I know it's unsafe and a generally bad idea to be pierced unprofessionally and not in a sterile shop, but I have a friend who has worked in shops in the past and I trust. I like that it's a more laid back scene, with lots of talking/laughing. And thanks to his girlfriend, also a friend of mine, their home is always spotless so I didn't concern myself with the obvious risks of getting pierced not in a parlor. I tell him I want my tragus pierced and he agrees. Schweet.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A year ago I think he charged me like twenty-five dollars, which covered the needle and the jewelry and what not. That's much better than the sixty dollars I would've paid at a shop.
All of his equipment and everything is sterilized. Like at any parlor, the needle was brand new in the wrapper. The jewelry wasn't packaged but it was cleaned well to avoid hepatitis or whatever you get from dirty jewelry. He changes his gloves about a thousand times and we're ready to go. He marks the tiny dot on my ear and I give him the thumbs up. He clamps my tiny tragus, with difficulty as they tend to be small and we go through the same routine as every other piercer has ever had. He tells me to breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, and he shoves the needle through on the second exhale. Nothing too painful. He pierces me quickly, which I appreciate.
While sliding the needle out and the jewelry in (a 16 gauge captive ring) he manages to scrape the back of my ear with the needle, not severely but enough to make me bleed. I didn't mind, especially since I didn't feel it. I wouldn't have known if he hadn't told me, except for the part where the blood ran down my boob. It was actually pretty funny, with him trying to clean the blood off my breast and us joking about him getting fresh.
I left looking pretty messed up with the blood and all, but no real damage done.
The actual intended piercing didn't bleed at all, not even when I hit it.
Anyway, he gets the tiny piece of jewelry in my tiny tragus. But because my tragus is so small and inflexible, he had quite a time getting the ball on with his big ole man hands.
That's the part that hurt. I thought he was trying to rip my ear off. We were about to make his girlfriend glove up and pop the bead in when he finally got it.
Aftercare wasn't complicated. More of a leave-it-alone approach.
Unfortunately, I forgot it was there most of the time and would hit it often, especially when I answered the phone (I suggest piercing it on the ear you don't talk on the phone with. It's an unpleasant surprise to smack your tender new piercing with a phone and it's unclean.) That was always a big surprise even though it happened repeatedly. It's like stubbing your toe or biting your tongue, it caught me off guard every time and I had to stop what I was doing to take a few deep breaths and let out some profanities. Sleeping on it sucked, too, so I had to sleep on the other side, which was fine until I got an industrial in the other ear a week later. In retrospect, that was a dumbass idea.
But despite my hitting it constantly, it healed just fine. It didn't migrate or get infected. No hearing loss, contrary to the urban legends I'd heard about the risks of a tragus piercing.
Of all the many piercings I now have, including nipple rings, labia rings, dermal anchors, I would have to say that my tragus was the most painful, but only because of the difficulty we experienced during the jewelry insertion. The piercing itself was only slightly painful, and very quick.
I went and got the captive ring changed out for a circular barbell. I couldn't do it myself because I couldn't get the bead off.
The only real negative part about my tragus is that I can't find jewelry small enough to look right in it. I'm probably going to have to get some custom made. Other than that, no complaints. I like that you can wear any kind of jewelry in it, a barbell or a ring.
As with all my at home piercings, I've been lucky to have not been injured (except for the accidental scrape). Make sure your piercer knows what he/she is doing and is clean.
And if you want your tragus done, do it.
The pain doesn't last forever. You'll end up forgetting the part where it hurt and remember only the part where there's a piece of jewelry in your ear that not everyone has.