I'm going to talk about pain, healing time, and aftercare.
Ear piercings are a great way to express yourself. There are so many different types of ear piercings, so many jewelry options and you can change up the gauge of the piercing if you want. Now keep in mind what I'm going to talk to you about is mostly experience. When I talk about pain, you need to understand that everyone has a different pain tolerance and everyone's ear is a different size. The cartilage in your ear could be thinner or thicker.
Aftercare
After care is pretty simple. 1-2 times a day you want to soak your piercing in a hot sea salt solution. You can make this buy adding 1/4 tsp of sea salt to 8 ounces of hot water. Make sure the water is as hot as you can handle. You definitely don't want to scald yourself. Do this for 5-10 minutes at a time. When you're showering you want to also clean it with antibacterial hand soap. I recommend the Gold Dial Hand Soap. Make sure you don't touch your piercing with dirty hands and that you only touch it when you're cleaning it. You don't want to risk infection and DON'T let ANYONE touch your piercing. Not even your boyfriend!
Earlobe
This was my first ear piercing, I got this done when I was a little girl, and had it redone twice. Pretty much every girl gets this done at a young age. It's not uncommon to see little girls in Claire's getting their ears done. Everytime I go to the mall, I see at least 2 in the window. From when I got pierced, I remember crying the first time because I guess it hurt. They eventually closed up which is why I had to get it redone.
I actually have my earlobes pierced twice on both sides now. I got the second set of holes done during 2012 at Claire's. And I didn't feel anything to be honest. So I'll rate it a 0/5 on the pain scale. Aftercare is pretty straightforward. They give you this aftercare cleaner and you're supposed to take a couple cotton balls and soak them with the solution and clean both sides of your lobe twice a day.
Tragus
This was my first cartilage piercing, and it's actually one of my favorite piercings. The pain was a 2/5. I had it put on my left ear. I got this done on April 13, 2012. I was pretty nervous going into the shop to get it done. But the people who work where I got it done were super nice and calmed me down. They used a clamp on my ear and everyone I hear says the clamp is the worst part because of the pressure it puts on your ear. It wasn't bad for me. One thing I didn't experience was a popping nose. As a matter of fact, I didn't even hear it. This piercing acted up quite a few times throughout the year, I had a lot of swelling and at times I got that dreaded bubble you often see on most cartilage piercings. A secret to getting rid of them would be Tea Tree Oil. I used it twice a day after my soak and it went away after a month. It took 1 full year to heal. I recommend this piercing to anyone because it's cute and you have so many options for jewelry.
Helix
Inner Conch
Oh my goodness. This is such a cool piercing to have and it was one of the EASIEST ones to heal. Do NOT get a hoop when you get this piercing done, get a barbell. When I had it changed out to a hoop it put way too much pressure on my ear and it was so sore. I had it pierced on my left ear. I would say that the pain was a 2.5. It took them a few seconds to pierce my ear. The healing time took about 8 months and to this day I don't have any problems with it.
Awhile back I had an incident with an ex boyfriend traumatizing my piercing. We were hanging out one night and I bought him one of those bubble gum tape things (where you have to pull on the tape and rip it out) I remember sitting on the floor in my living room talking to my mom and all of a sudden the thing came flying at my head and hits the back of my barbell. Let's say that made me scream out loud and the pain was so bad that it made me cry. My ear swelled up to where you couldn't even see the back of the bar because the swelling was so bad. The next day I went into work and was in the break room brushing my hair back, and I accidentally knocked it with my brush. It started bleeding again, and the pain was so bad that it made me cry for 10 minutes. A few days later after 10 minutes of hot soaks twice a day, the swelling went down and it went back to normal.
Rook
I am not going to lie, this was a very painful piercing. I have thicker cartilage on my ear so that would be one of the reasons why. I'm going to rate it a 4/5. I got it done on my right ear last September and it's still sore from time to time. I do believe it's mostly healed. There's no blood or discharge which is a good sign. When I got it pierced, they didn't use a clamp. The needle they used was a large curved needle. They tell you the same thing every time "Now take a deep breath" and when you exhale you think it's over. No, no for me there was still one more layer to pierce. Let me tell you, that was excruciating. I don't regret it but I probably wouldn't ever get it done again. If you want to get this piercing, go for it. It's not a piercing you see everyone with, so it kind of makes it unique.
Daith
Ah, this one I actually got done last night! I had been contemplating this one for awhile. I got this put on my left ear.
So let's talk about pain. I'm not going to lie to you, this was the most painful piercing I have ever gotten. The pain would be a 5/5. It's almost like having your rook pierced, they use the same kind of needle but it takes longer for them to pierce it. Unfortunately it's not something that can be done really fast. The piercer said I didn't even bleed, but when I soaked it last night it started to just a little. And that's completely normal.
After they pierced it it was like every other cartilage piercing, it hurt for awhile.
That concludes my ear piercings. I'm going to put up some pictures, some pictures are older.
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