I never really saw myself as one to get my lobes pierced; they just didn't seem to fit me or my style for that matter. However, I felt that I needed to extend out from my facial piercings to an "appendage", my ears being the only logical choice. Looking at different piercing placements I settled on getting my upper cartilage pierced, just the left to start.
At A Glance Author Skip Contact Skip@bme.anon IAM Skip3s When A year ago Artist Still don't know his name Studio Bristol Tattoo Studio Location Bristol, Bucks County, Pa I went out to my then shop, Bristol Tattoo Studio, and asked the artist what his price was – 40$. I knew I wanted it, so I agreed, and we drew up the papers, copied my driver's license and pulled out the sterile supplies. New sterile needle, single use marker, new sterile CBR, gloves. Gloved up he marked the spot on my ear close to the rim. I didn't like the placement too much and had him move it in more a bit farther away from the rim of my ear. I checked it again – perfect. After changing gloves he lined the needle up with the dot and began to push. Nothing, just searing pain, but no pop. "Hold on a minute" he said. I could feel him pushing again, harder "POP". I heard it loud and clear and felt it even more so. On the back of my ear I felt a warm liquid, "Am I bleeding bad?" – "Like a pig" he responded, "Great". He grabbed some cotton balls and cleaned up some of the blood and threw them in the medical waste container. Taking the CBR he rubbed some A&D ointment on it and pushed it against the blunt end of the needle. It slipped through with little trouble, but I could still feel the blood running down my ear and the top of my neck. He fixed the ball in place and started to clean up the blood again.
When he was satisfied with the clean up and the bleeding had sufficed, he let me take a look in the mirror. Except for my beat red ear, it looked great. I handed him 60$ and walked outside. I started to fell a bit light headed after I sat in my car, so I took a few minutes to clear my head. Driving home I could feel my ear throbbing and a trickle of blood down the back of my ear.
Healing was a real pain in the ass for me with this piercing. With my left ear cartilage being pierced, I wasn't able to sleep on my left side. In fact I didn't sleep on my left side for nearly 3 months. Aftercare mainly consisted of antibacterial soap and warm water, cotton swabs to clean off the crusties, and A&D ointment after every cleaning.
The first month of healing my ear was completely red and I felt a good amount of pressure almost constantly. There weren't a whole lot of lymphs forming, but my ear was very sore. Attempting to even try and lay on it cause pain to shoot in every direction. Putting on a sweat-hood or shirt was a pain in the ass to make sure it didn't catch on my ear and pull it.
Month two was a bit better, my ear wasn't too sore anymore, but the redness still persisted. There wasn't as much pressure, and I could roll onto it without too much discomfort, although laying on it for an extended period of time cause quite the shooting pain. I continued using A&D on the front and back of my ear twice a day.
Month three showed some good progress, but it got backtracked when I went to visit my girlfriend in IL for a week. She constantly hit, pulled, and touched it, aggravating the hell out of the piercing and causing a great amount of pain. I used A&D three time a day because of it and continued to use antibacterial soap and warm water to clean it. It was during this time that I also decided to have my right ear cartilage pierced in the "same exact" spot as my left. I was feeling unbalanced and this would definitely balance everything out.
The week after I got home I returned to Bristol Tattoo to have my right cartilage pierced. Again, it was 40$, he got out the usual supplies, gloved up and marked my ear. He took about 10 minutes making sure it was lined up with the left one. I checked it and approved of its placement. Again he changed gloves, opened the needle and put it against my ear. I breathed in, and on the exhale he pushed the needle right through. There was no problem pushing the needle through this time, and there was a minimal amount of blood. The CBR went through just as easy as it had the first time. This made me happy since the first one had hurt quite badly afterwards. My ear did turn beat red again and was quite sore, but I only felt a trickle of blood out the back of my ear. I paid and tipped him and was on my way.
The healing of this cartilage piercing did not go very well at all, partly due to my own impatience. I followed the same procedure I was followed with my left cartilage, which had pretty much recovered by that time. I cleaned it twice a day with antibacterial soap and followed that with A&D ointment on the front and back of my ear. About a month or so into the healing everything was going ok, not as healed as I hoped, but doing well. I still couldn't lie on it, but my right ear cartilage was doing very well and no longer bothered me when I laid on it.
In April I had a wedding to attend to for my cousins and wanted to change out the CBRs in both ears for something a bit more ornamental. I found a set of stainless steel curves that look a lot like a drawn out septum retainer. They were 12ga, but the ends were tapered and I figured with a bit of lubrication and slow insertion I would be fine. So about 4 days before the wedding I lubed them up with A&D ointment, and soaked the tips of my ears in warm water for a few minutes. I slowly pushed the jewelry into my ears with little discomfort. They looked great, caused only a bit of redness in either ear and kept everything balanced. Skip forward a couple of days, my 1.5yr old godson had pulled on the jewelry in my right ear and kept hitting it through out the wedding reception. It developed a bump on the back of my ear and was red. I went back to my 14ga CBR in hopes it would help and cared for it with A&D as usual and kept up on the soap and warm water cleaning. Sadly, after about a month and a half of this and no results, I chose to remove my right cartilage piercing. I kept up with the A&D every day and taking special care to clean it. After a month or so the bump of cartilage disappeared and the soreness went with it.
Overall it was a good learning experience. When I have it repierced I'll know to be a bit more protective of it, and keep it away from my godson.