| At A Glance | |
| Author | der_narr |
| Contact | der_narr@bme.anon |
| IAM | der_narr |
| When | A month ago |
| Artist | Hilde |
| Studio | Madet Tattoo |
| Location | Bingen / Germany |
( I'm mentioning this one here because bme does not differentiate between the different cartilage piercings when it comes to experiences - so now you should know what this one is about)
Another week – another experience. This time I decided to give you all some information about my Inner Conch Piercing (in my right ear). The experience dates back about 6 weeks now, so I guess it's time to write about it.
Some weeks ago a friend of mine – Hilde – came to Duisburg for the weekend to party and hang out with me and some of her friends. So we decided that on that weekend she would also pierce my inner conch.
Friday came round and we had very nice dinner on my carpet, as there was no place for all of us at the table, later that night we went to various clubs and had lots of fun. The next morning, after breakfast etc we went off to my flat to get my conch done.
First Hilde cleaned the surface on which she would work – my desktop – with some disinfectant, then she laid out all her tools on that table and asked me to sit down in my chair. She inspected my cartilage and didn't find anything speaking against performing the piercing, so she went on and marked a spot in my ear where she would later pierce. As I had told her about my future plans of stretching my conch to 4.5 mm, she decided to place the hole a little bit more towards my skull. I checked her marks in the mirror and was happy with it, so we could continue.
Hilde then applied some skin disinfectant to Q-tips and cleaned my cartilage on both sides, so that there would be no more germs on my skin. On we went, and she broke the needle's packaging in front of my eyes, so that I could be sure the needle was sterile. Then she instructed me – in her uberfriendly way of talking – to shut the fuck up and NOT move until I was allowed to do so again.
There was no pain at all, when the needle went through, it just felt slightly cold and some pressure could be felt, but I would not call this "painful" in any way. She quickly followed the canula, which rested in my cartilage after removing the needle, with a 1.6mm Labret Stud made from Titanium, screwed on a 5mm bead on the inner side of my ear and I was done.
There was little to no bleeding. Hilde just wiped my ear clean with some Q-Tips after the piercing and then later, there were minimal crusties, but this definitely cannot be called bleeding I guess.
As aftercare advice she informed me that I would have to be quite careful dressing and undressing in the next weeks and look out not to sleep on my right ear for the next few weeks until the conch would be healed enough for normal use again.
For aftercare she instructed me to use sea salt soaks three times a day using a shot glass, but after some effortless tries I quickly changed this method to cleaning my new piercing using Q-tips dipped in sea salt water.
The first days of my healing period were really strange, as the new piercing was virtually painless as long as it was left alone and not touched, but every time I touched, moved or in any way made it move, it caused quite intense pain, this was a problem especially when sleeping and moving my head on the pillow. After some days, the pain nearly disappeared and there were constant crusties on both sides of the exit holes. Those could be easily cleaned away when soaked with salt water.
Another point I will not let unmentioned is swelling. Hilde had given me an extra long barbell to give enough room for swellings that might occur in the first days, but I guess I was lucky – there were no swellings at all, just a little bump on the spot where the needle had left my cartilage. This bump has until today almost completely disappeared.
So here are two pictures of me and My piercer Hilde, that were taken immediately after the actual piercing procedure. Enjoy !!!
Thank you all for reading my experience - I hope you enjoyed it !