About 3 or 4 years ago, when I first became seriously interested in body piercing, getting a conch tunnel was one of my very first wishes. It was more intriguing then stretched lobes, and it seemed so zen to just have a little hole through the bowl of your ear. However, after a failed helix piercing a decade ago and a failed rook piercing two years ago, I gave up on the idea of any piercings through my cartilage -- it was clear things would not turn out well.
At A Glance Author Casey IAM ohhellno When A week ago Artist Courntey (i.e. Piercing Guru Extraordinaire) Studio CheapTRX Location St. Louis, MO I moved on to other piercing, all away from my ears, and all considerably easier to heal than my ears had ever been. However, my dive into more extensive body modification introduced me to the dermal punch. It looked absolutely terrifying/wonderful! Over and over I heard healing was better, faster, and resulted in less scaring than a smaller gauge needle piercing. About a year ago, I started thinking about a small gauge punch for my conch; 10g, maybe 8g, thus enabling myself to get a nicely healed conch that was not gigantic. But I eventually dropped the idea, and still too afraid to tempt my ears again, I pierced my lip, tongue, nipples, etc... And here I am, years later with a bunch of piercings, all of which I love, but still no conch.
In the past few months, a number of my friends have opted for ear piercings, and finally I couldn't take it anymore! After watching an industrial, 10g lobes, a double helix, and second lobes, I decided enough was enough, and I had to suck it up and go for the conch punch. But this time I wanted it bigger. No 10g, no 8g, I wanted it big enough to hold on it's own without jewelry. I've heard the healing can be accelerated when jewelry can be removed since the skin heals faster and blood flow improves; also, when the chunk of cartilage removed is big enough, skin will grow back and make the hole visibly smaller, but the cartilage is gone, and a hole will always remain to some extent, thereby allowing the hole to be happy without jewelry.
So on Sunday I went with my lovely friends to my favorite studio to meet my favorite piercer and get some wonderful piercings. Still on the fence a little about committing to a conch punch, I chatted with the piercer, Courtney, who explained the benefits of a punch, the healing process, and the procedure to me. I assumed she may have to order the punch, but when she said she had a 4g dermal punch and the necessary jewelry to go along with it right there and already autoclaved, I was sold. The weather was beautiful, I was in a joyous mood with friends, and she had the dermal punch ready -- clearly the planets had aligned to give me a sign, and that sign said "pierce yo damn conch."
My mom is an avid hater of piercings in general, and most of all she hates large gauge holes which she knows will never actually shrink to their original size. Thus, having a 5mm piece of cartilage completely removed from my ear will undoubtedly spark some serious drama, and possibly lead to her in tears (I told you, she hates it...), but I know my love of body mods is not a tragedy. As guilty as she makes me feel, my piercings have never held me back, and a conch piercing can be both difficult to notice to the untrained eye and can be easy to hide. Plus, we decided having a single hole in my ear with no jewelry suggests "surgery", "tumor" and "birth defect", not "body modification", so I doubt many employers would give it a second thought or bring it up.
Now I've gone through a decent number of piercing procedures, and watched twice as many, but I've never been as nervous as I was about my conch punch. I've seen videos, I knew what to expect, and even though I know it's fast and clean, it's still a little terrifying. My nerves were not soothed by my friends who both let out a, "woah, geeze!" when Courtney pulled out the receiving taper -- thankfully it wasn't going through my ear, but my friends saw it and thought the worst. "Thanks for your groans of terror you guys, that makes me feel better..."
I choose to lay down on the bench, and with my head turned to the side, everything was set up -- gauze in my ear to prevent blood pooling inside, a bobby pin to hold stray hairs, paper towels/medical sheets to catch falling blood, etc. Michelle was at my side with the camera, and Jaina was at my head getting a great view, and Courtney was lining everything up. I could already feel the slight pinch of the super-sharp punch pressing against my ear, and this made me all the more tense; I was clutching Michelle's hand and grinding my jaw, preparing for the worst.
Courtney says, "okay hun, just like always, deep breathe in, deep breathe out." So I take in my enormous deep breath, and slowly let it out... and CRUNCH! Damn, was it loud -- not just a pop, but a full-blown grinding crunch. It really was very quick, but the pain was excruciating for about a second, and did not disappear nearly as quickly as I would have liked. It felt like a bee sting -- the initial hit is painful, but right as you think it's over, the pain starts to rise, and rise, and rise! But a few minutes later all serious pain was gone, and I was greeted by the typical throb of a flesh wound. Courtney had to cut a small flap of skin away from the back of my ear with the side of a needle, and then got the long pryex plug in easily. No pain there, just the sound of squishing a sponge -- the amount of blood in my ear made the whole jewelry insertion process sound like it was happening under water. I rolled over and Courtney wiped me up a little, showed all of us my h amburger-like flesh (skin, fat, cartilage, fat, skin) out of the dermal punch, and sprayed me down with some saline. I was thrilled at this point -- of course the pain was excruciating, but it's always over when it's over, and you have a beautiful new piercing to show for it!
As for the aftercare...
Day 1: Definitely some pain/tingling after the procedure, but it went away after about 1/2 hour, and icing it helped. That night there was no extra free-flow bleeding, just some crusties to wash away after my shower. I moved the o-ring back a little, as instructed by my piercer, to give me ear room to swell. As per usual, my cleaning regime consists of one wash in the shower with a mild soap, warm soaks a few times a day to loosen "debris", and saline sprays throughout the day.
Day 2: My ear is noticeably irritated, though there is surprising little pain considering I just had a chuck of body removed. I can already tell cleaning the blood and plasma off are going to be regular and lengthy rituals.
Day 3: Swelling is still pretty low; not a lot of pain unless I accidentally hit it or raise my eyebrows -- sounds weird, but I've deduced that it pulls the skin tight around my ear and makes it owwie. My car had a flat tire, and all of the bending over and sliding under the car made blood rush to my head and was probably pretty dirty for my ear; I made sure to clean it well after, but it was still a lot of unnecessary trauma.
Day 4: My ear is on a rampage. It's red, swollen, and seriously painful! I moved the O-ring back a little further to give it even more space to swell, but my whole ear is still pulling taught against the skin. My glasses are putting pressure on my ear, not even near the conch, but it's still causing pain because of the swelling, so I have now switched to contacts. Also, the discharge is just rampant -- no blood, just soooo much plasma/yellow/white discharge that it's almost laughable. Gross. I've begun icing my ear at work despite all the weird looks it draws, and and ibuprofen popping has become pretty regular. Surprisingly enough, while just being alive is painful, sleeping isn't a problem; sleeping on my side isn't hindered much by my ear, and this is one thing I am extraordinarily grateful for.
Day 5: Ear is still angry. Very angry. Less pain, less swelling, but radiating enough heat to cook something. It's red and hot to the touch, but it's not painful unless I touch the jewelry.
Day 6: Ear is slightly less angry. It's not painful unless I clean right next to the punch sight (which REALLY hurts and feels like rubbing an open wound, go figure). It's extremely crusty, and after I soak it, "stuff" just seems to spill out of my ear. The swelling is still pretty noticeable, but much better than yesterday, and my ear has "cooled off" a bit, quite literally in that it is no longer hot to the touch.
Day 7: Things are much better; deep breathe in, deep breathe out, sigh, and relax... Seriously though, pain is very low, swelling has gone down considerably, and only a little redness remains. My ear is almost back to normal, and I'm getting far fewer stares from strangers who must think my ear is severely infected. Crusties persist, and I assume they will for a while, but I'm so very glad a week is all it took for my ear to even out.
I recently found Dr. Brenner's organic/magic/lavender soap, and I've started using that to clean my piercings since I've heard such wonderful things. I'm still icing my ear and spraying saline, but I've stopped vigorously removing the crusties when I see them -- it's a losing fight, and it puts unnecessary stress on my ear; I limit myself to a few times a day.
My only concern in the front flare of my plug which looks like it wants to move into my ear sometimes; I'm not concerned with is popping out the back on its own, but I still have to be careful when cleaning my ear to make sure I don't pull on it and yank it into the still-healing conch.
So I retire my journal for now -- everything is going wonderful, and I hope the healing process continues to go well.
If anyone has questions about anything, or nothing, or whatever, please feel free to send me a message or drop by my page. I will happily respond.
Love your body! :)