Ok I have been looking at large gauge cartilage piercing for a while now and I have always thought it was the sweetest looking thing so about a year back I tried to pierce my inner conch with a 4gauge needle. I was successful but I had to downsize back down two a 14g due to the pain and a large piece of skin that hung on after I pierced it and re-stretch it only making it up to a 6 gauge but tried going to 2 gauge. Stretching cartilage hurts like a bitch so I recommend going down to a professional and getting it punched. So here's my story on my own cartilage punch.
At A Glance Author Pierced 'n' Addicted Contact crazyass255@hotmail.com When A month ago Artist Me Studio My Bathroom Location In Grand Haven Now I ordered a 0 gauge punch (thanks much bmeshope.com) so that I could punch my own outer conch and at the point I knew nothing about punching and the burn I had in store. I got home one day after work and noticed my punch had came to me via mail, so I knew that I had something exiting today. So before I got ahead of myself I had read that its better to eat something before a thing that I might lose a lot of blood through so I thought nothing better than taco bell.
After eating and getting sugar in my system I went back home and readied myself. Now at this point the anticipation was very high so I had some adrenaline that would help with the pain. I looked in the mirror and made a circle mark on my cartilage and grabbed a 0 gauge stainless steel tunnel. Now like I said I knew nothing about cartilage punching so of course I never knew that I would have to stretch it to stop the blood flow, and I didn't know that it would also be lose when I punched it. So I just took the punch and rested it on the front of my ear over the mark and placed a cork on the back and just breathed.
I started pushing and turning and spinning the punch around trying to get it through and finally when I thought I had it through I took out the punch to find that the punch hadn't went through the back layer of skin. And now just from taking the punch out it poured blood everywhere, all over the sink and all over my arms so I could resist but take a few blood play pictures then I had to put the punch back in and after a little twisting fun got it through the back side I waited for a sec then took the punch out again lots of blood so I stuck the tunnel in the hole and jumped in the shower to rise off the blood.
After my nice and cleansing shower I looked I then mirror and noticed that the tunnel had slipped halfway through the hole. So I had to push it back through with the flare side. Then after examining the hole I noticed that the skin hadn't been completely punched off so out cam moms scissors and had to cut off the access skin. After cleaning the hole and picking up the contents of my ear I left it alone.
Then I had many more problems that happened with my punch like I never knew that my body was allergic to the rubber in the o-rings so I had many problems with that like it just kept on pussing and eventually I got some double flared jewelry. I don't recommend anything other than metal or Pyrex in a cartilage piercing especially an un-healed one, I made the mistake of getting a double flared stone plug and it did nothing but constantly hurt. Then occasionally id wake up and find a blood spot on my pillow and a small blood vessel in the area. Almost taking it out I tried the tunnel with o-rings on it and finally it started healing and till this day I still wear the same ring just keeping the rubber as far away from my skin as possible.
Now I had many problems with my cartilage punch, from not punching out all the skin, being allergic to rubber o-rings and not knowing that I should stretch the hole too and it not being done perfectly so what I recommend is if u wants a big cartilage hole go for it BUT get it done by a professional that you can trust and knows what they are doing otherwise you don't want a huge hole in your ear for the rest of your life and have it all screwed up but hey if your energetic about it then it wont hurt as bad as u think (see adrenaline really works). Yeah punches are fun but only if done right.