At A Glance
Author	Louise
Contact	Louise@bme.anon
When	A year ago
Artist	Gavin Steele
Studio	Gavin Steele
Location	Newtown, Powys

This is about the experience of my inner conch getting pierced.

In total I've had this piercing for just over a year & the same as the majority of my other piercings, this one was pierced by Gavin Steele in Newtown, Mid-Wales.

In total it took around 8 months for this piercing to completely heal, would've been sooner if my younger sister hadn't thrown a shoe at my ear about 5 months into the healing process. Because of the whole shoe thing, my ear bled & became incredibly sore for over a week.

Now it feels fine, although it is a temperamental piercing - I only have to sleep on it funny and it is slightly sore for the next few days.

I have tried both a CBR and a labret stud, and out of the two I have found the stud to be the most comfortable. It always seems get slightly irritated when I where the ring, I think maybe because the ring pulls down and is quite heavy.

O.K, now for what I remember of the actual piercing procedure of my conch. The pain wasn't the most painful of what I've had done so far. I'd say my helix hurt slightly more than this one...no idea why!

I decided with my piercer that I wanted the placement to be nearer to my earlobe than further in my ear. I chose to do this as I thought it would be more comfortable for me to be able to ear phones for my iPod once the piercing had healed.

I can't remember whether or not I had my ear clamped when being pierced for this one as it happened quite a while ago now, and my memory's not the best.

I remember when the needle started going through my ear the feeling of it going through the different layers of skin. There wasn't any real pain, until the needle got to about the middle of the cartilage. It was quite sore by this point, but I think that was only because the layer of cartilage in which the needle goes through is relatively thick in comparison to other parts of the ear. So, of course the needle wasn't as swift going through as other piercings. The pain for the conch definitely lasted longer than other piercings I've had, where there was just a quick pinch but it wasn't that painful that I couldn't stick it.

A lot of other people who've written experiences of their own conch piercings have often mentioned of the 'pop' or crunch sound they experience when the needle comes out the other side of the ear. Whilst I did not actually hear a popping sound, the sensation of the needle going through the final layer of skin at the back did feel very strange, and did feel the tiniest bit crunchy. Was very strange indeed, never had that happen before with any of my previous piercings. And I've had a few now...

For aftercare, my piercer told me to buy saline contact lens fluid stuff to put on my piercing with a cotton bud, and turn it every so often to stop it sticking. That was different to the time before I went, when he advised me to mix a tea spoon of table salt in a cup of water and dab that on. I decided to ignore what he said to me, as his method of aftercare seemed to keep changing and I'm not really sure if it's just proper saline used for contact lenses or if other chemicals are in there as well. So, instead I bought some fine sea salt from the supermarket and mixed half a tea spoon of that with some boiled water; I thought that would be better than table salt because of all the extra things added into that stuff.

I waited for the water to cool down slightly from the solution I made up, and I dabbed it on with some kitchen towel. I ripped it up into eight small pieces & soaked each of the pieces one by one on my ear until the water cooled completely. If I ever got any crusties round the post of the stud, then I'd use a cotton bud dipped in the solution to gently soak them away. I'd do this procedure, twice a day: once when I woke up, and then just before going to bed. I'd use a cotton bud only if I saw there were quite a few crusty bits and felt I needed to. This was nearly every day during the first couple of weeks of healing. After about a month I only needed to use the kitchen towel, with perhaps the odd day here or there with a few crusties. I kept up with the salt water soaks for just over a month until the piercing started to feel like it was properly healed: no pain, discharge etc. I of course had to start all over with aftercare once my little sister threw a shoe at me one day. I had to use salt solutions for a couple of weeks then, it seemed to calm down quite quickly.

If any of you are considering getting the conch piercing, and are maybe worrying about the pain factor etc, I'd say go get pierced! The pain is nothing huge, and if you've had any other cartilage piercings before, you'll be able to handle this one. There is of course the long healing time, but what do you expect from that part of your ear? It is fairly thick and is cartilage as well as skin. If you are set on getting it done, I'm sure you'll stick to the aftercare well and want to look after it for a long time to come. What are a few months of salt soaks when you get to keep a wicked looking piercing for the rest of your life? (if that's what you want to do of course!)

Well, that was my experience of having the lovely conch piercing for a year. Hope I didn't babble on too much! If you do decide to have it done, yay, it's an awesome piercing to have and if you don't, have fun with whatever piercing you do decide to go for.