Since I had to have my horizontal eyebrow piercing removed a few months previously, I'd been pining for a new piercing. I've always admired unique, yet subtle piercings. Considering piercings around the mouth are now considered to be emo or moshery, I wasn't wanting that label. So after spending a good few weeks on BME looking up piercings I hadn't seen before, I settled for some kind of new ear piercing.
At A Glance Author bjornavich Contact bjornavich@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Paula Studio Southside Body Piercing Studio Location Glasgow
I made my mind up. I wanted either a vertical tragus piercing, and if I couldn't get that, an anti-tragus. They both looked quite cool and to be honest, if I could have got the vertical tragus done then I would get my anti-tragus in the other ear.
It was just over a month after Christmas, I had a week or so left of uni holidays, I had to get it done before I moved back to halls. Plus my friend from England had came up to stay so I thought I would take him to the piercing studio with me, just for the banter.
So we got there, this is the studio I'd been to for my belly piercing and my horizontal eyebrow, and I remember it being really nice, friendly, clean etc. I asked Paula about the vertical tragus, and she said my tragus wasn't defined enough for the piercing (although looking at pictures online I saw people with even less "defined" traguses, but I wasn't going to argue, piercer knows best) and offered a regular tragus piercing. I didn't want that, I've seen so many people thinking they're the shit for having a tragus done, I wasn't gonna jump on the bandwagon and be another girl thinking she's awesome for having a different piercing. Although to be honest, I do feel quite cool with my anti-tragus, but that's cos nobody else has it.
Anyway...rant over...I asked about an anti-tragus and she said there wouldn't be a problem. I took a while deciding if I wanted a bar or a hoop, and chose a hoop in the end, although I'd liked the look of a bar when I was researching the piercing. We went into the piercing room, I asked my friend if he wanted to come with me but he's a bit straight edge and wasn't pleased that I'd dragged him to the place initially so he declined. He'd probably be sick if he saw blood too. I hopped on the chair, and this is when the fear sat in. Because the anti tragus is quite a thick piece of cartiledge, it dawned on me that it might hurt more than I thought. She picked up on my nervousness and reassured me. Next, she marked it, put on gloves, brought out a new needle, then the clamps, and asked me to take a deep breath...
To be honest, I've never been able to decide what is more painful – the clamps or the needle. I still couldn't. The clamps hurt, the needle hurt, but the pain of the needle is so sharp, and clean, and its all over so quickly. By the time I'd fully exhaled the pain had disappeared and it felt a bit surreal. But I won't lie, I remember feeling a lot of pain for a second.
I paid, left, quickly lit up as I was still a bit nervous, and had some sugary juice to comfort me. As I was showing my friend around Glasgow, we went up to get the bus, and about 5 minutes later when we got on, my ear started to really, really sting. My friend pointed out that it was bleeding, too.
Throughout the rest of the day, it was stinging on and off, and was bleeding quite a bit too. I had to keep going to the bathroom whenever I came across one to check on it. We were in a museum at one point and my ear felt a bit wet, so I went to the toilet to look in the mirror and the thing was pretty much covered in blood. I didn't want to be too harsh in cleaning it, incase I moved a clot and it started bleeding again, so had to dab around it the best I could until I'd removed enough dried blood to make it look acceptable.
I couldn't sleep on my left side for a few nights, which is the side I usually sleep on. Plus I was sleeping on a couch for the next few nights as my friend was sleeping in my room so it really wasn't a comfortable experience. And it did keep bleeding for a while. When I cleaned it, it bled. When I woke up in the morning, it had been bleeding. And sometimes it would start bleeding for no apparent reason.
However, it healed pretty quickly. Quicker than I thought. And I now have a very different piercing, one that makes people look twice and comment on it whenever they see it. My hair generally hides it, but you can sometimes see it, and when I wear my hair up its on show too. I've yet to find somebody with the same piercing too, which in my eyes is a bonus.
If you want to get this done, definitely get it. Its pretty uncommon and you will get quite a few compliments!