My experience of getting my tragus pierced was fantastic.
At A Glance Author purr Contact purr@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Camilla Studio Tusk tattoo Location Holborn London I was a little apprehensive but had wanted it done for so long I was really looking forward to it.
I have been pierced many times (eyebrow, three in my bellybutton, nose) before but in my ears nowhere except the lobes and top cartilage, which were all done with a gun.
Camilla was great; I explained that I wanted a bar, so we chose a nice size bar (obviously a longish one) with plain balls at the end.
She was training to be a piercer so she had a fully experience body piercer and tattooist (Dave Tusk) watching over us at every step. First of all, she asked me what side I wanted it done on and checked that my tragus could actually be pierced as some peoples are very small or are a funny shape and don't take to being pierced well or look odd.
I decided to get the left side done as that is where the majority of my ear piercing's were already.
She made the dots on my ear and got them checked by Dave, moved them a bit showed me and checked that I was happy and showed Dave again.
Throughout, she was telling me what she was doing, every step, why she was clamping it, why she was moving the clamp, then I felt a prick and a bit of a pop and the needle was through.
My friend sat with me while I was having the piercing. The piercing itself didn't really hurt at all it just felt a bit hot, the jewellery being added I would say hurt the most but IME that's always the way. Overall, it was a really positive experience.
It was my first time of being pierced at Tusk tattoo, and I was impressed at how clean and professional they were. Camilla was always changing her gloves, and the whole process was probably one of the most stress free piercing's I have had.
I was cleaned up and given a mirror plus the one on the wall to have a look at it, and was ecstatic at how it looked.
They talked through the aftercare procedure. How to clean the piercing, how often to clean it (2-3 times a day) to begin with, with saline and cotton buds, so I took a bottle of saline to work and kept cleaning it. Not to go swimming in swimming pools for a couple of weeks, try to have showers and not baths or let in soak in soapy water because of infection etc etc
It was a bit uncomfortable to sleep on at first but after a while it did heal it took maybe two months to heal properly. They told me to come back in 4 weeks to check the healing process and I went back and they had a look and said it was healing really well and just to keep it clean still. I went back another few weeks later and they checked it again all free of charge.
I had to have an MRI scan, which proved difficult, as I had to remove it and where they had done the bar up nice, and tight I had to use a pair of pliers to hold onto on one side while I undid the other, of course, I then could not get both of the balls back on!
Improvising with an earring butterfly that night (!!) I phoned the next morning and made an appointment to go back.
I went back to Tusk, explained what had happened and they said now was probably a good time to change the bar down a size so they put a smaller bar in. They changed the bar and I had a white crystal ball put on the front, this came off a couple of days later so I had to go back and get it tightened up! They never charged me for changing the bars or helping with jewellery, which was kind of them.
There have been times when it's got a bit crusty and sore especially for the first couple of months but when that happened I just stepped up the cleaning routine and it seemed to work out ok.
I have had it done a year now and it is perfectly fine, no crusting, and I can move it and wiggle it about with no pain :)
Job well done thank you Tusk!!
The tragus is a really nice piercing to have done for men and for women, I think it is quite discreet and it is becoming much more mainstream now. I've seen so many people have it done since me or maybe I've just noticed it more!
It's got me back into piercing now and I've now had a few more done reports to follow!! :)
Turns addictive doesn't it?!!