At A Glance
Author	Cait
Contact	Cait@bme.anon
IAM	caition
When	It just happened
Artist	Jeff
Studio	Explosive Tattoo
Location	Salisbury, MD

Hello!

I have ten piercings, and I thought I knew which I liked best, but that all changed the second I got my left tragus pierced vertically.

My younger brother got a tattoo a couple weeks ago, and I went with him for moral support. While I was in there, I asked the piercer, Jeff, if he had heard of, done, or could do a vertical tragus. I had stumbled upon a picture of this beautiful creation one day on BME and I couldn't believe how wonderful it looked. I had never heard of it before but I kept looking up pictures and I knew I had to have it. I used to have a nose ring on the left, but I had to take it out for work [RIP], so the balance on the left side of my face was 'off', to me. I had been considering a conch, but when I saw the vertical tragus I immediately decided on that instead because it is a bar rather than a ring and I think this makes it look more even. Besides that, it looks incredible, it's very unique, and my right tragus was my current favorite piercing so I knew I would love having the other side pierced too. It's very me.

So. End tangent.

I asked Jeff, who is my regular piercer, about what I wanted. He said he had done a few before, but he had to order jewelry, because it worked best with a surface bar instead of a barbell, because it 'grips' more and had less of a chance of rejecting. I was impatient but obviously I was willing to accept that, so he said he would order it and it should come in about a week. He also warned me that it would be very painful. "How painful?" He said about an 8 out of 10, which meant nothing to me, so I said, "My rook hurt a lot... better or worse?" A lot worse, he said, which worried me a little bit but I am more than willing to take a little pain for a lot of beauty. So let the waiting begin!

I came in the next week because I had to take my nose ring out for work, but I lost my retainer so it closed, and I wanted him to try and put it back in (obviously it didn't work out... different story). While I was there I asked if my jewelry was there yet, and he said probably Thursday. However, Thursday is his day off. Damn. Friday it was.

When Friday rolled around, I slept in but as soon as I woke up I realized what day it was and I was dressed, ready, and on the road within an hour (that's good for me). I got there a little before three. Jeff was in the lobby, I looked right at him and said "You ready for me?" I guess he forgot somehow, I think he's been busy lately, because he said, "What are we doing?" I pointed in the general area of my tragus and he said he just had to do a navel real quick and then he'd take care of me.

I sat (im)patiently on the bench that is built into one wall, watching some people look at the flash, listening to people talking (there are always people visiting, it's a fun place) and trying not to be nervous. That wasn't too hard because I was wonderfully excited. In a few minutes Jeff came back out, asked for my ID, filled out the form, I paid, and then I did the "you have no diseases and you're not pregnant" form while Jeff's helper got the room ready. Finally I got to go back, hop up on the lovely black dentist-style chair and get really excited.

At this point there was a near disaster- he checked out my tragus and said "Damn, girl, you got a little tiny tragus" so I asked him if he could still do it even though it was small. He said yeah of course, so I asked if the bar would stick out a lot. "The what?" he said. Oh no. "The bar," I said, "it's vertical, remember?" He goes, "Oh man, I thought we were doing it regular." Uh, glad I said something! That would have been an unhappy mishap. So he calls his faithful assistant/'bitch' in, telling him he needed help, it was a totally different procedure than he'd thought he was doing and it needed to be set up differently. He got different clamps and different jewelry. He pulled out a 16g curved barbell, and I said, "I thought you ordered jewelry for this." He said he had, but it hadn't come in yet, but he could use a barbell and he wouldn't do it if he thought it wouldn't work. Okay, works for me.

Jeff, with assistant watching, said he was going to mark two sets of dots on my ear (with red marker! Not purple! What a fun change) and then I would look and tell him which I wanted. He marked one right in front of my tragus, like where a surface piercing would be, and one in 'the ditch,' as he called it. I said I wanted that one, I wanted it through the tragus itself. He said alright, and explained to me that most people think this is a cartilage piercing but really it goes through skin, it would be about impossible if it went through cartilage. Fine with me, makes no real difference. So I settled back in the chair. He fiddled with the clamps a bit, trying to get them positioned right, putting them on, taking them off, on, off, put a rubber band around the handle of the clamps, and put it back on once more. He asked if it hurt, I said no. And it really didn't, which surprised me, it wasn't the most comfortable but I really wouldn't call it uncomfortable either. It felt just fine. Jeff said he was really excited to do this, because usually he does "boring" piercings and this was fun and different. I was glad to oblige. :-)

Then he said, "Needle," and his little helper handed it over. Take a deep breath, Jeff told me, and let it out. At this point I was wicked excited, knowing what was coming, so I exhaled and felt the needle go into the top of my tragus. It didn't go all the way through at first, because of course it is a long piercing. I exhaled again, Jeff told me to relax and I could feel him still pushing and I could see Trevor (the assistant) wincing, which made me want to laugh because it really didn't hurt, but of course I didn't laugh, that would have been a bit disastrous. I watched Trevor peering at my ear as Jeff kept pushing it through, it seemed to go pretty slowly, I would guess it took about ten seconds. I could honestly barely feel it. I felt a sharp twinge as it entered, and a sharp twinge towards the end which was how I knew the needle was coming out at the bottom, but other than that, no pain. Even those twinges didn't hurt much. It was more interesting than painful, because I could really feel it going through my skin and I could kind of tell the progress of it. It was really quite neat. I've never been that detached. I'm usually all nervous and I need someone to hold my hand.

So then the needle was through, he stepped back and admired for a second and then reached for the barbell and some gadget that I didn't recognize. "Trevor, watch this trick," he says. He used whatever that gadget was and slid the jewelry in, no problem (in the process the needle fell from my ear into my lap, that was silly). Didn't feel a thing. Whatever that trick was, I liked it. I wished I could see what was going on! So he screws the bottom ball on, and I said, "You told me it would hurt! That didn't hurt!" He laughed and said I was a "lying sack of shit" but I didn't care and it really didn't, it kind of felt good in a weird way. Then he said, "Shit, Trevor, get the camera. We need a picture of this. This is the best one I've ever done." He told me he's done four before and usually when people get it done they jump, and it gets all funky, but this was perfect, and I said "I'm a good patient," and he agreed of course. He also said he was probably the only person in town that would do it, which I said was fine because he's the only one I would go to. He called to one of the tattoo artists, JJ, and said, "Come here, wanna see something cool?" And JJ came and admired it, and made a comment about how getting the clamps right must have been a bitch.Then Trevor came back with the camera and I had to try to stand still while he got a picture, but he couldn't because either he or I kept moving. Then a girl that was hanging out there, who knew Trevor, came to see what was going on and I could see people in the lobby staring and trying to figure out what was going on. The girl was funny; she checked out my ear and was like, "That's really cool! How come I never knew about this?!" And she kept teasing Trevor and telling him to hurry up, reminding him that I probably wanted to see how it turned out. This was completely true, but I was trying to be patient because I was happy to be in the portfolio. So finally Jeff took over with the camera and got a pi cture he liked, and showed me, then I got to go to the mirror and check it out. It is absolutely perfect. The placement is perfect, the barbell looks great, and it still doesn't hurt at all. Jeff told me to make sure I baby it, and to expect it to get really irritated because it's difficult. I asked if I could just use Bactine, as I usually do, and he said it was fine; I asked if I should take some ibuprofen to try to keep it from swelling too much and he said that was fine too (he recommended naproxen sodium over ibuprofen but that gives me heartburn so he said ibuprofen would be fine too).

So, it was all done! I went out front and left Jeff a nice big tip, because he is wonderful and it was completely perfect. I got in my car and literally had a little screaming fit of joy because I love it so much and it's a good thing it was a short drive because I was totally distracted and all I wanted to do was stare at it in my rearview mirror. I think I have a pretty intense care regimen in front of me but I couldn't care less, I am ecstatic and it's the most perfect piercing. Ever. No pain, lots of gain! I would absolutely recommend it, and if you're in Salisbury, definitely check out Explosive because they're fun but still professional, and they take great care of their clients.

Thanks for reading! Go get needled!