Having just moved into a new apartment I was short on cash but of course I got that urge again to get another piercing. This time it was my tragus. I'm still healing up my second tongue piercing, a center barbell. I also have my tongue web done. I decided to get my left tragus done to balance out my ears because I have my rook pierced on my right ear. There are also 6 other earrings in my helixes and lobes. In comparison to all my piercing experiences this was defiantly the most painful. It hurt even more than my nipple and my bellybutton. But that's part of the whole experience and I would defiantly do it again if I had to. I would also recommend it to anyone who is thinking about getting something pierced.
At A Glance Author Alicia Contact a_hartschen@hotmail.com When A week ago Artist Aaron Studio 3rd Eye Location Edmonton, Alberta, Canada It was a typical Friday for me when the urge hit. So right away I called Aaron. He's done almost all my work and I trust him more than anyone in the business. When I called 3rd Eye, the studio, someone else answered so I told them to book me in for Saturday with Aaron. Then it was set, 4:30pm, a half an hour after I finished work. I couldn't wait and finally the time came. I drove over to the studio and walked in to find Aaron up at the front desk. I guess he didn't look at the appointment book because he just kind of said hi and thought I had just stopped by to chat or ask him a question about some new piercing I saw. So I told him I had an appointment and he was surprised since I was there only a few weeks ago to get my tongue done. So he went to go set up the room while I visited with the tattoo artists.
Then he came back out to get me and I followed him into the oh so familiar room. I jumped up onto the bed and he pulled over the cart of piercing paraphernalia. Of course the first thing he asked was if I wanted him to explain the procedure. Aaron always goes out of his way to make me feel comfortable and calm. Probably because he knows I'm a fainter. Even though I knew that the procedure would be very similar to my rook I still got him to explain to me what he would do. By this time the butterflies were building up but Aaron made sure I was feeling ok before he went ahead with anything. He asked me if I had any questions before he started. I didn't so he got to it.
First he pinned my hair out of the way and then he rubbed some stuff all over my tragus and the surrounding area to clean it. Then he measured how far up my tragus the hole would have to go so that the ring would hang and sit nice in the little groove below it. He said that it would have to be pierced a little high up so the ring would fit. He marked a dot and let me look at it. It didn't really look off center so I was fine with it and Aaron said that only he would notice it being a little high, that most people wouldn't be able to tell. I think it looks perfect with the ring in place. So now that the spot was marked Aaron told me to start breathing deeply. You know the whole, "in through your nose, out through your mouth thing." Then after a few breaths he started to push the needle. After a little while I thought, "that wasn't so bad," but the thing was he wasn't done. The needle wasn't even half way through. He was pushing so hard and finally it popped out th e other side. Damn, that hurt though. It probably only took a few seconds to push the needle through my ear but that's a long ass time for an ear piercing, especially one that's so painful. Then he took some plastic tube and used that to catch the needle so he wouldn't poke me by accident when he was pulling the needle out. Pulling the needle out hurt just as much and needed just a much force to get it to move. After the needle was out he asked me if I was ok because I got so pale. I was sort of ok and told him to proceed but he said he'd wait a minute because I didn't look to good. After I started to get some color back he followed through with the jewelry, a 14g CBR with a blue glass bead to match my rook. Then Aaron just cleaned it up and he was done. We sat there just talking like we always do and after a good 10 minutes I had to leave. I asked him how much and he said $30. I gave him $45. Aaron always gives me such a good price because I go there so often and I take all my friends there too. Before I left he went over the after care with me, which entailed saltwater soaks/rises and keeping dirty fingers off of the jewelry/fresh hole.
The past few days have been really painful. My tragus pains me if I move my face when I smile or talk sometimes and it just has an ache in it all the time. I'm hoping it heals up well because Aaron warned me that because the tragus is quite thick scar tissue could start to grow out the hole. Although there's a lot of pain I can still sleep on it and I love it.
I highly recommend Aaron and 3rd Eye if you're looking for a reputable studio in the Edmonton, AB area.