I'd been desperate for a piercing (other than my ear lobes) for a long time. My dad is set in his ways and is almost completely against body modification, so it took a while to convince him to let me get just part of my ear cartilage pierced.
At A Glance Author natalie Contact a02815@hotmail.co.uk When Six months ago Artist 'China' Studio Ring In Ma Thing Location Derry, N.Ireland After spending days looking at pictures and stories on BME, I decided that I wanted to get my anti-tragus pierced. I didn't know anyone who had that piercing and I thought it looked really unusual.
My mum phoned 'Ring In Ma Thing' (a local piercing shop which had a very good reputation) and talked to China (the guy who owns the shop) and asked him when I could come in; he said that I could come any time that Saturday, that I wouldn't need to make an appointment.
So on the Saturday I went into town with my mum and my best friend, feeling sick with nerves even though I hadn't gotten near the piercing shop yet. I hated needles, but I knew that getting this piercing was something I wanted to do for myself. We went to the shop and China let us in, and after explaining to him that I wanted my anti-tragus pierced, he took me and my mum into the back room so he could check that it was possible for the piercing to go ahead. To my sheer disappointment, he said that I had too many blood vessels near my anti-tragus and my conch, which I assumed meant it would be too dangerous to pierce. I felt pretty lousy then, and he asked me what I wanted to do. I looked to my mum because I wasn't sure how she'd feel about me getting something other than my anti-tragus pierced. China suggested my tragus, and my mum said it was okay, so I agreed (already having read stories and look at pictures of tragus piercings), knowing that it wouldn't look THAT much different than an anti-tragus and it wouldn't be very hard to cover while I was in school.
My mum filled in the paperwork and paid and he asked me if I'd had breakfast. I hadn't, as I'd felt too nervous that morning to stomach anything. He sent me off to get some food and told me to come back in about half an hour.
We went to my favourite Chinese café but I could barely eat a few mouthfuls, although I tried to eat as much as I could as I didn't want to get pierced on an empty stomach and end up fainting. I felt sick to my stomach as we walked back to the piercing shop, my friend with me. I honestly thought I was going to throw up everything I had managed to get down at lunch.
We went through to the piercing room again and China started the usual piercing jargon, asking me if I had been pierced by him before, explaining that he was going to clean the area around my tragus, etc as he washed him hands thoroughly. He put on a pair of gloves and gave me some grips to clip my hair out of the way. I can't remember the exact order of events after that, as I was pretty nervous and everything seemed to be a blur.
After he had cleaned my ear, marked where it would go (I wanted it on my left ear) and asked me if the placing was okay, he changed his gloves again and asked me to lie down on my right, with my arm as a pillow. I did this and held tight onto my friend's hand, feeling less sick, but really nervous and excited. He could sense that I was worried and told me just to calm down, that I'd be fine. He kept calling me "m'dear" and talking about general stuff, which made me feel far more comfortable. He had the needle, the clamps and the jewellery on the table, and he could see that I didn't want to look at the needle but he was just showing me that everything he was using was new, and sterile.
He explained everything he was doing, and clamped my ear, which I had heard is very uncomfortable, but for me it actually didn't feel that bad at all. I squeezed my friend's hand really tight, as she sat behind my back, and China told me that he was going to put the needle through, and for me to take deep breaths and as I breathed out, he would pierce my tragus. I did as he said and felt a sharp pinch as the needle went through. It wasn't half as bad as I was expecting it to be. I'd heard stories of piercings where there's difficulty and discomfort getting the jewellery in, but before I'd even noticed, China told me I was finished and he'd put the ring in without me even being aware of it.
He cleaned up and put away the equipment he had been using and I stayed lying down for a minute or so, just to make sure I was okay. Once I was feeling almost normal, I sat up and looked in the mirror to my left, loving how my tragus piercing looked. I smiled and my friend told me how great it looked. China gave us both a boiled sweet to suck on, and started explaining the after-care, although everything was kind of hazy as he did, so I wasn't entirely listening, but it was all written down on the sheet anyway.
We made our way out of the shop, thanking him for my awesome piercing, as I smiled really big, although there was still a dull ache in my ear and it hurt every time I moved my face a lot.
Afterwards, I couldn't believe that I had worried so much over something that was over in a second and didn't even hurt that badly. I was SO happy with my piercing and China had been really nice to me, and made me feel as relaxed as I could be, in a situation with needles.
The came the hard part- taking care of it! I got some saline and cleaned around the piercing every morning and night for the first few weeks. I had some trouble sleeping during that time, one morning in particular, waking up to find that the ring had pushed upwards and I had to pull it back down which was pretty painful.
After the initial cleaning, when the blood stopped forming and it was more just dried discharge around the ring, I continued to clean it and found one day that I had ran out of saline. It wasn't until a day and a half later that I could get some more and after that, my cleaning regime became lax and I would often find myself fiddling with the piercing during the day.
A small cyst soon formed around the ring, mainly at the front and after a while of cleaning it with a saline type solution, it wasn't going away. I'd had the cyst for a month or two and although it wasn't extremely painful, it was still slightly uncomfortable and annoying, so I visited China again and asked him what to do.
He explained sea salt soaks to me, and told me the instructions were written on the sheet he had given me as well.
I started the sea salt soaks, which let me tell you- is hard to do on a tragus piercing! I ended up basically having to dunk my whole head into a bowl of steaming hot salty water every morning and night for four days.
I was told not to touch the piercing, but yet again, I found myself playing with it, and after the cyst had almost disappeared, it came back again.
Since then, it has gotten better and worse a few times. Each time I did the soaks half heartedly; but I started doing them at least twice daily, two days ago. I've given up on actually 'soaking' my tragus in the salt water solution because it's more hassle than it's worth, but I am using cotton pads soaked in the solution, and it seems to be working. So hopefully in a few days the cyst will have almost disappeared for good.
Anyone who doesn't want, or isn't allowed any 'major' body modification, should definitely consider a tragus piercing. For me, the actual piercing wasn't nearly as painful as I had apprehended it to be; the worst part is the after-care, and if I could give advice to anyone who is going to get it done, I would say to stick to the cleaning of it religiously. It may seem monotonous and an inconvenience for the first few months after you get your piercing, but in the long-run it saves you so much time and worry.
If there also happens to be anyone reading this who lives near Derry, in Northern Ireland [although I doubt there will be] I would really recommend Ring In Ma Thing, as a piercing studio. The people there are extremely nice and everything is very clean and safe.
So, that was my story...maybe when I leave home and can finally have a life, I will be writing more accounts of other body piercings =p.