I usually get piercings on a whim. I knew I wanted a new piercing, but I wasn't sure what. I've never really wanted any facial piercings (even though I think they look amazing on other people), and I'm not old enough to have anything "explicit" pierced. I knew I wanted another ear piercing. I already had 7 lobe piercings, 4 cartilage piercings, and a tragus ring. I was looking for something a little more exciting than another regular cartilage piercing.
At A Glance Author Char Contact Char@bme.anon When Three months ago Studio Raz-a-tat Tattoo Location Vermont I was planning on going out and getting pierced with my friend, and I spent the hour or so before she came to pick me up looking at pictures of ear piercings on the internet. The one that most interested me at the time was the rook piercing. I was a little intimidated by it, because it looked kind of painful. I couldn't actually imagine myself getting it pierced. I read some reviews (like this) about what people thought about the piercing. I stumbled upon many horror stories (like peircings getting ripped out, and people getting staph infections, and all that stuff that you hear about right when you don't want to). Then I read one review that said "If you're thinking about getting this piercing, don't read reviews!" I thought it was sort of ironic. (Don't worry, this review doesn't really hold any terrible disasters concerning my rook. It's healthy & doing great!)
Out of all 15 of my current piercings, I've gotten 10 of them at Raz-a-tat Tattoo (our local piercing and tattoo shop). They've always been done by the same guy, (Tom), and he's pretty cool, and so far I haven't had any major issues with any of the piercings I've gotten from him. Anyway, my friend and I walked in and told them what we wanted pierced. They ran each of us through the aftercare procedures (which -by then- I knew by heart).
We went into the piercing room and I watched as my friend got another pair of basic ear lobe piercings. When that was done, I sat down in the chair. Tom cleaned the counter where he kept his equipment, and he got out a new needle, barbell, and clamp (which were all in separate sealed packages). He marked the spot on my ear, and let me have a look. I OK-ed it and we got down to business.
At first he tried putting the clamp over the "rook" of my ear, but because I have very small ears, he had a hard time with it. He decided to just pierce it without the clamp. He had to bend the needle so that it would go through the correct part of my ear.
Because the cartilage there is so thick, it was a difficult piercing. It took a long time to get the needle through (or it at least felt like it). It was pretty painful. (I'd say it was about two or three times more painful than when I got my tragus pierced). Of course, it's different for everyone, and you generally forget the pain of the piercing afterwards anyway.
He pulled the barbell through, which was fine. But it was really difficult for him to screw the little ball on at the end, mostly because my ears are so small. That took a good 30 seconds at least, and it hurt pretty bad because he was pressing against the freshly pierced flesh pretty hard. It was all over pretty quickly though. The procedure probably took about 2 or maybe 3 minutes tops.
Afterward, it didn't really hurt. Sleeping on it wasn't a problem because of where it's positioned on the ear. Generally cartilage piercings tend to hurt for a long time after you get them done, but this one didn't really have any pain associated with it after the initial piercing.
A few weeks after I got it pierced, however, it began getting crusties (which is normal, of course) and sometimes it would bleed or pus would come out of it. Eventually there was a bubble (sort of keloid-esque) around the top hole of the piercing. Even though they tell you not to, I was putting hydrogen peroxide on it for a little while. That seemed to make it worse, so I finally started putting a 50% bactine/50% water solution on the spot twice a day, and in about 2 or 3 weeks there was no more irritation and the bubble was gone. Since then I haven't had any problems. :)
I highly recommend this piercing to people who are looking for something fun and different. Even though it's kind of painful, it's definitely worth it, and it's a piercing that doesn't require much attention or special care once it's healed. Out of my fifteen piercings, my rook is probably my favourite one!