Round about this time last year I was out for a little shopping spree and decided I wanted a piercing. So I headed up to Retro Rebels and spoke Darryl about getting my anti tragus done. He took me through to his wee room and we had a proper chat about it and a little measure up he penned out where he was going to pierce.
At A Glance Author Sarah Contact Sarah@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Darryl Studio Retro Rebels Location Aberdeen Up until then I hadn't really had much piercing experience and got quite a shock at how painful it was. But Darryl assured me that everything was fine and sent me away with a leaflet on how to clean the piercing and a lollipop to get my blood sugars up again.
I tried my best to clean the piercing properly but it just wasn't working and I was worried it would have to come out so I went back to Darryl to see what he made of it. He took a long look at it and decided it was fine but he also had a plan. After looking at my ear he'd noticed that my tragus and anti tragus were really close together and it would be possible to do an orbital in them. I said yes right away but he sent me home to have a think about it because he couldn't do anything with it until my anti tragus had healed a bit more.
After a couple of weeks my anti tragus was looking a lot better and it wasn't painful anymore so I went back to Darryl to see if he could still do the orbital. He took another look at my ear and measured it up and was sure he could do it. He said it would be uncomfortable but I still wanted to do it so he went ahead cleaning the area and marking it out.
He clamped up my tragus, this was a bit nippy because my anti tragus piercing still wasn't fully healed, the piercing was pretty sore but it was over quickly and was nothing compared to what was going to follow. Darryl removed the old curved bar I had my anti tragus pierced with and put the curved bar that was to form the orbital in. This was really painful because the piercing wasn't healed properly. Darryl then removed the hoop from my tragus slowly while pushing the bar from my anti tragus through to form the orbital. This took the longest and proved to be more difficult and painful than either of us had thought. After a while of pushing and pulling the bar was in place and Darryl cleaned the piercings up again. Even though it was all red and swollen it look great and we were both really impressed with it. It was Darryl's first (and so far only) tragus to anti tragus orbital.
I got my lollipop again and was sent home with all the appropriate information. The piercing was very sore for the rest of the day and it was really difficult to get to sleep because it was in my right ear and I usually sleep on my right side, it was so hard to remember to lie on my back! The next day the piercing was still very swollen and it had bled overnight but a good clean sorted that out. I had to keep a close on eye on the orbital and make sure it didn't move out of place.
I went back to get it checked regularly and Darryl seemed really happy with it even though there was a bit of keliod on my anti tragus. About a month later we decided it was time for the curved bar to come out and Darryl found a hoop that would fit. He went for a hoop with a bar closeur because this would give the impression of a captive hoop and it looked tidier than a ball closeur. Getting the jewellery changed was pretty uncomfortable but nothing compared to the actual piercing.
It took about 6 months for the piercings to heal properly and settle down. I didn't have any major problems with the piercing because Darryl kept an eye on it and I cleaned it twice a day. I'm really pleased with the piercing, it's definately my favorite and most painful! Believe me after having the orbital done even my tongue and conch piercings paled into insignficance! I love the fact that hardly anyone else can get the same piercing as me because it depends on the way the tragus and anti tragus sit and the size of them and the size of the ear, it makes me feel a bit special. Darryl keeps telling me to put a picture of it up on BME but my camera's not very good so a story will do until I get a better camera!