At A Glance
Author	ConchyMcBleed
Contact	ConchyMcBleed@bme.anon
IAM	ConchyMcBleed
When	Six months ago
Artist	Jay
Studio	Smoke Dreams
Location	Melbourne

When I first got my right conch pierced, I knew 14g wasn't enough. It just seemed so puny. So I began the somewhat arduous task of stretching it, after waiting a year for it to heal. For some strange reason I had my sights set on 8g.

Now I was fully aware of the pain involved in stretching such thick cartilage and pressed on. I reached 12g in no time, just pushing a cbb through the hole with a little cringing. I realise with the external threading that wasn't such a smart idea. But it didn't seem to irritate the piercing very much. After a while with that I pushed it to 10g with a cbr. This time I went to my piercer and we tapered it. That was, at the time, one of the most painful things I'd sat through, but knowing what I know now about septum stretches and conch punches, it was nothing. I spent a longer time at 10g than I did at 12g because it seemed reasonably comfortable, and I even thought about letting it stay there and not pressing on to 8g. But I didn't.
When I went in to do the 8g stretch, we didn't have any actual 8g jewelry, but something of an intermediate gauge between 10 and 8. That went well, somewhat less painful than the 12 to 10. But as always I left with the side of my head burning. After this stretch I noticed a lip of skin forming around the outside of the hole on the inside of my ear. It was suggested that I should just keep on sea salt soaking it and it should work out. I'd massage it twice a day as well with olive oil. Nevertheless I pressed on and went for a real 8g. Didn't hurt a bit. Same day I stretched my septum to 10g, so I had a very sore head.

The lip of skin didn't go away. I tried aspro-clear and vitamin e oil and soaks, but it didn't go away. I didn't really mind for a while but then it began to piss me off, and it looked foul. A friend suggested I downsize it for a while and then re-stretch from the other side. I did that. It didn't work. The lip went away for about a day and then popped back up. At this point I decided I was going to live with it until the same friend told me I could heal it completely and he'd punch it back out at 8g once that was done. I knew all about punching and just how painful it can be, especially in that particular area. Also I knew all about the bleeding because both my conches bled a heap when I had them first pierced. So I decided to give it a go.
After healing up the ugly hole, which took much less time than I expected (I also felt really weird without it), I took a trip down to Smoke Dreams where my friend works as a piercer and we set to work. He was glad to go into the studio because he was bored and didn't want to have to deal with customers. So I sat on the bench and chatted with him for a while about things while he fussed around with his tools and set up the table. We spent some time positioning ourselves so he could get in my ear and I wouldn't have to turn my head uncomfortably before ditching the bench and just sitting on chairs with one of his knees between my legs and one of mine between his. He cleaned my ear and I tied my hair up with an elastic band. Now he marked my ear with a hollow 8g taper with ink on the end, which proved to be an accurate way of marking. Because he wasn't too keen on "chasing my ear around" and he didn't have any receiving tubes he used another hollow 6g taper to put pressure on the back of my ear and catch the punch when it went through.

The thing about Jay is, he never, ever, gives me warning about when he's going to do something, so I can feel the punch just touching my ear and he's just talking to me about something when he suddenly pushes it through. Instantly my head starts burning and coupled with the sickening and loud crunch sound I realise this is the most painful moment of my life to date. I grabbed the bottom of my chair so hard I snapped the tip of one of my nails off. There was something in my ear, and since I'm not clear on the anatomy of a biopsy punch I'll just say it was probably the equivalent of a canula because Jay took the pressure off the back of my ear, stood up and left me alone for a minute telling me I could call him a bastard if I liked. I didn't, I just breathed slowly and tried to stop my eyes from watering.

Jay mentioned something about this being a better punching technique than what he'd previously used because the chunk of skin knocked out came out completely and he didn't have to cut it off or anything. I was happy to be a guinea pig. He put the jewelry in (a barbell of course) and showed me the little piece of cartilage that was previously in my ear. It looked like some kind of short, mutant worm. He dared me to eat it, I decided not to and we threw it in the bin.
My head continued to burn for a while and I had to sleep on the disagreeable side of my head (my left conch was being very irritated). It was more comfortable to sleep on the freshly punched side, but I knew I shouldn't. I soaked it in sea salt for a few weeks and it settled pretty quickly. Definitely I would recommend punching rather than stretching conches. More pain over a shorter amount of time rather than small pain over extended amount of time and a much faster healing time in my experience. McHappy Conch.