At A Glance Author Rhi Contact Rhi@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Not Sure Studio Needle Asylum @ Oriental Arts Location Cardiff, UK I have extreme needlephobia. It's so bad that trips to the dentist leave me shaking and sweating, feeling faint and sickly.
About two years ago, I came across a person with a tragus piercing and was shocked. I never knew you could have something other than your lobes or helix pierced on your ear, and I was fascinated from the moment it caught my eye. When i was introduced to BME by my boyfriend, I looked time and time again at the tragus piercings, thinking how gorgeous is was and how it would change my life for the better...maybe even eliminating my irrational fear of needles.
I thought about the piercing for a long, long time (I'm definitely not one for impulse piercings (as my boyfriend found out when he wanted his tragus vertically pierced), I make everyone I know who wants one wait for at least 3 months thinking about it before they get it done (yes, I know, it's neurotic and probably a waste of time).
So I told Matt, my boyfriend, I wanted it done. Only one problem - my mother. For the record, my mother is conservative, and hates non-conventional piercings. Matt had a labret when I met him and introduced him to my mum, and she squealed when she saw it, which made Matt giggle for ages, and when he retired it, she beamed for about five hours.
So you can imagine the struggle I had trying to convince her that a little bit of metal sticking through the 'poky-out thing on the front of your ear' was going to make my life a hell of a lot better! But after I showed her a little nose stud ('Mum, that's what I'll have in it! *shifty eyes*' 'Oh, okay. Why?' 'It's pretty!' 'If you say so dear. Go get it done then' 'Yesssssss.') She decided that I might as well, probably only to shut me up, since I'd been nagging at her for about a month.
When Matt and I were next in Cardiff, I was literally so scared if I had balls they would have shrunk to the size of peas. I was completely, and utterly, terrified. Matt suggested we go to Rebel Rebel first, but when we got there I decided that I would go to Needle Asylum, above Oriental Arts, as that's where I'd asked about getting my tragus done when we went to Cardiff before.
So we set off to Oriental Arts, with me whining and going 'Matt I'm so scared!' 'It's a big fucking needle!' 'It's going to hurt so fucking much!' and Matt basically telling me it wouldn't hurt, and to stop being a pussy.
We get to Oriental Arts. My heart is pounding as we walk up the stairs to Needle Asylum. My legs have turned to jelly, and I'm ready to bolt. Simon, the guy who was at the top of the stairs, was lovely. He told me to just go and ask the piercer/tattooist (unsure of his name) if he could fit me in. Unfortunately, he was in the middle of a tattoo, so he told me to come back at 1:00pm. I can't say I wasn't relieved, I thought it would be easier to chicken out if I could leave now.
Matt, of course, had other ideas. He told me to go and eat some food (which I already knew) and drink a sugary drink (which I also knew), so we went to Burger King (mmm healthy) to feed me.
It's fucking boiling hot in Cardiff by this time, which was not helping my mood. We ate, then looked around for a bit, until the time came to make our way back to Oriental Arts. However, chavs (for you Americans, these are evil, evil people who like dance music and call any other person who is not a fellow chav either a 'grunger' or a 'goffik innit') were upstairs waiting for a tattoo to be drawn up by the lovely Simon, or something, and as it was so hot, me and Matt decided to go get a drink.
Fast forward to 1:15, back in the piercing room with no chavs in sight and Rhiannon ready to pass out through nerves. My ear was cleaned with something (don't know what it was, I was trying to breathe!), marked with the trusty sharpie, and after I changed the placement to slightly lower than it was, as I wanted my piercing to be dead centre (again, neurotic).
I told the piercer that I was scared of needles, and he said he wouldn't be showing me anything then, which I was very grateful for, and Matt was called in to hold my hand. I was asked to lie down on the bed (which confused me until I realised that I was meant to be lying on my back with my head facing the wall) and before I knew it, the needle was right next my my ear and the piercer was ready.
It didn't hurt at all. Okay, yeah, it felt weird, and hot, but not painful in the slightest. And my pain threshold is not low, it is non-existent. Putting the jewellery through hurt more than the piercing, but again, pain was minimal. The only time it hurt was when he couldn't get the ball on, and was pinching it and rotating the ring and generally irritating it, which hurt like hell.
He then showed me my new baby, which I fell in love with instantly, and gave me an aftercare sheet. I haven't really followed it, just done saline solution cleaning and using Savlon Wound Wash, which I think is better than the saline, but that's just me.
I paid my £20, which included jewellery, and thanked him, telling him I loved it over and over again. hen I got outside, the pain started, if you could even call it that. It was more of a dull ache, that only lasted for about 20 minutes.
That night, I slept on the other side of my body, and cleaned it in the afternoon. It's been fine for five days now, only hurting when I knock it, which is a lot cause I'm clumsy =)
All in all, this was a brilliant experience and I'm already planning a lot more, and to anyone contemplating the tragus, go for it, it doesn't hurt at all and it's definitely worth having a cute little tragus in the end.
And I've overcome my needlephobia, which means my life really did change for the better =)