Mid-December 2007, I was at San Pedro mall with my friend Milo and we walked by Monster, my favorite piercing parlor. I have gotten a couple of other piercings there and Milo had gotten both piercing and tattoos there. On a whim, I decided that I wanted to get a piercing. Although, looking back on it now, I should have seen it coming because every time that I am at that mall with Milo (literally, every time) one of us gets a tattoo or piercing.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Randal Studio Monster Location San Jose, Costa Rica Being as obsessed with piercings as I am, I have a long list of what I want to eventually get, but I decided to get a traugs piercing, and Milo decided to get a tattoo.
Two of the times I have gotten piercings, I hadn't recently had anything to eat and I would get really light headed and almost faint. One of those times was the first time I got a piercing (ear lobe), and the second time was two days before that when my friend pierced my lobe with a sewing needle (I really don't recommend this. If you must have a friend pierce your ear, at LEAST do it with a safety pin). The first time, I have an excuse of having been 10 years old and didn't know any better. I mean, I knew so little about piercings that I even got it done with a gun! But the second time I really should have known better. I mean, not only was it past noon and I hadn't had anything to eat but it was by far the most unprofessional piercing I have ever had done. The light-headedness-on-an-empty-stomach thing happens to Milo too, so after talking to the piercer, we went to TCBY and got some ice cream before I got pierced and he got a tattoo. (I, by the way, strongly advise having something to eat to keep your sugars up right before you get any sort of body modification).
When we came back to the parlor, me, Milo and Randal, my piercer, discussed price. It was going to be 10 000 colones (about 20 dollars) for my piercing. I know that doesn't sound like very much, but in Costa Rica that is a perfectly normal price for a piercing.
It also might sound a little weird that he didn't ask to see an ID for either of us being minors, but in Costa Rica it isn't against the law for minors to get non-genital piercings without parental consent.
Milo got his tattoo first (a star on his hand) because I (as always) had a hard time deciding on jewelry.
I finally decided on a tiny silver stud with a black rhinestone in the middle of it.
After a few minutes, he finished autoclaving the jewelry and i sat down. I wasn't sure about if it was going to hurt or not because I have read stories of people who said it hurt and others who said it was one of their least painful piercings.
I saw him take out a curved needle, which was new to me since all the videos I had seen on youtube of tragus piercings were done with regular needles and receiving corks.
The piercing hurt quite a bit. More like burned, actually. But as soon as he took off the clamp, the pain went away. He asked me about how I cared for my other piercings, and he told me to do the same with this one.
After about two weeks of having my tragus piercing, I started to notice a little bump on it. I knew it was a keloid because I used to have my helix pierced but I had to take it out because of a keloid.
Since taking out the helix piercing I have heard that making a paste with aspirin and water is really effective on keloids caused by piercings. So that day I started to put on the paste. After about two weeks, the keloid was gone.
Later that week I went snowboarding for a week and my tragus piercing got very pissed off at my helmet, and the keloid started again, but aspirin took it away.
I don't recommend getting ear piercings if you plan on skiing or snowboarding during the healing process.
I have tried getting rid of my other keloid with the aspirin but I haven't had any luck so far. I guess it needs to be open for it to work.
Another important thing for you to know if you are planning on getting your tragus pierced, is that headphones really irritate the piercing. Even though my piercing is almost completely healed (I heal pretty quickly), It still gets irritated by both headphones and earphones.
Like all other ear piercings, it's a good idea to wear your hair up if you have long hair during the healing process, but since my parental units are still unaware of my most recent piercings, I have not been able to follow rule of thumb.
Over all I have had a pretty good experience with my tragus piercing. If anybody is ever in Costa Rica, I think that Randall at Monster is the only way to go. Between me and my friends we have probably been to about 40 different piercers and he is all of our favorites.