To start off I'd like to share how I came to know about this piercing. A room mate I had a year ago got her tragus done and I really liked how it looked. She did it herself, but I decided I'd see how hers healed and all that stuff before I dove in to do the same. I guess you could consider her my lab rat. In her case she did not get all the details, but went through with it anyway. I'm pretty sure she used the safety pin "technique" which in my opinion is never a good idea. Although she never had a problem, it never got infected, and she experienced no bumps I was still pretty hesitant and not wanting to be a dummy following her "technique" I decided to wait until the time was right and I was comfortable with the safety of it.
At A Glance Author Fox Contact Fox@bme.anon When It just happened Artist myself Studio my bathroom Location Orlando, FL After some time I moved out and I forgot about wanting the piercing completely. Earlier today I was researching nose piercing's at home procedure when I came across a picture of the tragus and it hit me... Today's the day for MY tragus! (although I still want my nose piercing if anyone has any feedback). I pulled up many articles, videos, etc. and found my best stories on this website. The videos I found were mostly of professionals doing their thing.
So I got out my equipment, which (I'm NOT proud to say and I recommend using more professional means of piercing like a piercing needle) consisted of an earring with a sharp point that was used to pierce my cartilage (except that was done with a gun), ice for numbing (which I ended up not using anyway because it was so effortless), a cork piece to apply pressure to, latex gloves even though I washed my hands throughly, and of course cleaning products to make everything all nice and sanitary. If you're confused about how to clean everything then don't go through with it until you're more informed. Soap and water is not enough. Don't handle too many outside things like going in and out of the room to get other things while in your sanitary state to prevent recontamination. Have everything you might possibly need already available at your convenience. Cleaning is most important because infection can get pretty nasty.
Then it was time to rock and roll. I put the cork piece on the inside of my ear and put the needle on the outside and pushed. Usually in my at home experiences the easiest part of piercing is the beginning and the hardest is getting it through the other end. In this case it was the opposite. The beginning was not hard to start but it was more difficult than getting it though.
What really surprised me about this piercing is I pushed the earring through without much effort and before I knew it it went right though! I didn't even realize it was all the way though until i took the cork piece out of my ear to feel how close it was to coming through and noticed that i was feeling the earring. I cleaned it up more with my solution after that. It only took about a minute to complete the piercing which is the fastest at home piercing I've done. I didn't break a sweat which my body likes to do in times like these. I did get a pretty good adrenaline rush, not the most intense, but still great. I'm not really a fan of adrenaline because it distracts me from the piercing and I always get scared I'll pass out or something. Nothing has ever happened, I'm just a pansy.
I experienced little to no pain. The worst part was halfway when it had to go through cartilage, but only because of the pressure I had to exert on it. There was no blood at all, It didn't get red and it still isn't red after I guess about 20 minutes of typing this. It's not very sensitive to the touch. It feels kind of like a sore bruise.
To be quite honest I didn't expect it to happen this easily. I'm a pretty small girl with alright pain tolerance and I would recommend this piercing for a first timer.
It is my personal preference to pierce myself and I have enjoyed doing it for about five years now. ALWAYS research it first and if you don't get the answers you're looking for seek professional help.
As a side note: I will update you about my piercing's progress after some time to hopefully inform the curious even more so.
Now the only things I have to worry about is infection (which hopefully won't happen because I'm very good about cleaning) and my boyfriend's reaction for getting something without telling him first!