I already had 3 piercings in each ear plus my cartilage done but I decided I wanted an ear piercing that was interesting and not as common as just normal piercings. I decided to look on BME at some options I had when I came across the snug piercing. I had never seen anyone with one before and thought it looked really cool so I looked at more pictures and read some of people's experiences with the piercing and decided I just had to have one. My brother was going to get an industrial done so we decided to go together and get them done.
At A Glance Author anonymus Contact anonymus@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Jake Studio Bushido Location Calgary, Canada We went on a Friday afternoon and told the girl at the front desk what we wanted etc. and she had us sign the forms, show ID and what not and then we had a seat. We had to wait about a half hour because the piercer I always get my piercings done by was piercing someone else at the time. As I was waiting I was not quite as nervous as I have been for previous piercings because none of my other earrings had hurt much. The only thing I was worried about was the sound. I had read by many people that it makes a horrible crunching sound when the needle goes through and that made me a little nervous because I have heard of people feeling nauseous and faint because of the sound but mostly I was just excited to be getting another piercing.
When we went into the room I explained what I wanted done (my brother made me go first) and I had to decide if I wanted a straight or a curved barbell. I liked the looks of the straight barbells better on the people in the pictures but I told him to do whatever he thought would look best because I trusted his opinion and he obviously knows a lot more than me about piercings. At first he thought a curved one then when he took a closer look at me and my ear he decided that the straight one would suit me best and I agreed. Then I also was asked if I wanted the barbell horizontal or at an angle and I decided I wanted it to be horizontal. So we chatted while he got out the barbell and the needle and receiving tube etc. Then he made the marks and away we went. At first I didn't even feel the needle going through at all because all I could hear was the crunching sound coming from my ear. The piercing itself isn't bad at all. It didn't hurt half as much as my navel piercing. But the sound of the needle going through each layer of cartilage is pretty weird. Also this is a pretty slow piercing compared to others because it's a lot of thick cartilage for the needle to push through.
The jewelry then went in which wasn't painful at all and it was done and it looked awesome. My ear was pretty red but it didn't bleed at all or anything. Then he did my brothers industrial and told us the aftercare instructions, which was just cleaning the earring 2-3 times a day with bactine and putting some lotion with vitamin E on it so that the area wouldn't dry out. Other piercers may give different aftercare suggestions but this one seemed to work awesome for me so I stuck with it.
The first few nights it hurt to sleep on my left side so I had to be careful and also had to be careful taking off and putting on shirts but after a few days it was fine. Snug piercings also take a long time to heal compared to other piercings but I knew that when I got it and was willing to take good care of it for however long I needed to.
I have now had my snug piercing for about 6 months. It still isn't fully healed but it's doing awesome. Over the past 6 months it's always looked pretty good, never been infected or anything it just sometimes gets irritated if it gets hit or if too much pressure is put on the outside bead when i sleep on it which probably slowed down the healing process a bit. I still clean it twice a day even though I don't really need to but i don't want to risk it getting infected or anything and I have to clean my other piercings so may as well keep this one clean and healthy.
Overall I would definitely recommend a snug piercing to anyone wanting a really cool and different looking piercing in your ear. Sure it may take a while to heal but if you take good care of it it's not a big deal and it's totally worth it!