Sometimes it is the passage of time that makes us wiser.
At A Glance Author broken_wings Contact broken_wings@bme.anon IAM broken_wings When Two years ago They say that "hindsight is 20/20".
They say that "time heals all wounds". (It would appear that I must wait for more time to pass.)
It is for these reasons, and others, that I am writing this two years after the fact.
On November 7th, 2005 I had been sixteen years old for five days. I was enjoying "sweet sixteen" status. These were the circumstances under which I acquired my first non-lobe piercing – my anti-tragus. It had taken a year and a half of pleading and convincing, but my parents had finally acquiesced. They decided that I would be allowed as soon as I had turned sixteen; so on the weekend after my birthday my dad took me to get my long-yearned-for piercing.
It's been two years, and the piercing lovingly dubbed "Phyllus" has definitely had its ups and downs. Anti-tragi aren't notorious for nothing! I find it almost odd that the first real piercing I chose, happened to be one of the most difficult ones I've ever gotten (in terms of healing).
I'm writing this because I find that most of the BME submissions are written a week or so after the fact. Seldom do they reveal the trials of long term healing. (This is my bias; I'll admit it may not be a fact.) I'm not trying to dissuade you from getting an anti-tragus piercing; I'd just like you to be completely informed of possible complications.
Initially, my anti-tragus was pierced with an externally threaded 16ga barbell. I was unaware that the studio of my choice used externally threaded jewelry, and despite the fact that I was aware of internally threaded jewelry's superiority – I simply forgot to make it a relevant issue during my search. The piercing itself hardly hurt at all during the procedure. The healing, however, was definitely not pain free.
Sleeping changed. To this day I have difficulty sleeping on the side of my piercing (left). I've trained myself to sleep on my right side or my back. I've trained myself to only use one headphone from a set of ear buds while listening to music. I also only use the phone on my right ear. My life has changed. Furthermore, for at least 4 months I did sea salt soaks (1 cup warm water to ¼ teaspoon non-iodized sea salt) twice daily. This too, affected my life. Probably most significantly, was the affect it had on sports. I declined from signing up in martial arts (for the 11th year) simply because I felt that my participation would adversely affect the healing. Baseball season approached, and rather than taking the jewelry out for games (like you're supposed to do; you can be called "out" if jewelry is discovered) I got the barbell changed to a retainer.
Bad idea. Apart from the fact that the retainer was plastic, instead of the significantly better option of quartz, and even so many months after the initial piercing, the jewelry change caused a lot of much un-needed trauma to the piercing. Ironically, I quickly quit my baseball team. Partially because of the piercing (my helmut put pressure on it), and partially because I kind of suck at baseball and I was the youngest one on the team by two years.
Not surprisingly, my anti-tragus wasn't healing too well. It was tender, and at some point it developed a dreaded "bump". Granted, I didn't help it out as much as I could've. And, as the location is such a particular "stick-out" spot, it tended to get bashed around A LOT. Unfortunately, the fact that I'm a klutz compounded by the fact that I have a boyfriend, meant that my anti-tragus took a lot of abuse.
I had no idea that the aftercare and healing would be so in-depth and complex. I've tried to rise to the challenge, but circumstance seems to take over. Over the years I've switched from barbell to retainer to ring to smaller ring to barbell to longer barbell. I think that proper jewelry has a lot to do with good healing... however, changing the jewelry too often definitely is not a good idea. Right now I'm wearing a 16ga internally threaded barbell. I recently bought a longer post, as the previous barbell was way too short and was being "absorbed" into my ear or something like that. Luckily, it was caught pretty quickly – but still. More problems! I have very tiny bumps right now; they look like they may be scar tissue. Also, a piercer informed me that the piercing itself has twisted in such a way that the fistula is longer than it has to be. Weird. Bad. But acceptable.
Although I still get the odd crusties and I have a weird little bump that's been there for longer than I can remember (although it does seemingly-randomly disappear form time to time), a big difference that I've noticed over time is that NOW, my anti-tragus is less susceptible to pain. It gets hit, and I don't scream. My shirt grazes it, I don't shriek. My life wasn't always this pain-free, so I consider this a major advantage.
This piercing was the first non-lobe piercing I've ever gotten; I got it when I had just turned sweet sixteen, and I had coveted it more than any other piercing I've since gotten. (The longing can probably be attributed to the 1.5 year wait/begging period I had to undergo, in order to respect my parents' wishes.) It's also possibly one of my most unique piercings; I've only ever seen two other anti-tragus piercings in person – and that's because I seek them out. This was the first piercing that I named. Heh. This piercing also taught me to accept things that are less than perfect. I used to think that if a piercing healed imperfectly (crooked, with scar tissue, etc.) that I would simply die. "Phyllus" is not doing exactly fabulous, but she's doing fine. And that, after all this time, is good enough for me. I'm just thankful to be able to keep the damn thing!
To conclude – this was merely an update. Getting an anti-tragus has changed me and my life, and I'm okay with that. It's not completely healed yet, but I'll give another update in a year or two. Hopefully one day it'll be a successfully healed piercing!