I woke up one day and thought to myself, "This is the day I will pierce my tragus."
At A Glance Author Lisa Contact Lisa@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Andrea Studio Pangea Location Ann Arbor, MI I'm usually not as spontaneous as this. I agonized for weeks/months/whatever over a simple nostril piercing. My nipple piercings took only slightly less thought than the nostril did. The only other time I was this quick to decide to pierce was the time in high school that I pierced my own helix with a piercing gun stud "sterilized" with rubbing alcohol (bad.... so bad...).
The idea of having a bit of jewelry in my tragus was floating around in my head for a long time, but it was never anything too concrete. I'd always browse the ear piercings section on BME and thought, maybe one day, a rook or tragus or industrial might be a good idea.
I always tend to get my piercings at emotionally intense times in my life. Nostril was at the end of high school. Nipples during a particularly hard time at college. This is another one of those hard times. College basically sucks the spirit out of a person, I've found. At least it's sucked out mine, slowly and painfully.
I love Pangea. I love Andrea, I love the vibe. I can't imagine going anywhere else. I've been there several times to get my 18g nostril screw readjusted (because I'm so picky and psychotic about having the inside screw part not sticking out) and every time Andrea has been there to patiently take care of me. So, onto the tragus story.
It was a Wednesday and I had a few hours before I had to go to work. I called up Pangea and asked if they had any appointments open for that day (I don't like walk-ins). Luckily, there was something open only an hour away, so while I waited I tried to read something for a class, sat around a little, had a nerve-calming cigarette break. Finally it was time to head over to the studio.
I walked in and chatted with the new counter girl for a little bit while some other people were taken care of ahead of me. I was completely undecided about jewelry. I knew I didn't want 18g. 16g just seemed better to me for no other reason than I try to go as thick as possible with initial piercings. I suppose I could have gone thicker than 16, but my piercer didn't really give me that option and frankly I think my tragus is too tiny to handle anything bigger. As far as style of jewelry went, that was a tough choice. While the piercer was taking care of other people, I had time to think about all the different varieties of jewelry that could go into my little tiny tragus. The first tragus piercing I'd ever seen was on a Belgian girl and she had a fairly long curved barbell in it which I thought look quite cool. I haven't seen pictures like what she had on BME, probably because no one should put such extra length on jewelry that could potentially get caught on things.
So it was between barbell and CBR. I don't think my body likes CBR's. It just doesn't like curved jewelry. I had a CBR in my nostril and it was just hypertrophic scarring out the window that was a bitch to get rid of. When Andrea came out and it was my turn to get pierced, she said a barbell would be best for my size of tragus. So it was settled. I got a 16g barbell with a purple bead on the side that shows outside the ear.
She marked me (pretty much in the middle of the tragus) and had me lie down on the table on my back with my head turned slightly away from her. I was having my right tragus done and she was on my right side. She put the clamps on (didn't hurt like other people always say they do) and then pierced me as I breathed out. Amazingly, it did not hurt. Well, it did not hurt in the sense of fiery, red-hot pain but there WAS a lot of pressure that was quite uncomfortable. In between the piercing and putting in the jewelry I said something like, "This was probably the least painful piercings ever. It doesn't hurt.....well, not yet." You shouldn't speak too soon because there's always something that happen with the jewelry. The jewelry was inserted and tightening the outside ball (inside ball was already on, duh) was not my favorite but it wasn't horrible. I got the yadda-yadda about aftercare and was on my way after giving my piercer a nice tip (my first time ever - I was feeling guilty about never having done it).
So, this is what I'm supposed to be doing: sea salt compresses with gauze and once-daily cleanings with mild soap such as Provon/etc. This is what I've been doing in actuality: once-daily cleanings in the shower with Dial antibacterial liquid soap. I know, I know, I am just asking for something to go wrong due to the lack of sea salt soaks, but I am just too damn lazy. And, I know I'm using too-harsh soap, but I haven't been to the grocery store since then. Excuses, excuses.................
It's been 4 days since I was pierced and nothing bad has happened yet. My tragus is still sore, but only if I touch it. No major crusties, but it is hard to get to the inside part of the piercing because of the tight quarters in my ear canal. Andrea advises all of her customers to never use q-tips or cotton balls because they leave lint in the piercing (use only gauze, she says) but I feel like I'm going to need to use q-tips to be able to get to the inside of my ear effectively. I've been able to sleep on my right side because amazingly, it doesn't hurt to do so and I used some over-the-ear headphones earlier today without problems. The only problem I've had is when I unconsciously go to scratch my ear and forget that it's there. But even then it hasn't been an issue, just a minor inconvenience.
Tomorrow I will start doing sea salt soaks because I know I should have been doing them all along. Oh well. And I'll also go to the store and get milder soap, so that will commence the day after. I think that will help speed healing along and get rid of some of this residual soreness that is probably due to unsatisfactory aftercare. I am extremely happy with my new tragus piercing and I think it will turn out to be one of my favorite piercings.