I've never really been into cartilidge piercings, or come to think of it, any piercing which involved anything to do with a needle crunching through a piece of bone, rather than your skin.
At A Glance Author Teya Contact snailsxgoxmeow@hotmail.co.uk When Six months ago Studio Blue Banana, Coventry Location Coventry City After a rejected surface piercing, I really wanted something different yet quite acceptable and easy to hide.
Although my scaffolding piercing was unplanned, I had researched the dangers (as with any piercing) and had fully accepted the risks of infection and other minor problems associated with the piercing.
My boyfriend already had his done, so as a Christmas present he bought me the piercing, his had healed well so I thought, that mine would be the same, this is a common misconception though isn't it? Just because one persons piercing goes fine, doesn't mean yours will!
The piercing itself didn't hurt much and the bar didn't seem to be tight, the ear itself was red for a few hours but apart from that (and a bit of bleeding) it seemed fine, I wasn't really nervous and the piercer did put me at ease by saying it wouldn't hurt that much, which to be honest it didn't!
I cleaned it, as I had been instructed, however, maybe I should have followed the piercers instructions to the full and cleaned it for the full 12 weeks.
The piercing was fine from day one and I could sleep on it with full pressure straight away. After about 6 months, my ear started to feel strange and I noticed two lumps on the back of both holes, I cleaned the piercing and the lumps did seem to go away, however once i stopped cleaning, the returned, I did go to the doctors, he prescribed me antibiotics and told me to remove it once it had got better, against his better judgement I kept it in and went to the piercers and asked about it.
I didn't actually get to speak to the actual piercer but to whoever I did speak to gave me advice which my doctor had advised against, she told me to keep it in and just "pop" the spots which were at the time filled with puss. If I had done that I probably would have cause MORE of an infection that I had in the first place.
To be honest, after that I stopped trusting in anyone but myself and decided to do what I thought was right.
I really liked my scaffolding (even if my mum didn't) so I decided to take it out and put in two bars rather than having the one connecting them. This took me so much courage! I must have sat there for a good two hours before I had the nerves to twist the barbell off it. This did cause me some slight discomfort however, once I took the bar out, I felt a lot relieved and the my ear felt like it had lost a lot of pressure and tension.
It's been about 2 months since I separated the two piercings and since then I have had no signs of infection, it seems like a healthy piercing and seems to be just fine! I think the bar was pressing onto my ear a little too much but once i replace the piercings with two separate bars everything seemed a lot better.
Scaffoldings are tricky piercings and if you are going to have one, I really do advise you to consider all the risks, the bone takes a lot of time to heal and simple things like I found out (like washing your hair) cause great discomfort if you don't protect your piercing. You should learn to accept the fact that no doubt that if you get shampoo in it that you'll have to spend a good few minutes mixing up a solution to make sure your piercing is healthy.
I respect my piercing now, but if I knew it would take me 7 months of ups and downs with it, I would of got something else done!
If anything, I shouldn't have it done in the first place, if you're going to have a piercing like that you really do need a level of maturity! Its not all plain sailing and missing out cleaning can cause more damage than the piercings actually worth.
My experience with this piercing has been an up and down process. Some days I've sat for hours researching the piercing and talking to people with it trying to make sure my ear won't drop off and some other days I've just admired it.
It just depends, it has its good and bad days!
I do think that I will have to keep cleaning it every now and again though just in case! ;)
Tips-
- Learn how to clean your piercing as thoroughly as possible, I myself, used a heavy solution (3 parts salt water, 1 part sterile hot water) and soaked both for ten minutes, this encourages the flow of blood to the ear, making the healing process a smoother one.
- This was then followed by a general clean with cotton ear buds before applying tea tree oil.
- I tried to cover it up when it got cold, the cold did nothing for my ear and made it quite sore :(
- Try to just leave it alone! If its getting sore, clean it, and leave your body to do the rest if it's that bad contact a piercer.
- Constantly read up on the piercing, I still find myself to this day reading about peoples' experiences and concerns, its the only way to regain a health piercing.