At A Glance
Author	anonymous
When	A month ago

It had been a while since I'd had the thrill of a new piercing, and after finally settling on something non-facial, the perfect option was a tragus piercing.

Now, I'd been interested in, and getting, piercings since the age of 11, and from then on I'd caught the piercing bug and the tragus had been at the back of my mind for a while. And though I'd never actually gone ahead and got it, i finally decided I'd take the plunge and just go for it. I'd seen a few girls at school with it done and thought "yeah, that look's great" but never really imagined myself with it, since I freak out when I trap my finger in the door, and to be honest it looked really painful, because the tragus is thick cartilage, but then again, the second of pain is always worth the shiny new piercing you get, so I might as well just go for it :).

Of course I did my research first, heard the horror stories, the "popping" sound it was apparently going to make, and understandably I was totally scared. Call me a wimp, but just thinking about getting it done now sent me out in a panic! I was sat at the computer shaking, and I felt sick (not a good sign, I know) , but, me being me, knew I'd kill myself with regret if I chickened out, so that Saturday I went down to the piercing shop.

From my past piercing experiences, I have to say finding a friendly piercer was a rare occasion, but as it turns out, the guy on duty was really talkative and friendly, which put my mind at ease a bit. Good, considering I was shaking and laughing nervously so much it was impossible to mark my ear up.

So, I'm in the shop, and first the piercer checks my tragus is big enough for the bar, and luckily it is. I then lay down on the bed (the type of dentist's chair you see in piercing shops) and by now I'm terrified, to the point of the piercing guy actually laughing and telling me it will be hardly as painful as my nose piercing (phew!). So he shows me the needle as he takes it out of the packaging, (not good, seeing as I try to avoid looking at them) and then he tells me to relax, and to turn my head so he can get to my left tragus. He then sprays on the antiseptic stuff, which is vvveeerrryyyy cold, and he assures me this is actually worse than the piercing itself, which is good news.

He then attatched the clamp, which i couldn't actually feel from the numbing spray, told me to close my eyes and he'd pierce my ear. So I did as he said, closed my eyes and gripped the side of the bed, and he put the needle through. All I could feel was a lot of pressure on my ear, like someone was pulling at my tragus, not nice but nothing unbearable, and I'm thinking "is this it?" And then I fell him put then bar in and screw on the top, and it's done.

I looked up to the mirror and instantly fell in love with my new piercing. I can honesty say that the piercing was not like the horror stories at all, no popping sound, no crying, just a lovely new piercing :). Afterwards there was a tiny little bit of blood, and it was sore, (sleeping on it was a big mistake) but nothing unbearable at all, and this is coming from a wimp!

I would strongly recommend this piercing, just be prepared to take out alot of time for cleaning, and although it totally depends on your own pain tolerance. In my opinion this piercing is slightly exaggerated, and advise you to not rely on others opinions on how painful it is, but to use them as a guide, because as i found out, it depends greatly on how high or low your pain tolerance is.

My piercing remained sore for a week afterwards, but I often woke up in the night laying on it and there was minimal pain. But since then it's been fine: no pain whatsoever; no bleeding or infections. I cleaned it twice a day with savlon spray or salt water, and this seems to clean it up nice.

All my friends love my new piercing - as do my family (luckily i have the type of family who aren't bothered when it comes to piercings). I'm really pleased with my tragus piercing, and hope to change the bar for a little ring as soon as it's healed. I'd say go ahead and get your tragus pierced, you'll regret it if not and it's a great, unique but not out of this world, piercing not have. :).