In the run up to getting my cartilage pierced I spent a lot of time persuading my mum (and that did take a long time!), researching aftercare and trawling through pictures trying to find the piercing I wanted. Eventually I decided upon an inner conch, for a couple of reasons. Mainly of course because I liked the placement and the look of it, but also because it is almost inside the ear, so it would be easy to hide at school (and from my dad, haha) with my long hair. Finally, I'd also heard that they were often quite difficult to heal, so I guess I wanted to see how well my cartilage reacted to being pierced and also wanted to get the hard healer out of the way, with my other cartilage plans being helixes, which are apparently easier to heal.
At A Glance Author mayhew Contact mayhew@bme.anon IAM mayhew When Three months ago Studio Little Ted's Location Milton Keynes The next stage was to find a decent studio. My local studio would pierce with a bioplast retainer, quite handy, but I had also heard mixed reports about them, and the use of bioplast in fresh piercings, some people swore by the piercer saying they wouldn't go anywhere else, others said they'd seen the piercer wash needles under a tap then use them. Added to this was the fact they were very expensive, so I decided to look elsewhere. Now I only live about 20 to 30 minutes from Milton Keynes, which isn't far to travel for a safe, clean and well done piercing, as I'd hoped my mum agreed too. So we decided to go there to a studio called Little Ted's, next to Bloodline Tattoo, which someone had recommended to me through an online body piercing forum.
So on the 28th of December I got picked up from my friends house having spent the night there and we drove up to Milton Keynes. It took a while to actually find the studio, and required a phone call to the studio, as it was apparently at the back end of nowhere, and it was quite a dark evening.
Anyway, we finally got there and parked, and as this was my first professionally needle done piercing, I have to say I was in a bit of a daze! It was only a small studio and it was close to closing time, so it was just me, my mum and the 2 piercers.
The piercer (I didn't get their names) took me into the small piercing room, literally the size of a cupboard, whilst the other piercer and my mum watched from outside.
Mum: Will it hurt?
Piercer: It won't hurt me!
Haha.
The piercer fortunately had two conches and was very helpful, so she asked me relative to hers where abouts I would like mine. I told her I wanted to wear a BCR/CBB in it once it had healed, so a positioning suitable to that would be best, so she marked it up perfectly first time. From here my memory fades a little :P.
First she changed her gloves and cleaned my ear with some strange foamy stuff, I didn't see the rest but I heard her getting out the needle and felt her line it up with my ear she told me to breathe in and out a couple of times, then on the third breathe in she shoved it through, I think she could tell I was nervous so made it all as quick as possible; all I felt was a sharp pinch. Then she slid the jewellery in (a 1.6mm*8mm Titanium labret stud), which I thought hurt more than the actual piercing, and that was that. Afterwards I checked it in the mirror, paid and off we went, with instructions to SSS twice daily and come back in 8 weeks for a bar downsize.
A few months on and I've had few problems with it, I've found that the best aftercare method for me is simply LITHA with the occasional SSS. If I SSS it too much it gets aggravated and forms `the bump` the same if I move it too much. Fortunately a few days of LITHA and it goes away again.
I finally got the bar downsized two days ago, I was very busy for a good few weeks and wasn't able to go up and get it changed, this also formed the bump a bit due to the excess movement of the long bar, fortunately this has decreased a lot already, and if I do lie on it it's a lot more comfortable, as the disk doesn't dig into my ear.
Overall, it has been a pretty easy piercing to live with, I still avoid sleeping on it if I can, but if I want to I can sleep on it. It hasn't been noticed at school (or by my dad) and I still love the way it looks and am looking forward to changing the jewellery during the summer holidays. In the future I plan to stretch it to at least 2.4mm and perhaps may get a second one above it.