Well, you know what they say; It only hurts until it quits. Right. But what if it doesn't hurt in the first place?
At A Glance Author DarkGoddess Contact DarkGoddess@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Alex Studio Acme Piercing Studio Location Cincinnati Ohio
It all started about four months prior to me getting the piercing done.
I knew that I wanted to get my tragus pierced. I knew that I wanted Acme to do it. And I knew that I wanted my left tragus to be pierced. Now all I had to do was work up the nerve to do it.
I am not at all heavily pierced. I have the so-called normal piercings. I have my left nostril pierced, my lobes pierced twice(which were done by a gun), and my belly button. My ears are now stretched to eight and ten gauges, and still going.
Pain is not that big a factor to me. I have given birth, and I do have a pretty strong threshold for pain. However, I have heard so many horror stories about tragus piercings that I must say, I was apprehensive.
Everyone that I knew that had their tragus pierced warned me of how much it would hurt. "Your whole head will ache", "Your teeth will hurt", "Your jaw will ache", etc,etc. That was enough to make me re-think this whole thing.
I did finally work up the nerve to go and get it done though. Only because a friend of mine decided that she would get hers done as well.
So off we went. I decided to go on a Tuesday, after work and see if Cannon was available. He was busy doing another piercing, but Alex was available. I had never met Alex before, but he pierced my sister's nipples, and belly button, so I trusted him. I also trusted Acme. They are very nice, very clean, and very well trained.
Alex came out and asked me what I wanted done. I told him that I wanted to get my left tragus pierced. Actually, I called it the little thing on my ear. Alex was the one who told me the correct terminology. He told me to go ahead and fill out the paperwork while he set the room up. I did as I was told, and sat down and waited for Alex to return.
He returned about 15 minutes later, and told me to step into his office. I sat down on a chair that looked allot like a dentists chair.
Alex showed me all of the equipment and explained the procedure to me. He also explained to me that he was going to bend the needle because it made things much easier. Then Alex proceeded to thoroughly wash his hands and glove up. He then marked my tragus for the correct placement. Everything looked great. Then he re-gloved and began to prepare for the piercing.
Alex had me lay back in the chair and turn onto my right side. Then he began to massage my tragus. While he was doing this, he explained that the massage helped to move the tissues around which made the piercing much easier. "Ok", I thought. Anything to make this easier was good. Now I don't know if it was the adrenalin or what, but I don't remember Alex clamping my tragus. I remember him saying to take some cleansing breaths and relax. He then told me to take a deep breath in and on the count of three he would insert the needle. I did as I was told, and one,two,three the needle was in. "What?" There was no pain. Just the touch of the needle on my skin. "Is it in?" I asked. "Yes" Alex replied. Then he put in the jewelry. There was no pain. None at all. Of course my ear did fill up with blood. Hey, that's better than the whole side of my head throbbing in agony any day.
Alex then began to clean the piercing and to clean the blood out from the inside of my ear.
He had me sit up slowly, and relax for a few minutes while he threw the needle in the sharps container, and clean up a bit.
After a few minutes he asked how I felt. I told him I was fine. Then he handed me a mirror so that I could see my new tragus. It was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. It was definitely not what I expected.
Alex then escorted me to the front desk. I paid, tipped him, and was given a lollipop for being such a good patient.
Afterwards, I waited around for my friend to be pierced. She had an experience much like mine. She couldn't believe it either.
Later that night, my tragus did begin to ache some, but that was to be expected. It was quite sensitive for a few weeks, and it was very hard to remember not to put the phone up to my left ear. Trying not to sleep on it was tough also because I always sleep on my left side.
It took quite a while to heal; but that's because I kept getting hair spray on it, and I kept playing with it as well.
I will eventually get the other side done because I like symmetry. Things must be even.
So that is my experience with a tragus piercing. It may or may not be the same experience that you have had or will have, but then again, is anyone elses?