I had wanted a snug ever since I first saw it, and long before I first found out the name of it. I finally got up the nerve to go in and get it once I had decided which ear and what kind of placement I wanted for it. I was SO nervous and almost changed my mind and walked out of there because it's such a huge chunk of cartilage to go through and I couldn't imagine how much it would hurt. But I made myself go through with it because I knew I'd be really happy in the end. The worst part of the entire thing was the CLAMPS. I was getting it at an angle that wasn't really where a natural bend in my ear would be, so he had to clamp real hard to bend my ear at that place and keep it there, and it was WAY worse than the needle. When he put the needle through, it was SO FAST because he had already smushed the area down so much with the clamps. This was probably the easiest piercing I've had so far, needle wise. It felt like the needle was so sharp it just slipped right through no problem, and it was over SO FAST – which was great because I couldn't wait to get the clamps off!
At A Glance Author Catherine Contact Catherine@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Louie Studio Traditional Tattoo Location San Luis Obispo, CA He put a large diameter cbr in there to start, even though I wanted a barbell, because the shop swears by cbrs for almost every piercing, claiming that they are much easier to heal with, clean, and drain. I wasn't happy about the huge ring, but I trust them so I went with whatever they thought was best. The ring looked really big in my ear, and it stuck straight out because of the positioning of the hole, but I knew I'd be back in four weeks to get it switched, so I'd just have to deal with it.
Sleeping was tricky since moving the ring up or down even a bit really hurt, so if I tried to sleep on that side (I cannot stay sleeping on one side all night long, way too uncomfortable, I have to switch back and forth) I had to make a really big dip in my pillow to keep not only my ear away from touching anything, but the big ring away from anything as well. I got really good at this in the month that I had the ring in there, and it was completely natural after a while so no problem at all.
Unfortunately a little over a week after I got pierced, while I was home visiting my parents, it started to hurt and swell. I thought it was just irritated because I had bumped it in my sleep, but it swelled more and hurt more each day; even though I was sea salt soaking it and cleaning it and not touching it. After a few more days of this it was incredibly swollen, so much so that I thought the ring had rotated in the hole since the bead looked closer to my ear than it had before, but it's actually because of swelling, that my ear had actually swelled closer to the bead. I've heard from many people that healing with a barbell is much better for a snug, but because of this intense swelling, I was incredibly glad I had a ring. A barbell would NOT have accommodated that swelling, and would have made the situation so much worse.
I decided it must be infected, it was incredibly swollen, red, hot, putting out brownish green stuff, and it hurt so badly I could hardly concentrate, it even made it hard to fall asleep. Taking tons of Advil only dulled the pain. I went the doctor and got antibiotics, and by the second day the pain was going away. It was such a relief!! The swelling went down after that, and everything was back to normal. The ring even moved by itself in the hole after I finished with soaks. Now was when the ring really bothered me, because it could still be hit easily, and it moved around a bit. I had it changed to a barbell as soon as I could, and it was the perfect length, not too tight, but hardly any extra to accommodate for swelling. As a result of this, I have been treating it well nonstop, because I do NOT want to risk any swelling or irritation whatsoever, since the current jewelry couldn't handle it. It's doing incredibly awesomely, once I got past the infection and continued being SO good to it, it hardly ever puts out any lymph or crusties, and by treating it correctly religiously, I've even avoided bumps!! I'm so happy with this piercing, it is my absolute favorite, and minus the infection, it wasn't really all that much trouble!! I'm still amazed at how little the needle hurt, and how quick and easily it went through. If it weren't for those clamps, it would have been an absolutely PERFECT piercing day.