So yesterday my jewellery arrived *just* in time to make my 2 o'clock appointment with my piercer to get my tragus punched.  I told my boss i was going to lunch and that I was gonna be awhile.  Brady arrived at the studio just as i did, he had awesomely agreed to come in on his day off to do this for me.  I gave him the new jewellery to get autoclaved while I went to go and get a feed before getting the punch done.

 We had already talked pretty extensively about the procedure and stuff prior but we went over a couple of bits and pieces again while he was setting up, covered any last minute questions and then started getting me marked up.   I have to say at this point that i was now *totally* freaked about this one, moreso than anything else and I remember wishing I was as 'naive' as I was when I got my first cartilage punch. Took a few goes to get the marking and placement just right coz it's a kinda fiddly area.

 I lay down on the bed on my side facing the wall and Brady just kinda played with my ear a little bit, seeing how flexible it was as he was going to punch and then use a 3mm taper  and figuring out how much room he'd have on the other side to be able to pull it out and seeing where he'd kinda bend my ear to get it back out again.  During this time, he had me breathing slowly in and out telling me he wanted to hear each breath in and out, trying to calm me down a bit.

 

He clamped me up and then put some gauze into my ear to soak up any blood and lined up the punch...I got the 'Okay, this next deep breath, when you blow out'...but I pussied out and had to stop him for a second...I took another minute and then gave him the go ahead and he started the punch.  Every other piercing I've had, it's been over during the breath out but this took three big breaths in/out.  I can only the pain was pretty excruciating - 8/10.  My legs tensed and my feet were toes were curling inside my shoes against the wall and I remember trying to grip something on the wall but there was nothing to grip.  In retrospect I'm glad I was that freaked about it beforehand because if I had have been kinda blase or relaxed about it or whatever, I would have been in for a very rude shock :D

I could hear the cartilage crunching  like *inside* my head which was pretty intense and something that will probably haunt me for at least a little while...it mostly went through okay but took one final big shove to get through the other side which gave me flashes of stars in front of my eyes lol.  I could feel Brady pushingthe taper in there, which wasn't too bad.  At that point things were still very sore and Brady told me to take a minute while he changed gloves...at that time I could only assume it was due to the blood but I didn't really want to think about that.

 

By this point, my breathing was no longer slow and steady but some kinda version of a deep hypverventilation but I was trying to calm it down as I knew the worst was over.  Brady said later he thought it was at that point he thought he was going to lose me, and I may have even blacked out for a second or two...it took a minute or two while he did that and the clamps and taper were keeping pressure on things and helping to stop the bleeding.  Mopped up some of the blood and then the taper came through the other side and my jewellery went in.  The jewellery took a little shove to get in there, again, stars in my eyes...but then I could again hear inside my head the front piece of the tunnel being screwed in and we were done!

 

Got the cup of red cordial and gulped it down for a sugar rush, felt really faint and exhausted.  Could feel all the blood getting mopped up and getting the area cleaned and it felt nice to have things in there and done :)  I stayed lying down for quite awhile until I felt okay to sit up...and now the pics! (finally lol)

 

 

 This is the first look I got at my new piercing, as I was still too woozy to get up and look in the mirror.  My tragus is ANGRY

 

 This is the second look, and shows the inside...swollen city :)  The tunnel is 9cm between flairs, extra long to allow for swelling in the initial month, based on previous trouble I had with my right ear cartilage punch swelling about three weeks after initial procedure and jewellery being too small. I've prepared myself for the fact that I'll probably have to go in and get it downsized after a month, otherwise when the swelling goes down this will probably be too unweildy and become easy to irritate and difficult to heal....plus I want to be able to put a headphone back in there as soon as possible. Not ideal to change so soon so I'll see how it goes but that's why I was sure to get something internally threaded to create as little problems as possible.

 

  The punch.  I must say, I was disappointed...I was like "Is that it?  Really?  After all that?"

 

 Not sure why those two come out sideways and so big, even though I have changed them on my hard drive...This is me about to eat the punch.  Part was chewy, part was crunchy, all of it was tasty :)

 

A selection of photos taken in the mirror after first SSS session and shower, this is about 10 hours after procedure...sorry for the quality, bathroom was kinda steamy and was taking pics of myself on my own.

 

 

 A selection of photos my mate took a couple of hours later after the SSS photos, in the last one he's telling me what a fag (his words, not mine so don't be offended) I am for doing this to myself and making him take pictures of it, so understandably I'm not impressed with him lol.  It just turned out to be one of the better quality photos from a distance so here it is, despite the pose lol.

 I haven't got any photos from today yet, probably take some at home after work and post some progress.  It's still really swollen though.  Although it looks pretty perfect in the photos, when I look in the mirror I'm not 100% about the way it's sitting, but I'm pretty sure it's just the swelling at the moment   Hope so....

 Just for kicks, and because i'm kinda new here so you guys haven't seen much of me, here's my other ear from fairly recently. This photo is not that great but I really like the way the stem of the glass plug has caught the light and highlights the hole in my cartilage :)  Also note my fat juicy fresh lobe, just begging to be pierced and stretched...lol

EDIT: One of the moderators, can you perhaps change the thread title to show that there are now some pics in here?

Tldr, but the pics are great! The punch is gross! Looks like a booger... I almost barfed. Haha. Anyway is it me or does the jewelry seem like it's pointing down inside your ear? Is it just because it's longer jewelry? I like it! Congrats!

 Lol, yeah, the post was pretty long...the jewellery goes quite a way into my ear, as I ordered a 9mm long piece as I have had trouble with cartilage swelling before and got caught out with jewellery way too small.  It's really kinda stupid, I can't even get my finger in there to scratch an itch :(

 I'll downsize it after a month probably, already being aware that that would probably be the case.  It's not ideal but I think it'll be better to have the same thing (internally threaded tunnel) in there but just shorter so it fits more snugly and less likely to wobble around and stuff.

 And yeah, the punch is pretty gross lol.  You can see which end was the front end and which was the back as well I figured out lol.

 Looks awesome man! I can say I know exctly how you felt getting punched and toes all curling up and stuff haha, but sounds like you had a nicer taper than mine was. My taper was 6mm to 8mm tho... ouch. I'm impressed he actually managed to get a taper through a tragus at all actually, awkward! haha

My 14g needled tragus really crunched too, and my conches were audible from about 2m away apparently! lol

My chunks were pretty flat and round tho, like a cookie lol, but I guess that's just because they came out of the punches easily.

Also if you want to itch inside your ear, use a cotton bud, just carefully. Nice and thin, unlike a finger lol.

Thanks dude :) Perfect and round was how I thought my punch would look, more like my outer conch but kinda longer rather than flat...but yeah didn't just pop out of the punch. I should have put my phone next to me on the bench and tried to record the sound. Can't even get a q-tip in either, not witout jolting the jewllery. Maybe I'll try and push it forward and out a mil or two in a couple days after a SSS but really reluctant to screw with it obviously.

 Is that double flare or screw-on jewelry in your fresh tragus? :/

Looks like those screw ones with the gems on the front...

Titanium internally threaded tunnel...I think it's Wildcat. The thingo on the front was seperate to look pretty :D Was it not a good choice? :/ I thought it would be the best thing?

Nah, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.  It just looks a lot like a double flare.  She was just making sure it wasn't! :-D

 I've never seen a screw on tunnel of good quality - or anything from wildcat that's good quality -, but if it's internally threaded it may be. It wouldn't be something I would personally be okay with for initial healing jewelry in a punch, but it seems to be working for you.

Wow, I didn't know that about Wildcat, not that I've ever ordered anything Wildcat that I know of. lol  Good to know!

Benny, I guess as long as you have no problems, it'll be fine.  If you start to feel anything other than new piercing symptoms, have your piercer change the jewelry. :-D

 Wildcat has some great economy products, but I would never rely on them for initial jewelry. Their quality, imo, is not on par with IS, Anatometal, Body Circle Designs, etc. One of their brand-name metals is called Mysterium. :|

at least its titanium and internally threaded.. his tragus looks fine so i think he'll be okay. he did his homework better than at least 70% of people i know who get pierced. hopefully the length of the jewelry won't be an issue though, i had a really long barbell when i got my conch pierced and i didn't switch the jewelry to something shorter after it healed and i slept on it a lot and it caused some scarring.. just be really careful not to sleep on your tragus until its way healed and you've got shorter jewelry in.

Oh, I agree.  No one's saying he did anything wrong.

Yikes! What EXACTLY should I be worried about or looking for? Saying u wouldn't trust them doesn't help a lot :/ It certainly wasn't the cheapest piece of jewellery I could have bought, Wildcat or otherwise...made sure I bought titanium. I'm planning to downsize that tunnel in a month so what then would u suggest? I was thinking of getting a custom piece that will fit snugly for the rest if the healing process...I've got month to sort it which is doable, I know somewhere to get it done