I had always been into piercings and tattoos ever since I was little. I always thought that a piercing or a tattoo made that person unique and that their piercings and tattoos said a lot about them. And to this day I still believe that. I think a lot of time should be put into thinking about where you want them placed because they're going to be there for a long time unless you take them out. I'm passionate about my piercings and my tattoo and without them I don't think I'd fully be expressing myself.
At A Glance Author Naomi Contact devilish_chic31@hotmail.com When Six months ago Artist Sandra Studio Vic's Tattoo Studio Location Bangor, Northern Ireland On a trip into Bangor with my friend David from Dublin, I decided to finally go for it and get my tragus pierced. My dad had got some of his tattoos in Vic's and he said he was a good artist. I wasn't so much worried about Vic because it was his wife Sandra who took care of the piercings. I didn't really imagine Sandra to be as she was. She was quite old, but had some piercings herself. She wasn't behind the door either, she told things how they were and was also quite unsympathetic.
Anyway. We went into the reception and the place was covered with portfolios and the like. To the side was a glass window and behind it was the studio. A guy was being tattooed already but it didn't matter because there were two bays to be pierced or tattooed.
Sandra asked me what I wanted done and I told her I wanted my tragus pierced. A guy I know got his pierced and he said that the piercer talked through the procedure before anything was done and they talked about the aftercare and everything. But Sandra didn't. I didn't think there was anything wrong with this because I already had an idea of what happened.
The place was spotless and very sterile. I asked was it going to be sore and she replied, "I'm not going to lie to you, yes." I liked that she was honest because maybe some would cover up the fact that it was sore and then I'd have expected nothing. At least I knew now.
Sandra brought out new equipment from blister packets and cleaned my tragus. She then gripped it with a set of 'guided tongs' I'm not sure what they're really called but they're like a small set of sugar tongs with two alined holes so that the needle is put through the tragus in a straight path. She picked up the needle and put it inside the alined holes and pushed it through my tragus. It hurt for a slight second but then the pain subsided and I didn't feel that much.
She fed the captive bead ring (CBR) onto the needle and put it through the hole that had just been made. When she told me that that was it finished I couldn't believe it! I didn't even know she had put the CBR in! I had heard from other people that it took a lot longer than it did put mine only took five minutes at the most.
After she pierced it she asked for her payment and then I was free to go. The only thing I didn't like was that she didn't tell me how to look after it and that I actually had to ask her but apart from that I have no complaints at all.
When I got home I cleaned off the small amount of blood with luke warm salt water. I repeated this process three times a day and my tragus was healed within a month. It was sometimes a bit of trouble getting over to sleep at night because I got it pierced on the side which I sleep. I slowed down the healing process a little but apart from that it was fine.
However, about a month after the piercing a small lump appeared just beside the hole on the inside of my ear. I was a bit worried about this and I looked it up on the internet. I kept on cleaning my tragus with luke warm salt water and the lump eventually dispursed itself. It was a build up of puss and blood (nice, I know!) but it was nothing to worry about.
I changed the jewellery to a small stud, just a normal one that would be worn in the lobe. I kept it in for about a month, but the trouble with it was that it was hard to clean so then I bought some new labrets and CBR's. When I tried changing the stud for a CBR the problem with that was that the hole of the piercing has shrunk so I had to push the CBR through and this caused some blood shed and pain! But apart from that it was nothing and it's grand now.
Overal I'm very happy with the way my tragus has turned out and it was money well spent!