So, I had decided after getting a rook piercing in my right ear that I felt lopsided without a cartilage piercing in my other ear. I had only had the first piercing for about two weeks, and it was healing very nicely, no swelling or obscene amounts of discharge. I was able to sleep on my right side again, and I figured, hey, why not go ahead and go back to Starr to get my left ear pierced. After searching through the internet, and the lovely pages of BME here, I decided to get a snug piercing on my left side.
At A Glance Author cjladygoodman Contact cjladygoodman@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Starr Studio Inkaholics Anonymous Location Tucson, Arizona I picked a deadline for my college thesis paper, and decided to reward myself the afternoon after it was due to go visit Starr at Inkaholics Anonymous. I had gotten my other piercing from her, and was thrilled at how knowledgeable she is and how easy she is to talk to. Starr and all the other artists keep a meticulously clean shop, are very professional, and they are always willing to help. So, on a Friday afternoon, I went in to get my snug pierced. I had read that the piercing was a particularly painful ear cartilage piercing, but my rook had gone so well I wasn't too worried. Starr talked over the piercing with me, and examined my rook. She said everything looked great, and since the first was healing so nicely, the snug piercing should go over without a hitch. I picked out a plain stainless steel curved barbell, and we went back into the piercing room.
Starr made sure everything was completely clean and used new sterile equipment for the entire procedure. Starr placed dots on my ear with a new pen, and I was happy with the placement, as it lined up perfectly with my ear lobe piercings. I laid down on the chair, and was ready for my piercing. I always get a little worried immediately before I get a piercing or tattoo, but Starr is a talented piercer, and a great person at helping suddenly-worried people like myself to relax. She told me to breathe in and out a few times, lined up the receiving tube, and then she pushed the needle through. It definitely hurt, but not as much as I thought it would. She then pulled the jewelry through, which was slightly uncomfortable, but didn't hurt like the needle had. I checked in the mirror and loved my new jewelry.
Starr went over cleaning and healing with me, just to be sure I hadn't forgotten anything, as I had been in just two weeks prior. I went home with a little bit of pain, and figured everything would be fine. I started to care for my piercing as I had been directed with salt soaks and gentle cleaning with a salt-soak Q-tip, and I refrained from touching or playing with the jewelry and my ear. While this worked perfectly with my other piercing, my snug did not fare as well.
Unfortunately, a few days after visiting Inkaholics Anonymous, I accidentally slept the majority of the night on my newly pierced snug. The next day, I woke up to much more pain than even the pain from getting my ear originally pierced, and an ear which resembled a bright red tomato, and which was beginning to swell. I couldn't get to the studio until that evening because of school, and by then the cartilage had swollen all the way to both ends of the barbell, and was threatening to start to engulf them. When I did get into the studio, Starr took one look at my ear, and immediately said I needed to get a larger length of jewelry in there, so that the fluids trapped in my ear could have an escape route, and thus, so that the swelling could go down. She took the curved barbell out, and placed a large circular captive bead piece of stainless steel jewelry into my piercing. My ear was swollen so far, that the jewelry stood straight out from my ear, held up by the swollen cartilag e.
My ear remained severely swollen and still tomato red for about a week, but thankfully it never became infected. In all honesty, I'm prone to think that my ear acted up from the stress of the end of the semester, and a lack of sleep, as I followed all the cleaning procedures, and have continued to baby the piercing all throughout the time since getting my snug. This past semester was my last semester of college, and between finals and my thesis, I believe stress, bad sleep, and poor eating led to my swollen ear more than anything. The area right around the piercing remained swollen for quite a few weeks after the end of the semester, and only until very recently has all of the swelling disappeared. A week ago I went back to Starr to get a shorter barbell put in my rook, and she checked on my snug again. It was doing much better, so she put a curved barbell back into the piercing, and all is well in the world again with my snug.
Although I had some trouble healing this piercing, I would recommend it as I am really happy with the end result. I've gotten quite a few (good) comments on my snug, and even my mom thinks it's a cute piercing!