At A Glance Author Michelle D Contact Michelle D@bme.anon IAM Flutterfly When A year ago Artist Six Studio Exotix Location Toronto, Ontario In February of this year I had numerous ear piercings. I had 3 sets of standard lobe piercings, a rook, tragus, snug, conch, and logarth piercing to be exact. Then of course there were my nostril and navel piercing. I'm not sure why, but multiple ear piercings have always intrigued me, since I first stumbled upon BME, just having got my first 'real' piercing (navel), so many years ago. When I looked at the ear piercing gallery, I was amazed at the different types of ear piercings, all of which had names that I had never heard of. It didn't take long for me to acquire many of these piercings. My friends joked that I had all of the ear piercings possible. However, this wasn't so. Back then I didn't have my anti-tragus pierced.
I decided that I wanted to get my anti-tragus pierced. My decision to actually go and get the piercing was a long one. After all, anti-tragus as the word "tragus" in it. My tragus piercing has, by far, been the worst piercing I have ever gotten. It has given me so much trouble I sometimes wonder why I haven't removed it and freed myself from so many problems. I dealt with bumps that were caused by the diameter of the CBR I was pierced with, an extremely slow healing time, and many other issues. I figured that if I were to get my anti-tragus pierced, I would have to deal with many of the same issues.
Despite any reservations, I did get my anti-tragus pierced one day after class. Let me tell you, that was quite the experience. I take piercings very well. Pain has never really been a concern for me, this piercing included, despite the BME encyclopedia entry saying that the anti-tragus is one of the most painful piercings. Those who have been with me when I have been pierced also say that I do not even flinch when the needle goes through my body. This experience was a whole other story.
My friend, Laura, happened to be in the piercing studio (Exotix in Toronto, on Church Street) the day I planned on getting my anti-tragus pierced. I was happy, because I hadn't really told anyone that I was going to be pierced, and therefore didn't bring anyone along to watch and 'support' me. Laura was happy to stay behind and watch. Little did she know that this would be an atypical piercing experience for me – one that I would want to block out immediately, so that it didn't prevent me from getting any other piercings.
To make things short, the piercing was damn painful and the jewelry insertion felt like it took over an hour. This was accompanied by me flailing my legs, begging for the piercing to be over with, asking the piercer, Six, to bail (since there was difficulty with the jewelry), a whole lot of profane language, sweating, bleeding, dizziness, and near passing out. You name it, I experienced it that day. If this sparks your curiosity, you can read the long version here: ('Squidging Away From My Piercer).
Despite the awful initial piercing experience, things appeared to be going well for quite some time. There was very minimal pain during the healing process. I used sea salt soaks as my main form of aftercare, as I have done for all of my piercings. Since my piercing was doing so well I figured that I shouldn't worry about experiencing similar problems as that of my tragus. I was wrong.
A few months after my piercing I began to develop a bump above the entry hole of my piercing. Cartilage piercings are notorious for bumps. I've had them before and all of them have gone away in a short amount of time and have never returned. This bump didn't go away despite trying different aftercare measures including Satin soap, Glycerin soap, sea salt soaks, the LITHA method, even bad aftercare regimens (that I tried out of desperation) such as peroxide and rubbing alcohol. Fed up, I headed to see Six for the first time since he had done this piercing. As I figured, my anti-tragus was having trouble with the CBR, just like my tragus had. We decided that I should switch the jewelry to a slightly curved barbell. Six didn't have an appropriated size barbell for me, so I walked up to Passage, another studio I go to, and bought a barbell for $45. I then headed back to Exotix and Six changed the jewelry for me. Like the initial piercing experience, my jewelry changing was painful and bloody, but I lived.
I saw improvement not too long after my CBR had been switched to a barbell. The bump started to decrease as did the redness. However, not to far down the road the bump came back, in the same location as it previously had been. I started babying the piercing, hoping that the bump would disappear again. It didn't. Rather, I developed a bump on the inside of my ear also. Although I try my best to make sure that I don't put pressure on my ears when I'm sleeping (I arrange my pillows so they form an upside down 'V' shape, and let my ear sit in the gap where there area no pillows) the bumps were more than likely due to getting knocked in my sleep. Also, it's possible that shampoo hadn't been properly rinsed out following my shower and irritated the piercing. Really, there could have been many causes. Regardless of why I had the bump, it was definitely clear that I had one finicky piercing on my hands.
This piercing was put to the ultimate test when I found out that I had to have all 4 of my wisdom teeth out. A panoramic x-ray was required and I had to remove all of my jewelry. My anti-tragus piercing did not like being touched, let along having the barbell removed and being replaced with nylon. As you could probably predict, my piercing acted up again – the usual bump, redness and this time accompanied with swelling.
As I sit here writing this my anti-tragus is a happy little piercing. There is no signs of a bump and the piercing is well healed. Nevertheless, I could wake up tomorrow with what looks to be a volcano erupting from my ear.
As I said earlier, I could have removed the piercing. However, I haven't. My piercings, no matter how small, mean a lot to me and are things that set me apart from the rest of my friends and family. So for now, the piercing will remain. As with all things, the future is uncertain.