At A Glance Author Morgan Contact Morgan@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Darren Studio Snake Eye Piercing Location New Windsor, New York I'd already had my lobes done a few times, but for various reasons, they had to come out. Back in June, as school was winding down, I came across this site. And I started browsing through the piercing photos. I knew that my only limitation was that it couldn't be anywhere other than my ears. So, I set out to find one that I really loved.
It was towards the middle of the month when I first saw the vertical tragus. I really liked the regular tragus my friend had, but didn't feel like having the same thing as he did. Well, the vertical tragus looked amazing to me. I started doing research on it right away. Going through the stories, I got more and more excited, but at the same time, became increasingly worried. I read stories, and saw pictures of several of them which had healed out, or got infected. After waiting a bit longer, I decided I'd go for it anyway.
Finding a nearby parlor with a piercer skilled enough to do it was a large part of the challenge. Most of the places I called hadn't even heard of it before, but said they would try it. That put me off a lot. I did have a good encounter with one piercer who had never seen a vertical tragus. The piercer at The Inkwell in Newburgh told me that he wouldn't try it, because he didn't want to take my money, and do it wrong, or have it heal out on me.
Finally, I found a parlor that had experience, and would do it for $40 each (other places had wanted as much as $125 for each ear!). So, I made myself an appointment at Snake Eye Piercing, to have it done the next Wednesday.
I knew the guys at Snake Eye would do a great job for me. It's where my friend had gotten his traguses and lobes done, and was part of a tattoo/piercing parlor that had been in the area for over ten years. They were also real careful about not giving me something I didn't want. When I'd set up the appointment, Darren made it very clear that it could heal out pretty easily, and made sure I wanted to go through with it.
I was anxious all week waiting for Wednesday to roll around. Well, it finally came, much to my delight. After finishing my finals, I got my ride over from school to the parlor. As I walked in, there was a guy bugging out about pain while he was getting his tongue done. This made me a bit nervous, as this would be my first experience at a professional parlor, and not some pagoda at the mall. I had shaken off the jitters by the time my turn came around, although they're coming back just remembering the experience.
I sat down in the booth, and Darren started talking right away. He was the happiest, most pleasant guy I've ever seen, and not at all the sort of person my grand mother warned me works at tattoo and piercing parlors. Once more, he told me that vertical traguses did have a fair chance of healing out, although he was going to do his best, and had a curved barbell ready. I told him I still wanted to do it, and we began.
After he'd marked the spots for me, we ran into a bit of a problem. My one ear would have to have it lower so that he could get a deep enough fold of skin. We adjusted the spot, and went through with it. I've got to say that it didn't feel great, but it was no where near as bad as I was expecting. You know, you see the big needle at the doctors, and expect a lot of pain, but you're done before you knew they'd stuck you. That sort of thing. The worst part was getting the jewelry put in, and even that wasn't too bad.
Now, for the crap you've got to put up with afterwards. Obviously, it can be a problem depending on your job. I got a lot of positive reactions at work (the Renaissance Faire) when I was there on the weekends. Also, there are going to be plenty of people who say stupid things. And, more than anything else, people go, "Did that hurt?" If you're reading this, you probably know damn well that piercings hurt. Unfortunately, even people with piercings seem to think that because this one is an odd ball, it might not have hurt.
And, I hope no one else is a music lover with ear buds, like me. Every time my buds got caught on something (and they'll get caught on anything, even belt loops), it would catch my piercing, and tear at it. My new puppy would also do this. So, watch for headphones and animals.
After about 5 months, they are healing up beautifully. In fact, I just spoke to Darren today, and he was surprised that they healed so well. So, I'll be going back to him after my M.R.I. for which I'll need to take out the current piercings. The next on the list? Anti-tragus and vertical lobes in each ear.