As I hit my teenage years, I realized that I liked body mods. I think they are beautiful, a way to express yourself without saying a word.
At A Glance Author Princess Cassandra Contact Princess Cassandra@bme.anon When A week ago Artist can't remember the name, nice girl Studio Urban Exchange, PH Mall Location Newport News, VA About two weeks ago, I finally got the courage up to get my tragus pierced. I had wanted it since around March. I thought of getting it for myself for my birthday, but I decided to wait, since I was living with my parents at the time and they aren't too fond of body mods. It was my first "needle" experience, since all I had before that were my ears pierced four times at a Piercing Pagoda (boo!). I was extremely nervous about it. Even thinking about it filled me with nervousness and excitement. My cousin had hers pierced previously, but had to take it out due to infection, and so forth. I had read many stories here on the site, some saying it hurt like hell, others saying it was almost painless. My pain threshold isn't very high, so I was worried.
My friend and co-worker, Lila, heard me talking about getting it done and suggested we go together. We made a date, and that day we got in the car and off we went. As we walked to the car, I asked her "Are we supposed to eat before we get pierced?" She wasn't sure, so I told her I was pretty sure we should have something in our guts. We stopped at Wendy's and grabbed a quick bite to eat. We went to a few places at first, but every place either didn't have a body piercer anymore (due to laws in VA) or their piercer wasn't in that day. The friendly tattoo artist at Rock Steady told us of Urban Exchange in Patrick Henry Mall. So off we went in the other direction.
When we got there, I was worried at first. All I saw was a lot of merchandise, and I kept thinking, if they sell clothing, and they have a piercer...this can't be all that great. We told the girl at the counter we were there for tragus piercings. She checked our ID's, had us fill out the necessary forms, took our payment, and told us we would be called in. As we waited, I could feel the nervousness setting in. Lila looked pretty laid-back, but I could hardly keep myself from saying "You know what, go ahead and get it, I think I'll wait till another day." Urban Exchange is also a clothing/jewelry store, so I tried to keep myself in check by keeping myself busy looking at the merchandise.
The piercing took place in a small room towards the back of the store. It was very clean, and as Lila got pierced (I let her go first!!!) I watched the piercer take new sterilized needles out of their packages. She changed her gloves frequently, washing her hands. Lila's piercing seemed to go rather quickly, with little discomfort. When it was my turn, I asked her what it felt like. Lila said "Just like a big pinch. It's over quick though."
I hopped up onto the chair, feeling butterflies in my stomach. "This is really happening" I thought. The piercer changed gloves again, got out a new CBR, new needle, and marked the place where my new jewelry would be. It looked good, so I said go ahead. She told me to inhale, then exhale slowly. As I exhaled, I began to feel her pushing the needle through. It seemed at the very end she had to push harder than on Lila,but maybe I have thicker cartilage or something. It really didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. It WAS just a big pinch! She put the jewelry in, which in my opinion was the worst part of it, explained the cleaning process to both of us, and off we went.
We stopped in the bathroom on the way out of the mall, and I just had a little bleeding. After that, it stopped and hasn't bled since. I've been cleaning it about 3 times a day with H2Ocean and using the anti-microbial soap. It's healing exceptionally well, except for the few times I rolled over in my sleep and bumped it, it got a little sore. No infections so far, and I can clean it just fine without pain. I love my new piercing. I recommend that if you want your tragus done, just go do it. Totally worth it. And if you're in the Newport News area in Virginia, definately get it done at Urban Exchange. For one, they're about the only place left that does body piercing,but they are excellent. All the girls that were working that day had body mods, and for me it made me feel a lot better, knowing that someone would be working on you that can empathize with your feelings.