At A Glance
Author	anonymous
When	A year ago

This piercing was done in February of 2005.

It was about a month or two since I had gone to get my first piercing at a studio called "Just Add Ice" (in Western Australia) and I wanted another piercing. My parents were strictly against this idea, but I felt (stupidly) that I was mature enough to get one. One piercing leads to another. I knew what my next piercing would be, too - the man who worked the counter at the studio had a tragus piercing (I didn't know what it was called then) and for a month or so I worked up the guts to do it myself, thinking that a simple cartilage piercing would be fairly safe to be done by myself (I would never attempt a navel or lip piercing or anything.)

Looking back, it was kind of a stupid and risky thing to do, me being thirteen at the time. I woke up with the tragus piercing on my mind. The night before my then-boyfriend had dared me to do it, goading me with the "Oh you're a girl, you don't have a high enough pain tolerance." This furthered my mind even more. Determined, I asked my little brother for a needle, which he didn't have. Improvising, I found a slightly oversized safety pin, and soaked it in some high-proof rum I found. It seemed to me that this would be enough to sterilize it. At this point my heart was beating in my throat, and my adrenalin was rising. I went to the bathroom with my safety pin and a purple felt-tip pen. I marked where I would like it to go, back and front.

Taking a deep breath, I held the edge of my tragus steady and eased the pointed end of the safety pin into my tragus. Surprisingly, it wasn't painful. I was told later that you could hear layers of cartilage "pop", but I didn't notice it. I got a little stuck at one point, but I calmed myself and lightly pushed a little more. Soon, the safety pin's point was all the way through. I didn't really know what to do next, considering I wasn't piercing with a hollow needle and had no way of putting the jewelry in without taking the safety pin out. I had made up my mind to do this though, and I wasn't going back now. Slowly, I eased it back out, and put in a clear plastic retainer (I attended a christian school with did not allow piercings.) There was a slight amount of blood on my ear and on the safety pin, which I wiped off. The area around the retainer was a little purplish/red and throbbing, but I didn't let this phase me. After a month of procrastinating, my tragus piercing was finally done!

Over the next few weeks, it gave off a little pus, but it had superficially healed after a while. I cleaned it every day with more of the rum (I know, I know, bad idea.) What had been a rebellion against my parents, and a way to prove I was mature and could take pain, had turned into something I was proud of, and I think I matured a little after that, when I discovered my true love for piercings, which rose higher than the surface teen interest of my friends.

To anyone who is around my age and wanting a tragus piercing, I recommend that you get it done professionally (which is pretty obvious). People will look at you like you're weird as they will with most piercings other than the common ones people have, but of course you have to take this in your stride. Never accept dares for self-piercings, or perform them on your friends. You know, common sense, people!

It will be a year in February and my tragus piercing has become ingrained in my way of life. I found it hard to use earbuds (the headphones on iPods) at first, but now I have figured out how to wear them so it doesn't interfere with the piercing. Rings, for me, have irritated my tragus and bent it a little out of shape, so I have had to wear only studs. I use the standard ones for lobes and I have never really had any trouble with them, although when people look at my ear on the wrong angle they can see the backing! Once my tragus was healed, it became quite easy to move it with the earring in it, for stuff like cleaning your ears. Speaking of cleaning your ears, unlike what some people have said to me ("Don't you get earwax all over the back?") the earring stays surprisingly clean and doesn't point into the ear canal.

I absolutely love my tragus piercing and I wouldn't trade it for the world.