At A Glance
Author	anonymous
When	It just happened

I've wanted my tragus pierced for a while now, and as I've started working I thought, go for it! I've got the money coming and I'm old enough to get it done without consent so I don't need to nag my mum to come with me.

So, me and my friend set out to find somewhere that I could get it done. I was really nervous but was trying to put it to the back of my mind. Eventually we found a tattoo and body piercing place which would pierce me for £19 or £20 (depending on whether I wanted a ring or labret) and as I had enough money I thought "Well, if i pay for it, and sign the paper I can't back out!" As soon as I had done it I felt better, knowing that it was "set in stone" and so it was definatley going to happen!

I was told I would have to wait 20 minutes as someone was having a tattoo so this made me even more nervous! I started thinking about the bad experiences I've read about, like people saying it is the most painful piercing you can have done and that it can be easily infected. I then started worrying incase I passed out due to the pain (as some people's experiences describe it as very painful). I became yet more nervous (if that is possible!) when I was told they were not allowed to numb the area due to health and safety. However, I was also told (by someone who had their tragus pierced) that it really wasn't that painful and was probably no worse than anything else I had had done before. This was reassuring to know and did help to calm me down. That was, until I had to go and actually have it done!

I was called into the piercing room and as I sat down on the bench I started looking around the room, trying to totally convince myself that everything would be fine and checking that everything was sterile. My nerves eased a little when I was told that I would probably think I was stupid for worrying so much once it was over! I was so concentrated on trying not to worry about the pain that I refused to pick out a piece of jewelery and insisted that the piercer picked it himself! He laughed and pulled on a pair of gloves.

I had the clamp put onto my tragus, and the piercer talked to me the whole time, just about general things, which I appreciated as it helped me to stop thinking about it. I saw him take the needle out of the packaging and closed my eyes quickly trying to concentrate on what he was saying to me. Soon, I felt a sharp pain, but it was not the sort of pain I had expected. The sensation was more of a burning, tingling feeling than a painful one. I asked if it was over and was told that the piercing was done, and only the jewelery needed to be put in. I chose to have mine pierced with a ring, as I thought this would be less painful if any swelling did occur. I was sat with the needle in my ear for a while whilst the piercer searched for a ring to put into it. I was also relieved to see that each piece of jewelery was in it's own seperate air-tight bag and had been sterilised. I did find the insertion of the jewelery quite painful, probably because he had to pull my tragus around qu ite a lot to feed the ring through and then had to spend a lot of time trying to fix the ball into place! He eventually resulted to a pair of pliers! (also sterilised)

Seconds later I was told it was all over! I was very suprised that it hadn't hurt as much as I thought! And when I looked in the mirror I knew it had been worth the panicking and nerves, I had finally got the piercing I had wanted for ages!

I would say that anyone who wants their tragus pierced should go ahead and do it! It's not as painful as you think it's going to be, although of course different people have different pain thresholds and experience pain differently but personally I thought it wasn't much worse than a lobe piercing, although the sensation does last longer (probably due to the use of a needle not a gun)

Hopefully all will go well and in a few months I should have healed! I'm a little worried that it might be difficult to clean due to the position of the tragus but hopefully this should be OK, and I will be infection free!