I woke up knowing that I had to have a piercing. I'd only recently discovered that needles are superior to guns and the there were other parts of the ear to pierce than lobes. I had three lobe piercings in each ear and my first cartilage piercing, a helix, had just healed.
At A Glance Author Emenesoteric Contact Emenesoteric@bme.anon When A year ago Artist a friend Studio bedroom Location California Now, I knew that I was being impetuous. I had recently hit my helix piercing in my sleep, hard enough to make it bleed (and it didn't even bleed when I got it pierced) and it was reacting with yellow ooze. My third hole on my left ear was oozing a bit as well; I later discovered that I needed to change to higher quality jewelry. Not exactly the best of conditions for creating open wounds.
But I was stubborn, and I really wanted a piercing.
So I went to my one and only and favorite piercer, who also happens to be one of my best friends. She's the one who introduced me to the world of body modification, and every piercing I have worth mentioning was done by her. After arguing for about a century about my anatomy and the practicality of a full industrial, we decided it couldn't be done. I'm pretty stubborn, but she's not going to pierce something that will look stupid or be stupid, healing-wise. In other words, I trust her implicitly. When I pouted about wanting an industrial, she told me that we could do a conch.
Conch? Hey, that's a good idea!
She, though not a professional piercer yet, didn't miss a detail. Sterilizing, changing gloves often, laying out her sterilized tools and jewelry, everything. She acts like professional in every way, even though our "studio" was just a bedroom. I don't recommend getting pierced anywhere but in a clean, well-known studio. The danger of infection is just too great. I knew what I was getting into, and I counted it well worth the risk.
I decided I wanted it slightly above my third hole and close to my anti-tragus. My piercing buddy and aesthetics coordinator agreed. She marked it perfectly, readied the needle, and – "I'm touching it to you. Deep breath in... there's my good girl!" – I was pierced. A warmth radiated from my ear, but no pain. We took some pictures, and after putting in the barbell, I was done.
My friend asked if it hurt, and when I said "eh, not bad."
My piercer (who has several conch piercings) said I was lying.
But it didn't. Not yet.
For three days, I lazily cleaned it in the shower and gave it the occasional short dunk in a sea salt soak. It didn't hurt, it didn't even ooze, so I didn't feel like I had to take care of it. Woops!
Long before I had to get up for class on the fourth day, I was forcibly awakened by the throbbing in my ear. It felt like I had red hot pincers squeezing my conch. I looked at the unhappy red blob that was now my ear and popped a couple ibuprofen. Then I resigned myself to long and faithful sea salt soaks until healing.
I perched at my desk with my ear in a cup of warm salt water. My roommate sleepily told me that I was a weirdo. For a whole week I did three daily soaks of at least 10 minutes in length, often much earlier in the morning than I would have liked, but the pain wouldn't let me sleep. I was steadily taking ibuprofen to keep the swelling and pain at bay. At the end of the week, the redness and swelling were gone and I was back to the crusties that signify normal healing.
My research has since led me to believe that this was the best possible method for me to go about resolving my problem. My ear was NOT infected – it was only inflamed or irritated. I didn't have thick green pus or an abnormal smell, I didn't have a fever or red lines radiating from my piercing, so I wasn't about to go to a doctor. It's very difficult to find a doctor who's sympathetic about body mods, and from the reputation of the doctors of the clinic around here, I'd be handed some antibiotics even though they wouldn't do me any good.
The ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory and a good choice for my poor ear. The sea salt gave me immediate pain relief as well as helping cleanse my ear of crusty bits, dirt, germs, etc.
It took me a couple months to heal my conch to the point of being able to touch it without pain. To my dismay, I was starting to develop a lump of hypertrophic scarring on the back of my ear where the ball rubbed between my ear and head. I could tell it was not a keloid because it was light-colored and fluid-filled rather than a dark, hard lump. Luckily, I also knew that it would go away with time.
In order to help it disappear, I changed from a straight barbell to a circular one (that way there wouldn't be a ball to create friction between that part of my ear and my head) and massaged it nightly with tea tree oil. Within a couple weeks, the lump was gone, my piercing was healed, and I was more than ready to slice out another chunk of cartilage – for a tragus to conch industrial!
Now, eleven months later, it doesn't even hurt when I get it caught on things. The fact that the cartilage there is so thick makes the piercing extremely durable. I love the fact that I can wear a straight barbell, a curved barbell, or a CBR in it, depending on my mood. If you're considering getting a conch piercing, don't let the pain scare you away! The pain of piercing lasts only a moment, but if you take good care of your ear, you shouldn't have too much trouble.
Now, let's see if I can heal that industrial...