First off, a little bit of background on me.
At A Glance Author Kat Contact Kat@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Im not too sure.. Studio Jaded Piercings Location Lethbridge, Alberta
If you want you can skip straight to the actual piercing story as this is slightly irrelevant. So, I'm 13 and have had a fascination with piercings since a fairly young age. Of course though, being young, I was restricted from getting any piercings (other than ear lobes) until just recently. So, seeing that I have had a really sheltered traveling life (I have been no father than 3 hours away from my home town until about 5-6 months ago), my friend's parents invited me to go along with them to Lethbridge for a weekend. Ashley, my friend, talked her parents into letting her get an industrial piercing done, hence we were at the studio with my craving for another piercing, a successful one (tragus-not successful, another story though), and the opportunity to have that craving fulfilled. I called my mom and talked her into letting me get an anti-tragus piercing on the spur of the moment.We waited for about 10 minutes after our actual appointment time before the piercer arrived, though that wasn't a huge concern as other than tardiness she did an excellent job.
The piercer, I don't remember what her name was, went through the process beforehand in detail to make me feel secure about it and also because she has a trainee observing (with my permission of course). She put gloves on after she seated me in the piercing chair/bench. After she cleaned my ear with a disinfectant she told me to lye on my side with the ear I wanted pierced upwards. Before she pierced me she showed me the needle in the sterile package, doing the same as well with the jewellery. Telling me to take a deep breath in, she counted to 3 and pushed the needle in. She inserted the jewellery right after. I was so surprised! I hadn't felt a thing!
She went over the after care with me, basically rinse the piercing a few times a day with either saline solution or non iodized sea salt mixed with about 2/3s water. Sea salt soaks are also very good if you have the time and are willing to sit in an awkward position until the waters cool. Then of course the usuals, don't play with the piercing and try not to turn/twist it a lot as it slows down the healing process-though I did just that and it has seemed to heal fine. Also, she gave me a sheet on aftercare for this and other piercings along with a little spray bottle of the sea salt mixture to get me started.
Before I left she took a picture of my new piercing for her book of piercings she's done. She also recommended a few piercings that she thought would go nicely with my anti-tragus. She gave us her business card and told us that if we had any problems whatsoever to give her a call.
My friend and I went up to the register to pay (my anti-tragus cost me $50. Not the absolute cheapest, but definitely worth it all.) I swear we were both grinning from ear to ear for the next several hours. We were constantly asking to look at the other's new body mod and taking pictures, though sadly none of them turned out that good. -sigh-
It was kind of awkward to sleep the first few nights as I'm used to sleeping on my right side, but that was certainly something I could deal with. I found out though that if you prop a blanket or something else that you can maneuver around the piercing on top of your pillow it really helps. Also, if someone calls you and your kinda running to pick up the phone cause its been quite a few rings and no one else has answered it-do your best not to slam it onto your ear...I made that mistake about 3 hours after the initial piercing. It hurt. Try not to get hair chemicals (hair spray, mousse, root boost, etc.) in it though. As well as with shampoo and conditioner, I did a few times and it irritated the piercing. It did no actual damage though.
I only carried through with aftercare for about 2 weeks or so, I just didn't have the time and I'm kind of a procrastinator.
It's been about three months since it was pierced and still I adore it. It healed without any complications and hardly any pain (the only pain was sleeping the first few nights...and the phone experience mentioned above). Though it still gets some 'crusties' as I like to call them around it when I wake up in the morning, but those are easy enough to clean out in the shower.. I still haven't changed the original jewellery though, as the one she used is quite likeable and pretty.
I highly recommend getting this piercing done as it has very little pain involved and if you need to conceal it, it's quite easy to do just that if you have hair of a decent length. The piercer was also very very good and I recommend Jaded Piercings to anyone in the Lethbridge area (living or visiting) to go there.