Cartilage Piercing…Horror Story

Welcome to Wednesday’s blog! In honor of Halloween being tomorrow, I thought for today blog I would tell a horror story! Okay…maybe horror story is a little bit dramatic, but I am going to tell you things you should consider if you are thinking of getting your cartilage pierced, because things can get ugly if you don’t do your research first…trust me. Now, lets get into my cartilage piercing cartilage horror story.

I’m going to start off my telling you what my experience was and how I got my cartilage pierced. I got my cartilage pierced on my 18th birthday. Some piercing places will pierce your cartilage with a piercing gun, which is the same way they pierce your ear lobes. Not all places pierce cartilage this way though, only some do. Another way you can get your cartilage pierced is at a piercing/tattoo place where they will pierce it with the needle. I decided to get it done with a piercing gun and I got 2 piercings, both on the same ear. It looked like this:

So, as you can see in the pictures, the top of my ear looks very red. This picture was taken a couple of months after getting them first pierced. Since getting my ears pierced, my ear was often very red which I didn’t think much of at the time. The second picture is the back of the earrings, which were just regular earring backs.

The First Horror

I couldn’t sleep on my right side!!! This was one thing that I heard happens, regardless of how you get it pierced, but mine never healed. A year and a half after I got my cartilage pierced, I couldn’t sleep on my right side because it hurt so badly!

The Second Horror

Taking care of any piercing is a must. When I got all my ear piercings, I was told to wash the piercing with rubbing alcohol and twist them. This is what I did with my two piercings on my lobes. When I twisted my cartilage piercings after cleaning them, it hurt! Also, when I got my other piercings, I only had to clean them every day for a couple weeks after getting them pierced. After a year and a half of having my cartilage piercings, I was cleaning them a couple of times a weeks. These piercings are pretty high maintenance.

The Third Horror

These things got infected…a lot. Now, to spare you all the gross details, lets just say there was a time that they were so infected, I felt like I was going to be sick. These piercings got infected all of the time, no matter how much I cleaned them. When they were infected, the whole top of my ear hurt, and it was not fun at all to deal with.

The Fourth Horror

Taking them out was quite a bad experience. Taking them out hurt! Sometimes, I couldn’t even get them out on my own and my dad had to do it for me. (Thanks Dad!) But regardless, they were very painful and very difficult to take out to switch them with new earrings.

The Fifth Horror

When you get your cartage pierced with a gun, they use the same type of earring that they use when you get your lobe pierced. The problem with this is there are earrings that are made for your cartilage. There’s also different sizes of earrings depending on how big the piercing is. I didn’t even know this when I got it pierced. I went to a store a year or so later to buy more earrings and the woman asked what size I needed. I responded saying that I didn’t know. She looked at my earring and informed me that I had a regular earring, not a cartilage earring. I think this was a huge reason why I had so many problems with it.

So, what do I think now?

I loved the look of my cartilage piercing. Unfortunately, after almost 2 years, I took them both out and now, both the holes are closed. I really didn’t want to take them out, but they were so painful and hard to take care of. I think if you want to get it done, get it done with a needle at a piercing parlor. I have friends who have done it this way and they have never had any issues. I also know a couple people who have done it with a piercing gun and still have it. Some people get lucky, but I think the best way to do it is with a needle. That way, you will be able to use the proper earrings and it should heal a lot faster. Even after taking them out, I still have small bumps on the back of my ears from where they were. I also recommend doing your research first. There are lots of websites that talk about how painful certain piercings are, how to take care of them and how long they take to heal. I think it’s really important to learn about what you are getting yourself into before you decide to do it.

So that’s it! My cartilage piercing horror story. I hope you enjoyed and maybe learned something along the way. If you like this blog, share it with your friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbors, coworkers or anyone who is looking for something to read. As always, thank you for all of your support!

Signed,

Ashlyn