I guess it started back in June.
At A Glance Author Phil Contact Phil@bme.anon IAM CuriousPhilip When A week ago Artist Rob Studio Addictive Tatooing Location London, ON
I decided I wanted my conches punched. I was looking at the pictures in the 'Large gauge ear cartilage' gallery, and I just thought they looked fucking sweet. A year and a half ago, I probably would have said, "Why the hell would you want to punch out a piece of cartilage?" And, in fact, I think I did when I was at Perfect Image in Grand Bend, getting my ears pierced. One of the piercers who was at the shop when I got my ears done mentioned wanted to get his conches punched, and made a "Pop! Pop!" noise. I cringed at the thought. Even a few months later, with half inch lobes, I would have said the same thing. But then, as I was looking through the gallery for probably the hundredth time, I looked at a picture of someone from here in London who had had his done at Addictive and said: "I have to have that."
I mentioned the idea to a few friends, and received some positive support. I didn't mention it to my fiancée at first, as she was usually utterly grossed out by the thought of lots of blood, and by having cartilage punched. When I finally mentioned it to her, I got the reaction I had been expecting and dreading. "Oh, no, no, that won't look good at all. That would be stupid. You'll regret that for sure Phil. Get your tragus pierced... or your snug."
"That'd be sweet... punch my tragus..."
I'm not sure she was suggesting that I punch it, just get a cute little piercing. I looked around for pictures of punched tragus', and I wasn't very successful. I was only able to find a small handful of people with it done. But I loved what I was seeing! The images I saw on two iam pages that were the most influential belonged to iam:efix and iam:oli, both from Montreal. Oli's looked GREAT. They were at 8 gauge, and were accompanied by one inch lobes. I thought that would be very comparable looking to my five eights.
I asked around, trying to decide where to get it done, and I had almost decided that I would for sure get it done at Addictive, when I got an im from iam:tribecanada. That settled it. I made a query about the price, and went in a few weeks later to make my appointment. I met with Rob(tribecanada) and he determined that my tragus' should be able to handle an 8 gauge punch. So I had him order the jewelry, and it came a few weeks later. I got a call from Jacqui at Addictive and made the appointment for early August.
I almost couldn't handle the wait. I was so excited! The day before came, and I started to get scared. I was afraid that I would make a fool of myself and pass out. I work night shifts, so I went to bed relatively early that night, 5:30am. I got up at noon, had some breakfast, and hopped on the bus at 1:00. The bus ride downtown takes about 15 minutes, and my appointment was for 2:00. Needless to say, I had some time to kill downtown. So I walked up and down the streets in a nervous fit, and bought some apple juice. I went over to Addictive, and still had about a half hour before Rob would even arrive to setup the room. I sat on the bench in the waiting area next to a really nice guy who was just there to chat with the piercers. He thought it was awesome that I was going to get my tragus' punched, and told me it probably wouldn't be nearly as bad as I thought it might be. That made me feel better. Rob finally arrived. The few minutes it took for him to setup seemed to drag on forever. He finally announced that he was ready for me. I went back into the room. Everything was super clean, but still comfortable feeling. I sat down. He went over the aftercare with me, quite extensively. I had certainly not received instructions that extensive when I had my ears pierced at 4 gauge the previous year. He marked the spots, and I was a little shocked at first to see how close to the edge they were. I know that I have small tragus', so I'm not sure what I was expecting. I think I was expecting them to go through the thicker part where the tragus became face. But I was pleased with the marks anyways. Jacqui, the other piercer and co-owner of Addictive, came in to double check the marks. One was adjusted slightly, but they seemed to be ok otherwise. Rob showed me the punch, and cleaned my ears.
I laid down on the table, beneath what felt like a heat lamp. I started to try an breathe easy and steady. Rob opened the package with the punch. I was informed that the punch was 3mm, but that 8 gauge was 3.2mm. So he was going to punch the hole, then taper it to 8 gauge and then put the jewelry in. Rob had me take three deep breaths, and then on the third breath out he punched the hole. It was like nothing I'd ever felt. There was an extremely loud cracking noise, like a bone breaking (Which I suppose wasn't too far from what was actually happening). The rush was incredible. My chest tightened, and I forgot to keep breathe. I don't remember a whole lot of it, everything just sort of flew over me. I was inside me, and couldn't feel. I was aware that the taper was going through, it made a bit of a popping noise, then the jewelry, then nothing. It was as if nothing had happened, and I was relaxed. Like I had just won an agonizing arm-wrestling match. Sweat started to pour out of my face. I don't think I smiled, and I don't remember making any noise. The blood had filled my ear, and it felt as though I was underwater. Sounded like it too. I turned over to the other side, and drained the blood out. I have no idea how much blood there actually was, but it didn't feel like there was very much. I was asked something, but only vaguely remember it. I think it was Jacqui asking me how I felt. I think that she was wiping sweat from my face or something too. Or maybe it was Rob... But I do remember replying, because I was speaking too softly and had to repeat myself so that I could be heard. It was hard to judge exactly how loud or quiet everything was. I still couldn't really feel the pain. I did feel discomfort though. I sat up and had some of my apple juice. Feeling started flowing back to me, but still no real pain. It was time for the other side. I laid down again, under that damn lamp. The sweat started to bead on my forehead again. I began the breathing again, and Rob went to punch as "\Ãw€ë I breathed out. Something happened, I had accidentally moved or something. The tip of the punch felt as though it had touched the skin and then was pulled back. My endorphins had been used up on the excitement of the mishap. I breathed out again, and this time Rob punched. It hurt this time. I could feel the punch snag a bit on the cartilage, my chest tightened again, like I was being reamed out by a cop, and was about to be arrested for something horrible, but I tried to keep breathing. Jacqui barked, "Twist it! Twist it!" Rob twisted, and it broke through the cartilage. Accompanied by another loud crack, even louder than the last time. This was my larger tragus. I felt relief when the punch was pulled out and the blood filled my ear. I went deaf again. The blood felt nice as it flowed over the wound. The taper went through, with another popping noise, and an accompanying feeling this time. Then the jewelry went in, and I felt that calmness that I felt after the first one was finished. I think it was caused by Jacqui pouring a small amount of cold water on the ear, because I remember her saying something about me being the first person not to sigh, but I can't be sure. That wasn't so bad. I'd do it again. I rolled over and tried to drain the blood. This one didn't drain. It felt as though there was a piece of cotton in my ear. I'd heard the expression "Have you got a piece of cotton in your ear?" a thousand times when I was little, but never understood it until now. I couldn't hear a damn thing out of my right ear.
I got up and inspected my ears, and I believe I smiled at this point. I was very impressed. One of the tattoo artists that works there came in to have a look at my ears. All he had to say was, "Ouch." I walked out of the room with Rob. We arranged that I would come back in a week for a checkup. There were some kids in the waiting room who were gawking at my bloody mess, and I smiled. They tried to ask me about it, but I had to say, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you. My ear is full of blood." They seemed slightly horrified, and my day was made. I paid, and left for the mall to get the SpectroDerm that Rob had recommended. On the walk to the mall, the blood in my ear started to shift, and I think the tragus itself began to bleed. When I got to the mall, I rushed to the cosmetic store to get the SpectroDerm, and then I felt the blood start to drip onto my shoulder. I had to go up to the mall bathroom and wipe myself up with some surely unsanitary paper towel. I took some of it with me, and headed for the bus. Although the walk home is relatively short, I just wasn't up to it. I got on the bus and was home within 15 minutes. I showed my fiancée, and she was genuinely impressed. That morning she still thought that I was making a mistake getting something punched. She only wanted me to get a regular piercing. I wanted something more. But she was pleased with the end results, and so was I.
We went out to a friends house that night and partied. I slept there, with a clean t-shirt over my pillow. There was basically no bleeding. Just a small red dot where I had obviously rolled onto my ear while sleeping. Not what I had expected. I was actually a little disappointed. I was sort of looking forward to finding blood on myself in the morning. The next night was pretty much the same, another small red dot on another t-shirt. A week went by, I did two salt soaks a day. After the salt soaks I would clean the piercing with using a Q-Tip and SpectroDerm. I left the SpectroDerm on for about 2 minutes, and then rinsed it off. When I went in for my first checkup, and Rob announced that they appeared to be healing nicely. The o-ring on my left tragus was starting to merge into the skin, so the o-rings were loosened. But they felt good. A slight aching, and an itching, but it was a good sort of pain. A few days later the right o-ring started to merge, so I had my fiancée actually take the back one off, and put a smaller one on loosely. I continued to clean the ears the same way, and came back the next week as well. They were doing great. The aching was gone, and they only itched. It's been a week since then. I go in for my third checkup tomorrow. They itch now, and only occasionally crust up. I went for another check up two days ago, and there is a little bit of scar tissue building up under the right o-ring, but it's not a big deal.
So far my experience has been a great one. And personally, I don't know why there aren't more large gauge tragus' out there. They look damn cool, and I haven't had a hard time with mine yet! Here's hoping things continue to go fine.