[08.05.05] Rather than lusting over a specific piercing, all I knew was that I wanted another hole in my body. Thus far, I've stayed away from stretching, industrials and other such bold statements... I thought my nose stud quietly accentuated my face and my cartilage piercing stayed within the shape of my ear instead of extending beyond it. I started to research and originally had my heart set on a rook piercing, since it was kind of along the same lines as my other piercings: neat, subtle, but still cool as hell. That was until I stumbled upon the surface vertical tragus, though.
At A Glance Author sarisooo Contact sarisooo@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Brian Studio Black Hole Body Piercing Location Portland, OR When I went in to get my cartilage piercing, my friend decided to pierce her tragus too (as her first major piercing). Afterwards, I googled these to read about others' experiences, and the tragus image search yielded the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my entire life... the vertical tragus was sublime in its simplicity, and it just complemented the ear so well. I would never have thought it up on my own. I knew right then that *that* was my next project.
Just for comfort's sake though, I read up on the piercing and sifted through dozens of photos to give myself a good basis to start on. I'm super anal about location, and after seeing so many photos I soon realized that if the piercing was too far out (closer to the face), it would look bolt-ish and awkward. But if it was too far back on the tragus, it would actually have to go vertically through that stub of cartilage... and that would hurt like the dickens.
I eventually found a spot that I was satisfied with, but as soon as I entered the piercing parlor, I began to backtrack. The fact that the piercing was actually kind of unusual didn't hit me until then, and I seriously considered just going with the more common and dependable rook.
Fortunately, I calmed my nerves enough to ask my piercing guy, Brian, about what I wanted. And he had never performed it/heard of it before... hmmmmmm. The thought of him not knowing what I was talking about was utterly dwarfed by the threat of possibly not getting the piercing that day (or ever), and that totally and completely pumped me up for it. Bad, I know. Luckily, he specialized in surface piercings and seemed to know exactly what to do despite his lack of knowledge on this piercing specifically. Cool, back in the game.
Piercing-Guy-2 had to custom bend a surface bar for so tiny of an area, and in about 5 minutes (enough for me to bombard Brian with really amateur sounding questions and for him to briefly and politely give me a lecture on surface piercings and migration) they were ready, and I was ready. During the procedure, Piercing-Guy-2 and my three friends that came with me crowded around Brian since I was essentially everyone's guinea pig. In terms of pain, I didn't really know what to expect, so I simply laid there paralyzed and apparently with an expression like I was scared shitless as I learned later on. But the piercing itself was small potatoes; I even got to look at the needle as it was still through my skin. Once it was all done and over, everyone's praise and enthusiasm made me dart for the mirror... and holy crap did I love my new metal. Actually, that's really an understatement. I FREAKING LOVED THE THING! Brian was so in tuned with what I wanted, it was amazing... the piercing turned out *exactly* how I envisioned.
So now, a week later, my piercing has given me zero problems... no crusties, no bleeding, no swelling. It looks perfectly healed, but I haven't given it much of a chance to look otherwise. I began to read up on surface piercings specifically, and I had no idea about the rejection rate going into the piercing, so now I've been drowning the thing in H2Ocean every chance I get. Brian had mentioned that the jewelry had a lot to do with it, and that the surface bar would help to bring the chance of rejection/migration way down. I hope he's right, I think I'll seriously cry if the day comes when I have to remove my beautiful and already *much* loved vertical tragus piercing :(
P.S. So far, in most of the vertical tragus horror stories that I've heard, a lot of the misfortune comes from using the wrong kind of jewelry. In fact, I myself waltzed into the piercing place asking for a curved barbell and was lucky enough to have a guy know what he was doing and tell me that only a surface bar would work. So if you're looking to have this done, find a reputable piercer and make sure they know their stuff...