At A Glance Author Diana Atwood Contact diana.atwood@gmail.com When A month ago Artist Dean Studio Lou's Tattoos Location Madiera Beach, FL Okay so I recently turned 18, and I really wanted to do something that I would remember... like a piercing or a tattoo. I was too scared to get a tattoo since they are totally permanent and I didn't feel like my parents totally freaking out.
I already had 2 piercings in each ear...just regular piercings, though. I wanted to do something really different... something that not everyone had. I was looking through BMEZINE.COM and found the tragus piercing and figured it would look really cool on me and I'd try it.
One day after school 2 friends and I planned to go get piercings done while 2 other were going to get tattoos. We were going to go to Aces and Eights in Pinellas Park, FL.... but after a few hours of hanging out at Chick Fil A and waiting for the other 2 girls to catch up we got tired of waiting and decided to go ahead without them. We drove around for a while trying to decide where to go since we were already on Madiera Beach and didn't feel like driving all the way to PPark..... we ended up going to Lou's Tattoos on Madiera Beach (my best friend's sister got her tongue pierced there with no problems and a very friendly piercer.... that's why we picked it). One of my friends was going to get her 2nd holes pierced and my other friend wanted to get her belly button done. (The one who wanted to get her belly button done is deathly scared of needles....hence why we were trying to stay as calm as possible.)
But back to me..... I was going to get pierced first since they were both really scared. I've never gotten any cartilage pierced before so I really had no idea what to expect... I was trying to stay calm so my friends wouldn't chicken out. In actuality I was pretty damn nervous...but I didn't want to freak anyone else out so I kept it all inside.
We walked in the parlor and looked around at all the tattoo drawings on the walls for a few minutes while we talked to the 2 artists/piercers that were there. One of them had both of his tragus's done and I was asking about them...of course he said they didn't hurt at all, haha. He calmed me down a little bit so I signed all my papers and I sat down in the big leather chair. Dean asked me which ear I wanted it in, I said the left... so he spun me around. I started to get really nervous and my heart was beating really fast...my friends were not making it any easier for me...they were freaking out way more than I was. He drew a dot on my tragus to show where it was going to be pierced and I said that it looked good. He put the clamp on my ear, and grabbed a big needle.....and that was the last thing I saw before it was over. He pushed the needle through and I heard the cartilage pop...and the only part that hurt was when the needle exited the skin. He had a little trouble getting the hoop in at first, but it didn't hurt too much. After it was over I felt so relieved...I jumped up out my chair and ran over to the big mirror on the wall. It looked awesome!!!!! My friends were staring at it and saying how cool it looked over and over... I was so happy with it. I felt like I'd just accomplished some huge obstacle. My friends were calmed down a ton by me surviving getting my tragus pierced.... my friend got her ears done and my other friend ended up chickening out about the belly button....... and she still hasn't gotten it (but I got MY belly button pierced!!!!)
I've had my tragus piercing for about 2 months now....and it's still a little sore, but I clean it everyday in the shower with antibacterial soap and then again out of the shower with iodine. Sometimes it's much more sore than others.... but it's usually not too bad, and it has not gotten infected at all since I got it pierced. The actual tragus itself has been a little bruised.... no surprise though. It feels much better when I clean it in the shower (I usually soap up my hair and then my hands with antibacterial soap and just gently run the inside and outside while moving it up and down and then swirling it around which doesn't hurt at all). If you get this piercing be sure to clean it and spin it around daily, because it does NOT feel pleasant if you skip either of those. All in all...totally worth whatever anxiety and pain I had. It looks awesome! =)