congrats. 

Benny B:

Dude they look SIIIIICK! :) I want to ask...seeing as I've read that the conch gathers sound and directs into the actual ear canal does getting massive punch affect your hearing?

I'd say not noticeably at all, esp with plain solid plugs. Tho with the tunnels I can sometimes hear it when wind blows through them lol. I need some whistling plugs! hahah

They are still quite crusty at the moment too... I had a bit of a scare the other day tho with my right conch... I woke up, looked in the mirror, and noticed it looked really weird and small... It had actually somehow been pushed/pulled INTO the piercing! Thankfully the front flare of the SF GG glass eyelet was just under the skin basically, and with a hot water soak it popped out, and without any pain or bad tearing... Even after this happened, my right conch hasn't even been that pissed off (well as non pissed-off as a 1-2month old conch can be anyway lol)... Lucky! I guess it was pretty loose partly because I'd only downsized to 2g from 0g pretty recently, and the 2g flare wasn't much bigger than 0g... I now wear a 00g silicone o-ring just behind the front flare which HOPEFULLY stop it ever happening again. 

 (Yes, i just copied that from my IAM :P)

Yeah, totally lucky dude!  I often think it would probably would have even been better if it had pulled all the way through in situations like that...I had a similar thing happen with the tunnel in my right ear cartilage punch...it's a shitty feeling when you can't see your jewellery anymore and an even shittier feeling having the skin pried off around it lol.

 That's interesting about the tunnels 'blowing'...I hadn't even considered that but I guess that's something you would notice too...I think I'm considering getting my left inner conch done to go against my right ear outer conch...but that might be a way off yet.  I think I'm deciding I don't want any holes less than 3mm in my ears :D

Well the back of my right one isn't looking so pretty atm...

Both the left and right fronts are a little 'bumpy' around the front flare too. Bleh. Would a chamomile tea 'soak' be equivalent to a 'compress'? It's just a pretty awkward place to hold down a tea bag lol

 I see what you mean Axon by the ring of skin, but I don't think it's a blowout or anything, the jewelry is already quite loose... However I do think using o-rings may be making it too tight front-to-back... I'm thinking some internally threaded DF eyelets may be better? Or just slide the o-rings back on the wearable, which should be ok I guess most of the time, but like in the shower when they get wet they slide around otherwise.

And the hair is just in front of it, not all in the crust lol

 I always try and leave a millimetre or so between the skin and the O-ring but not necessarily the front flare, just to give the piercing some breathing room...I think it helps keep the moisture/dryness balanced and just allows crust and stuff to leak out a bit easier.  Maybe you're getting a build up of stuff that's trying to escape?

 What about some glass top hats?  Nice wide front flare, only one O-ring at the back which you could loosen or tighten accordingly? I like glass for healing too....I looked around for threaded DF tunnels for my tragus before I got it punched and there's not really a lot out there that you could get in a hurry I'd imagine, plus they might be too restrictive also, the O-ring gives you flexibility.

 Pierceoff have some I'm pretty sure, reasonably priced and you could have them by tomorrow if you order soon enough :)

 EDIT:  I'll even throw in a link:

***Link removed - Please do not link other body jewelry companies when BAF carries a similar product. Thanks! - Axon ***

....and get clear ones so you can watch what's going on as they heal...like a science experiment :)

Oh bummer, sorry about that Axon...I didn't even think. I only thought to post that link because it's a site based in Australia and Rodger could get his jewellery that much quicker ordering locally.  I'll know for future.

Cheers again

A better pic...

That is a SF glass tunnel as well. I do know pierceoff too, have ordered from them before. 

Rick on here has said I should try one week of double strength SSS and nothing else, so I'll try that first.

 And not change your jewelry again til you're healed? lol

 Well all I know is SSS is amazing. After a hot double strength SSS just now, it's I'd say less than half the size it was in that pic. That does seem to suggest it isn't just scar tissue tho.

*edit* looking muuuuch better:

Wow, that looks HEAPS better...and the fact it's gone down so much after SSS would tend to indicate it WAS liquid in there, I think that's the salt part of the SSS to draw out any liquid so yeah, probably not scar tissue...sweet man! *high fives Rodger*

Love the power of SSS...and it's become a favourite part of my daily routine after at breakfast and after dinner, sitting down and having a smoke and resting my pierced bits in hot saline while I watch TV, so relaxing especially on my tragus ATM.