At A Glance Author Danielle Contact mystic_affable@hotmail.com When Three months ago Studio Area 51 Location Wisconsin, home of the ...Uhm... Ask anyone with a tragus piercing if it hurt. I guarantee 98 % of them will say "It hurt like hell!!" This is what I've always heard at least. I've known people with tongue rings, nipple rings, countless ear rings, genital piercings, etc etc , who, when asked if it hurt, told me it was the most painful piercing they've had by far. Most of these people aren't that into pain, so it occurred to me, if it hurt so bad, why'd they get both sides done? But I still let their horror stories stop me from getting one myself, even though I desperately wanted one, but that was about to change.
One day while I was wandering our town aimlessly with my friend, I decided I wanted to stop in and get a piercing. After debating for a while,I decided I'd go for an industrial piercing, because I liked how they looked. Well, my piercer messed it up, and ended up having to force the jewelry into the newly pierced holes. THAT hurt, and it seemed to take him forever to get it in.. or at least it felt that long since I was in a lot of pain. Well he finished and handed me a mirror and I decided it was well worth it.
That night, as I lay in bed, looking at my new piercing, I decided that if I could get that pierced, I could stomach a tragus. After all, no matter how badly it hurt, the worst part would be over within a matter of seconds. So the next day I scrounged up twenty more dollars and went back to the man who had pierced me the day before. (I figured his mess up was just a fluke, however I later found out that he had been fired a few weeks after I'd been pierced by him. Apparently he was incompetent, and it was obvious to the people he was piercing. I of course was oblivious to it, as I am to most things)
I didn't have to sign anything since I was just in the previous day, so all I had to do was wait while he got ready, and anticipate how much pain I was soon going to be in. Finally he came out and told me he was ready. This was it, no turning back now. I went with the same friend I had gone with the day before, and once again she came in back with me to watch. I think she feeds off my pain, but that's another story.
I sat in the same chair, and watched him prepare the needle. I kept pinching my tragus, to see if I could get an idea of what kind of pain I was in for, but it wasn't helping any. He leaned my chair back and told me to relax. I felt him pressing the needle against my skin, I wanted to tell him to stop, forget the whole thing, but I'd come this far, I figured I might as well get it and be done with it. He said 'take a deep breath ...one....two...three' I felt a pinch, and waited for more, but nothing happened. I waited for a second and finally said "You've got another layer to push through right?" He said "nope, that's it." He put in the hoop, put my chair back up, and handed me a mirror. It was over within seconds.
I couldn't believe it, but I looked in the mirror and sure enough, I had a brand new beautiful piercing, that hardly hurt at all. I was so mad that I'd let everyone's horror stories stop me from getting a piercing that I'd wanted for so long, but elated that I'd finally gone through with it.
The next day I decided that I liked the tragus piercing so much, I was going to go back and get the other side done. After all, now I knew it hardly hurt at all. So I showed up with a different friend, who wanted to watch it being done, because she wanted one too, but is a huge chicken. She came back with me, and once again the same man took me back to the same chair. The only difference was this time I wasn't nervous at all. He did the same routine as the day before, and once again it was over in seconds. It was beyond worth it.
My advice is if you want it, get it. I know everyone feels pain differently, and one persons severe pain may be another persons slight pinch, but no matter how much it may or may not hurt, it'll be over with in seconds, and all you'll have left is an awesome piercing. And when people come up to you and say "did that hurt?" You can reply with "it hurt like hell!!" :)