At A Glance
Author	Ruby Tuesday
Contact	Ruby Tuesday@bme.anon
IAM	Ruby Tuesday
When	It just happened
Artist	Paul
Studio	Now or Never Tattoos and Body Works
Location	Staten Island, NY

I had been thinking about getting my tragus pierced for the past five months. The last piercing I had done was my left helix in July of 2007, and I had assumed that that would be the last one; I was wrong. About four or five months after I had my helix done, I started getting the piercing bug, which is in the same family as the tattoo bug: I wanted a new piercing, and I wanted it badly. The only question was, where on my body was I going to get it? I didn't want to pierce anything below my neck, and although I thought about a nose piercing, I didn't think that I had the nose for it. I decided that my next piercing would be on my ear someplace, but I just didn't know where. After searching on BMEzine.com and inkednation.com, I stumbled upon the tragus piercing. I had seen pictures of the tragus piercing before, but once I saw the pictures again while experiencing the piercing bug, I knew that that was the piercing I was going to get.

Paul, at Now or Never Tattoos and Body Works, was the guy who did my helix piercing the year before, and he is an amazing body piercer. He is meticulously clean, to a level that I can't even begin to describe, and extremely professional, while at the same time maintaining a great sense of humor and amazing people skills. When I walked into the shop with two of my best friends, he greeted us with a "Hello" and a big smile. I told him that I wanted my left tragus pierced, and he told me that he would pierce me after this other woman, because she had come in before me. I said that that was fine, and as we waited for her to get back to the shop, he told us this really funny and strange story about this guy who called the shop, telling Paul that he and his daughter had an open relationship and that he wanted him to pierce his daughter while he watched because it made him horny. Paul thought it was a joke at first, until the guy called back asking if he made house calls. We were all doubled over laughing by the end of the story, but we were all creeped out as well.

About fifteen minutes later or so, the woman we were waiting for had walked by the shop, stopped in front of it, and then left, so Paul told me that he was just going to set everything up and that he would be ready for me in a few minutes. After he said that, I became really excited, but I also started to get really nervous. I always get jittery before a piercing or a tattoo, which I suppose is a good thing, since the adrenaline acts as a sort of anesthetic. A few minutes after he went to set up, he called me in. My friends came with me and sat with me in the room, and I pretty much jumped onto the dentists' chair. After marking my ear, letting me check it, and checking to make sure he wasn't going to be piercing any nerves, he put the clamps on my ear, which hurt more than anything else. When he was ready, he told me to take a deep breath in, and when I breathed out, he pushed the needle through. It hurt quite a bit more than my helix did, but I didn't hear a crunch like I thought I would, which I was honestly relieved about. Paul had to leave the clamps on my ear for a bit longer because my ear is relatively small, and he had to be extra careful not to stab either one of us accidentally; that hurt a hell of a lot more than the piercing itself and when he put the jewelry in. Once the clamps were off, my ear was a little sore and warm, but I was all smiles.

When I looked at my ear in the mirror, I was elated; the piercing came out exactly as I had imagined it would. I wasn't surprised, though, because Paul is a really talented piercer. After paying the $40 for my piercing at the counter, one of my other friends got her tragus pierced, as well. I chipped in for it as her birthday present, since I hadn't had a chance to get her anything yet, and she was really happy. We were staring at each other's ears the whole way back to my house, and we couldn't have been happier with the piercings and the experience we had in getting them.

A picture of the new addition: