It all started when my friends were talking about getting one more lip piercing each. I wanted mine done, but wasn't allowed, so randomly decided to get my tragus pierced as I was to go with them and couldn't resist not getting anything done. We went into town, and they had a sign saying "Out to lunch, back at 2.30pm". The time then was 2pm, so we just waited. We came back and one of the guys explained that everyone but him was on holiday, and he could only do gun piercing. Everyone else would be back tomorrow, he said. Gutted, we went shopping. We knew we definitely wanted to get it done here, even though I'd gotten all my previous piercings in my hometown of Camberley – my friends had everything done at Under The Skin, and been very pleased with the results. So we just had to wait.
At A Glance Author Jo Contact theartificialsweetner@hotmail.com When It just happened Artist Gordon Studio Under The Skin Location Aldershot, Hampshire, England Moving swiftly onto the next day, we met in town. Nervous, we opened the door and went down the stairs. It smelt so clean, like a dentist. There were so many people it was packed, and we groaned, expecting to wait forever. My friend talked to the guy and explained who wanted what, and he said he would be ready soon. He made us sign things which we could hardly do due to shaking, and gave us the other half of the form. We each paid £15. After several belly piercings and my friends' lips, it was my turn. It's safe to say I was absolutely petrified having only been pierced with guns before.
Gordon was lovely. He told me to sit down and asked me what side I wanted. "Left please" I stammered. I was excited but stupidly scared at the same time. My friends were around me, having never seen their own tragus's being pierced (obviously) and wanting to watch mine. I held their hands tight.
He put me at ease by joking around and asking me if I was ok. My friend Ella and I were talking about Little Britain at this point and he did some silly impression which made us laugh loads. He started with the numbing stuff, which was like a spray. Ella said "this hurts the worst because it stings" and Gordon started spraying...about half an hour later (it seemed like), he stopped. Yup it was pretty badly stinging. Then the needle came...it was the weirdest feeling in the world. I could feel it going through, and there was a bit of pain, but not much, it was bearable. It felt just like a lot of pressure was being applied to my ear. It took more time than I thought to get the needle through, and he went to get a ring. Me being naïve said "is it done", opening my eyes to see a needle dangling out of the corner of my eye. I yelped and shut my eyes again.
Then he spent a while (I say a while, it was probably about 5 seconds) getting the ring through, and I think the numbing stuff started to wear off as I could feel him fiddling with my tragus. It was a strange achy feeling, and must've hurt a bit because I was making stupid screwed up faces and poking my tongue out (yeh like that was going to help me). He then went to get the ball of the little bcr, and the feeling started to come back to my tragus even more. My other friend with me at the time (Nat) had said beforehand that they had some trouble getting the ball on her bcr, but not for me! They had a new little tool that was like a pair of pliers...actually it probably was, that helped the ball pop right in. He announced I was done, I finally opened my eyes and let go of Ella's hand, got handed a tissue by Gordon and ran to the mirror to see my new tragus. I fell in love instantly. It was bleeding a bit so I had to keep dabbing at it, but I loved it. I thanked Gordon, grabbed my bag and the three of us ran outside into the waiting area to show our other friends who had been patiently waiting for us.
Many people in the waiting room were looking wide-eyed at us, freshly pierced. And that was it...we walked outside and got hit by the ice cold wind, at which I screamed because it hurt my tragus, and covered my ear and ran to McDonalds.
I absolutely love my tragus, I think I slept on it last night and it didn't hurt, although I advise against this if you can, because it bled a bit and went crusty, but I cleaned that all so now its all nice and beautiful. If you're thinking of getting it done, do it. It doesn't hurt much and looks lovely. But don't get it done at some cheapo place that does it with a gun, my friend did that about a year ago and it went seriously wrong, and I am so glad I chose to get it done properly. And so far, no regrets! I hope you found this useful; especially people who want to get pierced at Under The Skin because I had trouble finding anything done by people who went there. Go there if you live near, its excellent.