I'm not sure when exactly I decided to have my cartilage pierced I've always like the look of two of them, with a snugly-fitting dark ring or just a plain steel barbell. I'm not a great fan of fancy/bejeweled earrings, especially in cartilage piercing. My friend wanted to get her tongue pierced, and the studio I usually go to often offer a discount for multiple piercing. I like getting pierced for some reason; me and my friends always go out and make a bit of a day of it! It though thought for a while about what I might like my 'discount' piercing to be, and eventually decided on my cartilage. I would have liked to get my tongue done also, but my mum would have killed me.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A week ago Artist steve Location melbourne
I started work at 10 that day, finished at one AND had to be back by 4. So we had three hours to get both my friend's and my own piercing done and get back to work on time. Hectic. It was lucky that we didn't have to catch the tram as my uncle happened to available to drive us to the shops (this would have taken about 1/2 hour at least by tram- thanks Frank!!!)
My friend was so exited about her tongue that she was nearly dying in the back of the car. I wasn't too nervous/exited as I've recently (about 4 months ago...) had my nipple pierced which I found to be practically painless, both during the initial piercing and in the aftercare/healing phase. I figured that a humble ear piercing would hurt even less.
Once we arrived we were lucky to find that there was a vacancy and the piercer said she could fit us at 3'o clock. We took the appointment as with my uncle driving us around it gave me plenty of time to get back to work on time.
We had some lunch while we were waiting, and met some friends who happened to be seeing a movie in the same shopping centre that day. They decided to come and watch (mainly to see my friend's tongue piercing!) and we were back at the shop by three.
I comforted my friend through her tongue piercing, which apart from a little blood and pain, ran fairly smoothly. When it was my turn I lay on my side as my piercer instructed me to do, at this stage I was feeling fairly calm. She asked me to draw where I wanted to be pierced with the special purple marker and prepared the needle/jewelry (Straight 16g barbell)
When she finally pushed the needle through I was shocked to find out that this was certainly much more painful than my last piercing!! I have a moderately high pain tolerance, but for some reason this REALLY hurt! The needle seemed to be in there forever, and the insertion of the jewelry hurt even more.
When I got to work it was throbbing a bit, and was more painful than previous piercings, but, I all honesty I was probably I'm probably just being a whinger. The pain could be described as a dull stinging (if that's at all possible) maybe a five or so out of 10. Everyone at worked seemed to like it, but it's only an ear piercing, so nobody found it particularly interesting!
I've now had it for just over a week and am loving the look about it, despite still feeling a lot of tenderness/discomfort. I do a simple sea salt soak twice daily and it doesn't seem infected at all (no crust, redness, inflammation etc...) but it is still painful to touch or sleep on, even lightly. This is usually easily overcome with a simple dose of ibuprofen but it does seem strange, as I never experienced anything like this with my nipple. Taking my experience into account, I have decided add a second cartilage piercing (right above the first) to my piercings-to-do list as soon as this one heals a bit, so I suppose that goes to show it wasn't all that bad!
For anyone considering this piercing I would encourage you to do so, as I'm sure my slight pain is a rare occurrence and a lot of friends who have this piercing have reported no pain/discomfort. I personally like the look of it and think it's worth the moderate amount of pain (certainly nothing unbearable!) Just try not to sleep on it, get too much hair in it and definitely no fiddling with the jewelry!
I'd also like to highly recommend plain sea salt soaks for any piercing They worked absolute wonders for my nipple and I'm sure they will eventually heal my ear as well. Don't even bother with sprays, soaps etc... As I found they are nowhere near as effective as plain, reliable sea salt and hot water.
Happy piercing!
xx