All You Need to Know Before You’re Getting a Tragus Piercing

A tragus piercing is a very subtle form of body modification. Most tragus earrings are low-key and small, although there are a few designs out there meant to dazzle. People who see it might even dismiss it as a common earlobe piercing until you draw attention to it. It’s an excellent way to add one more spot to wear jewelry without resorting to more obvious places, such as your nose or navel. The delightful and quaint designs available and the low amount of pain from getting a tragus piercing should convince you that getting one is a worthwhile endeavor!

Related Read: Do Helix Piercing Fit Your Type?

How Much are Tragus Piercings?

Before you go out and grab a tragus piercing, be sure to check the price for the store. Getting a tragus piercing is a little more expensive than your typical ear piercing. For a single piercing, the price will be between $30–50, with the median closer to $50. This does not include the cost of jewelry, which is obviously required for your initial piercing. I would recommend getting the cheapest nickel-free thing they have, and then upgrading to something fancier once your tragus has healed. You can also browse for a much wider variety of jewelry online than you ever could in a piercing shop — although you should stick to the store if you’re not interested in shipping fees or the weeks of waiting.

Tragus Piercing Healing

As with tattoos, getting a piercing means dedicating yourself to a few weeks of aftercare. Thankfully, the aftercare is not nearly as difficult. It’s mostly common sense stuff, but we’ll go over it anyways, to make sure all of our bases are covered.

First of all, make sure the area is kept clean. This means that you should only touch the area or twist your earring after washing your hands with antibacterial soap. Hands are natural havens for bacteria — if you think about it, we use our hands to interact with almost everything, including dirty cars or used door handles — so this is the main thing you need to be careful of.

After hands, using a phone on the pierced ear is the easiest way to get an infection. Unless you wash your phone often, and that’s without damaging it, the touch screen and case are probably brimming with germs. Simply use your other ear while you wait to your piercing to heal. If both of your ears are pierced, go ahead and use speaker phone. Your friends will understand. Another good way to keep your ear clean is to keep your bedding washed. The more often you change your pillow cases during the healing process, the better. You should avoid touching your clothes to your ears as you get dressed in the morning.

You can ensure that the area does not become infected by applying disinfectant yourself. You can create your own saline solution by adding salt to some water and keeping it at a boil for five minutes, or you could go the easy route and use rubbing alcohol. Hold a soaked cotton ball to the area and allow your mixture to soak in. It might sting a little, but the pain is preferable to infections and the nasty scars that they can leave.

Speaking of infections, there are several ways to tell if your piercing is infected. If the area is still pink and swollen after three days, schedule an appointment with your doctor and tell them that you think you have an infection. If the area bleeds without any provocation from you — or if the area oozes greenish puss — then you almost certainly have one. While it’s true that the tragus is very small and can sometimes be managed through care at home, it doesn’t hurt to be safe and seek the advice of a doctor.

Did you notice how I didn’t talk about crusting or anything? That’s because crusting is a natural part of tragus piercing healing. Along with that, you can expect to feel some discomfort as you turn your earring. Despite that discomfort, you should be diligent in turning your earring, especially as it heals. If you don’t, your piercing can close back up and around the jewelry you chose!

Despite all these detailed instructions, common sense should prevail. Just keep the area clean, watch how the area heals, and turn your earrings as instructed by whoever pierced your tragus.

Tragus Piercing Pain

How much do tragus piercings hurt? Luckily, not very much! The tragus piercing pain level is comparable to getting your earlobe pierced. Sure, the initial pinch will sting, but the pain isn’t prolonged or anything. Compared to a tattoo, it should be nothing. The anticipation of getting the piercing can be more harmful than the actual pain of the piercing. Some people have said that getting two tragus piercings at once is more painful, since the body is not expecting a second wound, so stick to one piercing at a time if you are really worried about it. Honestly, the pain is probably smaller on the scale than stepping on a Lego.

Tragus Piercing Jewelry

As I mentioned before, you will be required to pick some jewelry for your tragus piercing when you get the initial piercing. Getting a cheap, nickel-free earring ensures that you have something to fill in the hole that won’t lead to an allergic reaction. If you want something fancy for your first few weeks, that’s fine — but keep in mind that it has to match everything you wear! It’s a lot easier to match simple silver or black rings than it is to match some dazzling emerald studs. It’s much more fun to go shopping after your initial piercing so that you can pick on more than one earring at a time! You can also get the fancy stuff for a lower price online.

Whether this would be your first piercing or yet another in your collection, tragus piercings are an excellent and subtle way to show off more jewelry. The area is especially suited for showing off tiny jewelry, since the tragus appears as a flat surface to those standing directly in front of you and the designs won’t be distorted by perspective. From jewels to studs to full-blown gauges, there is a huge selection of tragus earrings to choose from. Finding the ones that match your style is almost as fun as getting the piercing in the first place!

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out the others at InkDoneRight. We focus mainly on tattoo culture, but we cover a little bit of the piercing scene as well. As always, thanks for reading!

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Sara

InkDoneRight

Picture Source: Pinterest

Originally published at www.inkdoneright.com on December 18, 2015.