At A Glance
Author	Alyssa
Contact	o0osnapitszlyss@aim.com
When	Six months ago
Artist	John
Studio	Body Designs
Location	Bay Shore, NY

I'm no stranger to needles and/or "strange" piercings of the ear, but before I got my snug pierced, I had no clue a piercing could even go there. So I guess I'll start at the beginning and give the complete story of how I came to choose my ultra-cute snug.

I had about 5 piercings before planning my snug, I had 2 holes in each lobe, an industrial bar in the left ear, my right nostril and my right rook, so I was not unfamiliar with cartilage piercings, and I spent the entire summer on BME trying to decide on what I wanted pierced and after about 2 months of searching tirelessly, I found it. I wanted my tragus pierced, so I went into Body Designs and told John that I wanted my tragus. By the way, John is by far, the most gentle and nicest piercer I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Anyway, John told me that my tragus is really small and he wouldn't recommend piercing it because it might reject, and I definitely did NOT want that to happen. So I asked him his opinion and he told me that I had a perfect snug and a really good anti tragus. I went home feeling a little defeated, but decided to continue my efforts in finding the perfect piercing.

A few days later I went to the shop with my decision and paperwork in hand. I told John I wanted a very low snug, like right between my snug and my anti tragus, and he happily obliged. He told me to chill for a minute while he photocopied my ID and consent form and then he took me into the room, which I was already really familiar with. There's a big bed thingy that you lay on if you're getting like a belly ring or genital piercings or your nipples and there's a lawn chair that you sit on for everything else. I know how that sounds, but the place is super clean and the people there rock. So I sat in the lawn chair and turned my right ear towards him and he went about the whole cleaning routine and changing the gloves every 2 seconds, which I find kind of annoying, but at the same time very reassuring because then I know he's making an effort to keep germs away from my piercings.

Anyway, a little off topic. He marked the spot with a marker and handed me a mirror, the placement was PERFECT and I was feeling the butterflies already. I have no idea why, but every time I get a piercing I feel fine all day and even when I get into the shop, I'm not nervous at all, and as soon as I get into the chair I freak the hell out, I stutter and my palms sweat, definitely not attractive. So I'm freaking the hell out and John goes "OK whenever you're ready" I told him to go and he went, and I'd be lying if I were to tell you that it didn't hurt, it definitely hurt. It was weird because, it's like he's piercing 2 pieces of cartilage, because there's that little air space between the 2 sides. So he got through the first piece and I was like, "ohh that didn't hurt at all" and I was preparing myself for the jewelry and he was like "nope, just realigning the needle, there's still another piece we gotta go through." My heart kicked into overdrive and John pushed like all hell to get the bastard through, which he eventually did. I was on the verge on unconsciousness so I didn't really pay attention to the jewelry part of it. But as soon as I was feeling well enough to stand up I went over to the mirror and looked and fell immediately in love. I looked in the mirror all night and all the next day. It was so cute and the placement was perfect, although to be completely honest, I didn't feel it was a true snug, and it wasn't an anti tragus either, so while on the phone with my best friend, later that night we coined the term snanti, and it just kinda stuck.

Healing was and still is a bitch and as much as I love it, it has given me nothing but problems for almost the entire time I've had it. For the first few weeks the piercing was an angel, I couldn't have asked for an easier time. Then while acting like an ass and having an acorn fight with my friends, my poor little snanti took a flying acorn to the face. It bled and about two days later formed a freakin bubble. All of my piercings form bubbles some way or another, so I figured it would eventually heal, and I was right, about 2 months later, it was fine, no oozing or bubbles to speak of. And it remained that way until about 3 weeks ago when I decided I wanted a helix piercing in the same ear. About a week after getting the helix done, my snanti became so aggravated that the little bastard formed another effing bubble, but this time it's twice the size of the original.

So as of right now I am nursing an infected snug and fresh helix. I do daily aspirin paste coatings, which isn't like a proven thing, but I use because it seems to make my bubbles shrink. Along with those I use warm compresses and H2Ocean spray twice a day.

Don't let my horror story of my bitchy little snanti scare you away from getting this piercing, it is completely adorable and even after all the shit it's put me through, I love it very much and I don't think my ear would be the same without it.