At A Glance
Author	Ayla
Contact	Ayla@bme.anon
IAM	Rusty
When	Six months ago
Artist	Russ Foxx
Studio	Modern Body
Location	Vancouver, BC

So it all began when I decided I wanted my triangle pierced.

I had thought about it quite a bit in the past, looked intently at a few pictures and studied the procedure. It was quite pretty to my eyes, and I thought it would look great with my anatomy.

So I talked to my piercer and set up the time it would be done, hurrah! Unluckily for me, I woke up the next day and couldn't get it done for girl reasons. This was quite disappointing. My boyfriend at the time wanted to get something done, so we went in anyway, why not?

Once we were there I got enticed by the piercing area and all the talk of procedure and such, which usually happens! So I brought up 'Hey, why don't you pierce my tragus? You can even do it kind of big if you want.' Little did I know... this guy likes to go big! So he dug around a bit in his jewelry and pulled out this little tunnel and asked how that was.

I was thinking more along the lines of a 12g cbr, but here was a 6g single flared tunnel staring at me! So my heart immediately started to skip beats, but I kept my cool. I knew this would be really neat and original if I did it.

I thought it over a bit and decided, hey why not! Punch a hole in my head. He was pretty excited about it, seeing how this would be his first punched tragus. I was a little jittery with the initial idea of it, but I quickly warmed up to it and couldn't wait!

We sat around chit-chatting for a bit while he set up all of his supplies, and I tried to get my nerves under control. I've never liked laying down for piercings. Something about being horizontal makes me feel like I'm not as in control as I'd like to be. Although I understand that this position allows the artist to get right in there and do everything the way they need to.

So I gathered my wits about me and prepared mentally for what was about to happen for a bit before jumping in feet first and laying down.

He marked the area and poked around a bit, making sure there was room and that he could get in there with his tools. He was going to go in from the front to the back, but that would have made the tunnel backward and funky looking, so he poked around some more and found a way to go in from the back(take a feel of your tragus, it's pretty hard to get a dermal punch in there!).

Once everything was set up and marked and I was calm, we began.

I'm quite used to being pierced, and have learned to pay attention to the sensation and my piercer rather than being worried about the pain. For me, stretching hurts far more than piercing, I look forward to the sharp pain quite a bit.

He spoke to me the entire time, letting me know what he was doing so that I was not surprised.

When everything was in position, he let me know we were about to begin.

The best way to describe what it felt like is, a sharp pressure. There wasn't very much pain involved, or perhaps I was paying more attention to other things to notice. It took a moment and I definitely felt the punch going through. Kind of like a slow burning pain with a little *bump!pop!* at the end. It was done! I'd done it!

I was so elated that it was over, I don't quite remember the moments when he inserted the taper. I'm sure it hurt, I'm sure it bled, and I'm sure I either laughed or swore, but that's about all I've got.

I was worried the worst part was going to be getting the jewelry in. I'm not a fan of this happening. There is always a bit of discomfort and sometimes it hurts more than expected. This time it actually wasn't too bad! Since he'd gone in through the back, the taper was in the perfect position to insert the tunnel.

Now on to the o-ring. This was a little more difficult! It did not want to go on properly. He tried using his fingers a couple times, which was very uncomfortable for me. I remember him putting a lot of pressure on my conch piercing while trying to get the little thing on there. Finally he used a pair of small clamps to secure the o-ring on the back.

It was really over, I'd REALLY done it!

He cleaned up my ear and gave me a big smile, while I blinked a few times and tried to pull myself back down to earth.

I think that was by far the most adrenaline I'd ever gotten from a piercing. I felt ready to run in circles, if only I wasn't so dizzy.

I admired my new addition in the mirror for quite a while, running back every now and then to make sure it hadn't gone anywhere, which it had not!

I didn't sleep well with it that night, I kept forgetting it was there and rolling onto that side(ouchies!). It took a few nights to get used to, and pulling blood out of my ear every morning wasn't good times at all. That all passed in a week or two.

So all in all, I healed this piercing in less than six months. I was very lucky with it, I've heard that people take a long time to heal them, or can't heal them at all.

I had a lot of bad experiences along the way that made me almost take it out. These involved very bad swelling, the flare on the tunnel being swallowed under my skin(I had to pull it out several times, not fun), I was unable to wear any sort of earphone/headphone on that side of my head, and it made sleeping a mess for the first few months. I also went to Belize a couple months afterward, which wasn't such a great idea with a fresh piercing in my head. Luckily it didn't affect it too much. I took great care of it and when it was acting up treated it as if it was fresh, which was annoying but the best idea until my body decided it was time to start healing and quit swelling.

So if you think punching out your tragus sounds like a god idea, and you can handle all the aftermath, I say do it! It's a lovely little piece of headmetal and I adore it every day.

Thanks for reading! Happy and safe modding!