As happy as I am with my tragus piercing, it was not what I wanted initially. It had taken an entire school year to convince my parents, but my father finally consented to try to convince my mother to allow me to get an industrial done in my left ear. I have always had an almost OCD thing about things being symmetrical, and with one more piercing in my right ear than my left I felt constantly uncomfortable when I looked in a mirror and caught a glimpse of my ears.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Jessica Studio Saints & Sinners Location Fells Point, Maryland Two Saturdays ago, my father drove me down to Saints & Sinners. After a quick stop into the Sound Garden to see what new music was in, we walked the few feet to the shop. Somehow, in those handful of steps, we decided that I no longer would get the industrial done- I would have the tragus.
Going to a private school, I am always worried when I get a new piercing, even though all of my current ones are fairly conservative ones in my ears, that my latest one would be the one to tip the scale and I'd finally have to take them all out. Not looking forward to taking out my lobe piercings, especially my lobes which are being stretched currently, my father and I tried to think of a piercing that would be slightly less "out there" and easier for the easily intimidated clergypeople to handle. A tragus, we thought, would be easier to hide if I needed and probably less offensive.
We walked into the store and I immediately felt comfortable. I had been in there before with friends, since along with being a piercing/tattoo shop they also sold funky clothes and accessories, as well as beautiful art. Jessica was at the desk, and I told her what I had in mind and she gave us the minor consent paperwork to fill out. She then took me immediately back into the piercing room.
The piercing itself took almost no time- she readied her equipment, showed us the on-site autoclave and told me what gauge CBR she was going to use (16g) and that the sensation of the needle going through was going to be a bit strange. I'm sure she noticed my slight apprehension, even though I had read up on this particular procedure on BME many times and knew what I was in for, and I was grateful when she engaged me in conversation while she was getting ready, as it helped calm my nerves.
The needle actually going through the cartilage was the only uncomfortable part of the procedure- when the needle was finally through and she was readying the ring, I felt no discomfort at all. When she was taking the needle back out, it felt like she was yanking on the side of my face. Once she had finally got the needle out and put the ring in, it took a long time to get the actual ball on. For a few minutes I was afraid she had dropped the ball into my ear canal, but later she explained that she was only having trouble closing the ball in the ring and that the sensation I had been feeling was the blood dripping in my ear. Gross.
After the close to 6 minutes of my ear bleeding (!), she cleaned me up one last time, gave me the aftercare sheet and a spray bottle of H2Ocean. She walked us out to the front of the store and showed me that on the aftercare sheet there was the phone number of the store, but also her email address and number in case an emergency should come up. She also informed me that if at some point I had to change the jewelry and had any problems with it, I should feel free to return to the store and she would change it for me, free of charge.
Two weeks later and it is continuing to heal beautifully. The initial CBR lost its ball while I was asleep one night, and I was afraid I had lost the piercing for good, but even with a change to a circular barbell of the same size it's doing fine now. I had issues for the first two days- I had never slept on the left side of my face, it seemed, until I had gotten the piercing done. It bled a bit during the night over those two days, but nothing that caused a problem, and it stopped very shortly after.
I highly recommend Saints & Sinners for anyone who wants a very relaxed environment to get a piercing done, and also the tragus piercing itself as something that I have found very easy to take care of and not painful to have done.