01.01.70

) At 4 years old. It's actually one of my first memories, even. My mom made it pleasant and fun and made sure I was responsible enough to help take good care of them. She also let me know that it WOULD hurt. In fact, the little girl that went before me was older, but bawled and screamed like it was hideously painful. It scared me, so we walked around the mall a bit before I was ready. I ended up not thinking it was that bad after all.

I intend on piercing my own daughter's ears when she's old enough, but unlike my own experience, I won't be taking her to a piercing booth in a mall, and I especially won't be having the piercings done with a piercing gun. The Association of Professional Piercers and Body Modification Ezine, two of the largest information sources on contemporary body modification, are BOTH against gun piercings . Why? I'll tell you.

Sanitation of the facility: Piercing parlors are required to thoroughly and regularly clean their piercing area (which consists of easy-to-clean materials like a doctor's chair) regularly, and only allow paying customers into the area to prevent any contamination of their sterile equipment.

Source: The Stir

Earlier most people used to make nose piercing only in Eastern cultures where the usage of nose rings has always been an important part of the local cultural heritage. And only during the last twenty years nose piercing has become extremely popular in the Western world as well. These were younger generation who were the first to follow this trend in order to stand out from the crowd, as well as to express their uniqueness in the better way as well as their futuristic views. Usually the youth chooses the nose rings which are generally inserted into the rim of the nostril at the upper point of the curved edge. Piercing in such a place offers an important advantage of letting a fresh piercing to get healed quicker and easier. Stainless steel, bioplast or titanium nose rings are considered to be the best ones especially during the first months after making the piercing. These material are better in increasing tissue tolerance.

The most serious and common problem connected with the usage of nose rings is the emergence of keloids represented by scarred tissues. However, it’s possible to avoid such phenomena. Usually, keloids appear if a person doesn’t take proper care of the pierced area, so the skin becomes exposed to irritation and friction that increases the risk of different undesired illnesses. Sometimes, a nose ring will need to be changed before the complete wound healing. It’s wrong to think that the nose piercing is superficial, in fact, it’s deep and the cartilage tissue of the nostril may cause different problems; just the way with the side-ear piercing where healing is much slower because of the special tissue structure in this area....

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by Dee

I also have my conch pierced - this was a tricky one. Your conch is the cartilage at the back of your ear, on the top of the lobe. I have a bar through it, and yes, it was sore. A lot sorer than I expected it to be, as the bar was quite big and the cartilage quite thick, but it was over in a few seconds. I had this done in Snakebite on Abbey Street in Dublin and I paid full price. I'd recommend them, they're really nice, efficient and professional. The healing time and aftercare of this piercing was also pretty horrible, to be honest. Don't get this piercing unless you are willing to look after it. I still don't think mine is healed properly, as it's quite hard to get at. I've tried everything for cleaning my piercings, and I find that hot (boiled) salted water and/or TCP works best. Getting your tragus pierced isn't too bad, I'd compare it to getting the cartilage at the top of your ear done except maybe a bit worse, as it is thicker. The pain disappears super fast and it heals...

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