I had been thinking about getting my ear cartilage dermal punched for quite a while and finally got the courage to do it about a month ago. I have been working on my ears now for about 7 years, roughly since I began working as a piercer at The Piercing Urge, and I knew that these would complete the picture.
At A Glance Author Sassie L Contact Sassie L@bme.anon When A month ago Artist IAM Piercing Pete Studio Piercing Urge Location Prahran Melbourne Australia Before getting this done I had seven ear piercings in each ear in total. I had four lobe piercings. One which I had stretched to 00g, two that are joined in a 14g orbital, and another single 14g one in which I wear a barbell. I have a 10g conche piercing in which I wear a straight barbell. I have a tragus piercing in which I wear a 14g circular barbell. I also have a transverse lobe piercing that enters on the bottom of my ear below the orbital, passes through the orbital and comes out on the little bit of cartilage just next to where the tragus jewellery sits.
Years ago I had decided that I would get a cartilage piercing at the top of my ear done vertically so that I could make up a custom piece of jewellery that would, once the piercing was healed, connect the cartilage to the transverse. For me it was the most painful piercing I have been through, and I've been through a few! Just over 40 at my last count, but I haven't kept all of them - nor would I want to. I had difficulty healing this piercing and so I decided that I would take it out. Both my ears match so I didn't want to commit to something that I was having so many problems with, only to know that I would have to go through it again to be symmetrical. This meant that the tops of my ears were very naked in comparison to the rest of my ear. It was around this time that Pete first showed me the 8mm dermal punches he had ordered.
I had been wracking my brain for something interesting to do to the tops of my ears that would be worth the pain. I do like standard cartilage piercings, I'm just a big wuss and had no intention of going through all the pain and healing that I had for the standard piercing, only to have a 14g piercing to show for it. Ok, and anyone who knows me knows that I do love my large gauge jewellery.
It was my day off and I decided that I would pop in to work on the off chance that I could get it done. I had been thinking about it for ages and the day felt right. Normally it would take me about 40 minutes to get to work, but on this day I encountered every problem you can possibly suffer on fair Melbourne's public transport system. It took me nearly 2 hours, so you can imagine how tense I was when I finally got there.
Normally the 8 minutes it takes for the statim autoclave to do it's thing feels like an eternity. No such luck on this day, it felt like 8 seconds. Pete called me through to the cubicle and set about marking then cleaning the area. I had spent the morning reading about peoples' experiences of this procedure on BME and wasn't really worried about the pain, I was worried about that little chunk of my ear that I'd never get back ( as my partner so politely kept reminding me when I got home and showed him! ) I wasn't worried about the how permanent it would be, only that there was going to be a little bit of me incinerated with the medi-waste. Isn't it funny the things you focus on to distract yourself from potential pain?
Once it was marked out, and I was happy with the placement, I lay down and Pete began. Thanks to the lovely Victoria who held my hand throughout, and only got grossed out when Pete waved the little bit of cut out flesh in front of me. It stung a little as he started to cut but sure enough, like a transverse, once he got into my ear I felt very little. As he worked his way out the back, once again a little sting and that was it. What was disturbing was the noise ( crunch crunch crunch ) and then the hot sensation of my blood pouring onto the under-pad whilst he inserted the taper and eyelet. There was a little bit of flesh attached to the back so he used a scalpel to remove it then wa-lah, done. I was officially hard core ( please anybody reading this, I AM joking. )
I was a little shaky after this but the anticipation of the second one calmed me down. Yes, as always the second one hurt more, in this case quite a bit more. A lot more blood for this one, and no skin left hanging on. Pete used tweezers to show me the little bit cut out and boy was that weird. Exit Victoria. ( It's amazing how pale that tissue is when the blood has leaked out of it. Almost the same colour as those disturbing "flesh coloured" pieces of jewellery people use to hide piercings. I always wondered whose flesh colour they were modeled on and now I knew. Clearly people who had died from exsanguination.....)
Pete held up the mirror and I was so happy with them. Perfect placement, and less painful than a standard cartilage piercing for me. About one week later I dropped them down to 2g pieces to make it easier for them to heal. One month on and my right ear feels almost healed ( though I'm aware it isn't ) and is no longer secreting, and my left isn't far behind. All in all I would highly recommend the procedure, as long as you are willing to commit to the strict aftercare regime. That was something Pete stressed to me at the beginning. Most piercers I know tend to be a little slack with aftercare on their own piercings, even though we are very strict with our clients. I adhered to my aftercare to the letter and they have turned out wonderfully. Lots of warm mild salt water soaking.
Now I think that my ears are finally finished, though maybe I've got another idea......
( Excessive detail has been added in the interest of achieving 800 words. Apologies to anyone who takes offence at the Australian English spelling of words such as colour and jewellery.)