I'm was walking around campus on my way to class, and all of a sudden I realized that what I really want to do on that Tuesday evening was get a new hole poked in my head. I even knew what that hole was going to be. My anti-tragus. It had been one of the piercings in my newly formed ear plan. I happened to have some extra money so I decided to give Exotica a call. It turned out that the anti- tragus was forty dollars, the exact amount I had extra. So, I roped my room mate into driving me, and we were off.
At A Glance Author Anguissette Contact BrokenAnguissette@gmail.com When A month ago Studio Exotica Location Orlando, FL There were tons of people there, more than I think I had ever seen. That wasn't too big a deal though I have't gotten a piercing yet that didn't have an audience. When I came in and mentioned I wanted my anti-tragus my piercer popped up, remembering me from my phone call. He asked me to point to the part of my ear I want pierced, and was surprised that I pointed to my anti-tragus. He was impressed that I had actually known what my anti-tragus was. Apparently a lot of people come in asking for it and want something completely different.
So after that he prepped the room, wiping everything down and setting out the little packages with my micro barbell and the needle. After everything was set up he had me come in and take a seat on the table thing. My room mate and boyfriend were lingering in the door way, jeering at me about how bad it was going to hurt and one of the piercer's friends possibly an apprentice was leaning in the room so it was quite full in there. While I was sitting there he got out his little purple marker and we started talking placement. He gave me a toothpick to show where I wanted it, and I thought that was a really good idea. Let's face it fingers are just too big to be exact on such a small piece of skin. There was the usual five or ten minutes to get the placement just right then I lay back on the table.
My piercer started poking around with the needle, assuring me he wasn't piercing yet. Just checking to see which way he'd have to do it to make sure he didn't poke anything else. So, I'm relaxed, did that calm breathing and tried not to think about how much it was going to hurt. I assumed he was going to warn me somehow before piercing. I was so wrong. After a couple minutes of poking around the needle was suddenly piercing my cartilage. It was a surprise that was for sure. I was more surprising than painful which I was and am thankful for. It actually hurt a lot less than I had expected. Putting the jewelry in hurt a little, but that's always more painful than the actual piercing for me.
It took only a second or two to get in the micro barbell after the piercer got a new ball. One of the first one's fell into my hair, and he wouldn't put that one on the barbell after that. I was kind of glad about that personally.
Well, right afterward I stood and got that blood rush to the piercing and it felt like that tiny bit of skin had inflated to a huge size. It looked great though. The placement was perfect, and the piercing itself was overwhelmingly cute. I probably spent five minutes staring at it right there. After which I remembered that I still had to pay for it.
On our way out my piercer asked if I really wanted the after care sheet, promising he would give me one if I really wanted. My room mate and I assured him that we could handle it, and it having been the millionth time we'd been into the shop he agreed that we knew what we were doing and said he'd see us later.
My healing so far has gone great. I have been doing two sea salt soaks a day and rinsing in the shower, and I've had no problems. Obviously I sill have a long way to go before it's fully healed, but I think I've gotten off to a great start. I'm actually surprised that it's not been horribly painful. The initial piercing did hurt, but not that bad and it hasn't hurt since at all. With any luck the rest of the healing will go as smoothly as this first month or so has.
I've got to say that I love Exotica and my piercer to death. I don't think I would have trusted many piercers to do cartilage, but he did a great job and I am definitely going back to him for the next cart on my list.