At A Glance
Author	Em
When	A month ago
Location	Birmingham

I decided to get my anti-tragus pierced on the spur of the moment as I was bored, had a bit of money burning a hole in my pocket. I dragged my boyfriend to the studio (he doesn't really like my piercings). I went to piercing studio where I had gotten my tragus, conch, nose and navel (top and bottom) pierced.

The piercing studio I go to has a very good reputation about health, safety and cleanliness, so I always go there. I walked in there in the afternoon and immediately heard the familiar buzzing sound from people getting tattoos in other rooms. I walked up to the counter and asked if it was possible if I could get my anti-tragus pierced today. The man behind the desk said the lady (Rachel) who was piercing today was finishing with a client and to sit down and wait for a few minutes. About five minutes later Rachel came out and asked me where I wanted pierced, I told her my anti-tragus she told me that would be fine and she gave me a form to fill out while she went and sterilized the piercing room. The form said the usual stuff like have you had anything to eat, are you under the influence of drugs or alcohol, any other reasons there may be trouble with getting pierced. I filled out the form no problem, and took it back up to the man behind the counter, and then Rachel who was piercing me told me to go through to the room.

I went in and took off my jacket and sat on the chair. Rachel was washing her hands, while she was doing this she told me it was a very difficult piercing and it will be very sore afterwards. This isn't exactly what I wanted to hear, but I know she just wanted me to be sure and to prepare me; I still wanted it done anyway and this wouldn't have deterred me. She put on some gloves and cleaned my ear with a disinfected wipe she then got the pen to dot where she was going to place the piercing on my ear; she then told me to look in the mirror to see if the placing was ok, I said it was fine and sat back down in the chair. She changed her gloves again and told me she was putting a longer bar then I really needed to accommodate any swelling but I could go back and change it after a few months, she then got the needle from the steel tray she had prepared to use for the procedure. She told me to close my eyes and she was working around my face and didn't want to poke me in my eye. She asked me if I was ready I said yes, I took a deep breath in and she pushed the needle through; she cut some plastic from around the needle and I heard it drop beneath me. The needle itself going through didn't hurt that much but when she was putting the jewellery in this hurt very bad and was definitely the worst part; she has a little bit of trouble getting the ball on the bar and joked that even professional piercers have trouble with the balls sometimes. When she had finished I got up and looked at my ear and I loved my new piercing as soon as I saw it and the curved bar she had used looked amazing. She give me some written information about how to care for my new piercing, and told me to go back in 4 weeks for a check up and talk about any problems. I paid the very reasonable price of £20 thanked Rachel and left the shop.

I walked to the bus stop with a red throbbing ear, but the pain was less than I expected. Later that night when I got home I cleaned my new piercing with sea salt and boiled water (cooled down obviously), it was fine and I could even sleep on it that night. Everything was going okay with it until exactly 2 weeks later I was cleaning my piercing and there seemed to be a lot of crust; I had never experienced this on any other of my piercings. It then started to bleed and become extremely swollen. Over the next 4 days it oozed blood and discharge, it was very red and swollen and I was in so much pain all day and night for the 4 days. I carried on cleaning it with the sea salt and water twice a day, and it eventually cleared up without me having to go down the piercing studio to have it checked. I think it was my own stupid fault it got a bit infected and I had my ear phones in the day after I got pierced and they obviously were not very clean; so I've learned my lesson and advise other people never to do this.

Regardless of what happened I love my anti-tragus and would advise people to get it pierced. I'm looking forward to getting new piercings and sharing my experiences.