot for the particular piercing I wanted. I checked the marks and "okay-ed" them, and laid back down again. We did some inhales and exhales, and the needle went though. It hurt a bit, and there was a lot of popping and lots of pressure. The needle came out, jewelry was threaded through, and the bead was popped in.....the usual piercing experience.
Forget that, it's boring and you've probably already heard it in a million experiences.
Now, what you haven't heard is....how in the world do you clean this damn thing, now that you have it? Seriously, I have no idea how to sea salt soak my own ear, without giving myself one hell of an ear infection. Dial soap was going nowhere near my ear either, since I have chronic ear infections already, I don't need to make it worse.
If you're like me, then my healing aftercare should work wonders for you. After I started doing it, I talked to Dorian and he said that when you get chronic ear infections, it probably IS best to not try and soak any piercing that could lead to getting water or soap into your ear.
Twice daily, heat up a shot glass of water with a pinch of sea salt. Make it hotter than you can stand it, as it won't be going on your whole ear. Dip a cotton swab in it and saturate it with water, then slowly clean around the ring, making sure to get all the crusties off. Now, get another swab saturated, and move the ring slightly, making sure to get some of the sea salt into the hole itself, and to get the lymph secretions off of the ring just inside of the hole. Don't dry your ear off or anything, let the droplets of salt water cool on the ring. This feels great, and provides the same relief that a soak does to my other piercings. My piercing had a fully healed fistula in 2 months, a month before the supposed healing time. I was very happy, but decided to wait the full three months before messing with it, just in case.
After three months has passed, switch to a curved barbell as soon as you can. Anti-tragi are known to be finicky and get irritated if you sleep on them and the ring gets wedged onto the pillow. I woke up with mine hurting like hell almost every morning after I had slept on that side during the night without realizing it. Once the three month mark passed, I went out and bought a curved barbell right away! As soon as I switched to the curved barbell, the problem seemed resolved, and it felt great!
Don't get acrylic. Because I was due for minor surgery, when I decided to switch to a barbell, I got acrylic so I wouldn't have to change it again. This was quite a mistake. It was fine for a week or so, but then it started getting irritated and crusty again. I finally realized what it was, and changed it to a Stainless Steel bar, and it started feeling better.
Now, after 8 months, it started hurting again, and developed a small boil on the outside hole. I started up the sea salt swabs again, and patiently waited for it to pop on it's own. (Some people pop them with needles and such, but be aware that this can cause more trauma to the piercing, and can introduce more bacteria that is detrimental to healing.) After 3 days of using the hot swabs, the boil popped and I started getting lots of crusty lymph on the outside of the barbell, and where the boil was located. I started using the hot swabs to loosen the crusties, then gently removed them with the edge of the cotton to clean off the ring itself.
It's now a week later, and the boil and it's remaining crusties are gone. I went back to Dorian, and we decided that the curved barbell was probably stressing the piercing, as it was an eyebrow ring, and was rather long for my anti-tragus piercing. We switched it out to a shorter curved barbell, and I'm hoping that it does better now. I'm continuing to baby it like it's a new piercing, so that it'll settle down quicker.
Dorian said that the inner fistula is still well healed, and so is the inner hole, since I always kept the barbell flush with the inner hole, and left the extra length coming out of the outer hole. I just have to make sure that the outer hole calms down, and keep the shorter bar into it.
Moral of this story is; check with your piercer before changing things. Sometimes, a perfectly healed piercing can start acting up out of the blue, just because you changed the jewelry or something similarly inconsequential to you...but not to it.
This may seem like a lot of hassle for an anti-tragus piercing, and maybe it is...but I have to admit, I really love it. I couldn't imagine taking it out, as I'm so enamored of it, and I'm the only one I've ever seen in Toledo to have one. Besides, it was a Valentine's Day present, and so it stays!:) I highly suggest that everyone interested in this piercing to go and get one, just make sure to stay away from the pitfalls that befell ME, and your piercing will do so much better than mine has been! I hope you've enjoyed my experience, and I hope it's helped some of you.
And finally, if you're ever anywhere around Toledo, or even if you're not...a visit to Steel Addictions is well worth the trip! The staff is friendly, helpful, and very knowledgeable. I'd never get any work done anywhere else...and I recommend them to all of my friends and family who want piercings.