Submitters Comment: I found this while derping around meetme.
What’s awful: Huge tapers that look to be made out of plastic or acrylic material.
How it can be fixed: Take them out, acrylic and plastic are both bad for your ears and can leak toxins into your system, tapers are not jewelery.
i had been wanting a conch piercing, so i went to get one at the place i get all my piercings done. it’s a very clean place, they autoclave everything, use gloves and needles, etc. i got my 2 previous helix piercings there, and they were both healing really nicely.
anyway, i got the piercing and it hurt so much less than i though it would. it hardly hurt on the way home and for the first five days, i could barely tell it was even there.
then it started to get sore and hurt. i thought it was just part of the healing process, so i just continued with the twice-daily sea salt soaks. however, it started getting worse and worse. after around 3 days, the pain was so bad that i was popping ibuprofens every couple of hours. my entire conch and anti-tragus area was swollen and red. it started oozing yellowish pus after a few days. the pain got so bad that i could’t focus on doing anything.
i asked my mom to take me to the emergency room, and despite me trying to explain how you’re not supposed to take the earring out as that can cause an abscess, the doctor and my mom made me take it out. then the doctor made me lie down and proceeded to try and push all the pus out. it was the most excruciating pain i have ever experienced in my whole life. i knew they were going to do something painful and i was telling myself i wouldn’t cry, but i ended up screaming and crying. then they gave me antibiotics and really strong painkillers.
for the next three days, i was still in extreme pain and my ear was still very swollen and full of pus. when i went to see an ENT, she sliced the back open so the abscess could drain. i was still in constant pain for around a week before it started to feel a little better. it’s been getting better since then, but my ear still looks far from normal.
i honestly don’t know what i did wrong, and how i got that horrible infection.
MODERATOR COMMENT:
Sometimes weird unfortunate shit happens. :/ It’s okay to take out the jewelry if you’re on anti-biotics. If it were really really bad, the doctor who lanced it the first time (or even the second) would have put a tube in there anyway so it could drain. At least I hope they would… Anything could’ve happened to cause that (probably post-piercing if they’re as clean as you say). The world is gross and anything could’ve just flown into your ear and gotten all up in the piercing and then BAM you’re in lots of pain. Sorry that happened to you. :/
-Kat
This isn’t a bad mod, just a question. (I didn’t know if this was an okay place to submit a question, but I’m worried.) I have been reading awful mods for a while, and you guys seemed extremely educated in piercings, so I decided I would come here. My tragus has a little red bump. I’ve heard disaster stories about those dreaded bumps. I went to a shop that many of my friends have been pierced at, and nothing bad ever happened to the piercings they had. So I went to the shop signed everything, and since I’m under 18, they also had my mom sign papers. They opened all equipment out of packages in front of me and were very nice and gentle with my ear. I’ve been cleaning it three times a day with saline solution, and I wash my hands every time I clean it and never touch it unless I am cleaning it. I really don’t know what went wrong.:( Someone help me please!
MODERATOR COMMENT:
welp. since it looks like you only made this account to ask us this question (which is totally fine) and never activated it or something and don’t have an ask box, i’m just gonna have to post this and hope you see it (kind of annoying and I hope you’re checking this blog regularly).
It honestly looks like it’s just because of the diameter of that ring. Your bump looks fairly small and like it will calm down fairly easily. I hope it hasn’t gotten worse by the time you see this. I’d just head back to the shop and ask them to switch it for either a labret stud of proper length or a ring with a smaller diameter. You’ll likely have to bring your mom with you because you’re a minor and even though they’re not piercing you, it still counts. (Annoying, I know.) In the mean time, you could try doing a chamomile tea compress or soak (compress meaning you steep the tea bag long enough to get warm, squish out the extra water, and hold it to your ear until it’s cold). I’d also keep the salt soaks down to 1 or 2 a day. 3 seems a little excessive.
-Kat
P.S. A note to EVERYONE: If your question is too long to put in an ask and you need to submit it, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A WORKING ASK BOX OR WE REALLY CAN’T DO MUCH TO APPROPRIATELY CONTACT YOU.
SUBMITTERS COMMENT: Saw this on my Facebook Newsfeed, honestly not a surprise. This is the same girl I submitted the story for a while ago, the one who kept her jewelry around her pet rats! She pierces herself a lot, so again, no surprise, but this is the first time she’s posted a photo.
(As a quick side note, the large pinchers are her second holes, and she’s gone from a 6g to whatever size that is, in under a month, she just doesn’t have photos to really show all that much about it.)
WHAT’S AWFUL: Well, that’s an unsanitary sewing needle through her ear. It’s not a proper instrument to pierce with, and the string can’t be doing any good either.
HOW IT CAN BE FIXED: Take that needle out of there! And stop piercing yourself, and others, with improper, unsanitary ‘tools’!
Submitter comment: When I was 14, I witnessed one girl from my school piercing another girl’s ear with a thumbtack. To make matters worse, this occurred in the restroom of a local public swimming pool.
What’s awful: what isn’t?? Thumbtack aside, if you’re looking for a sterile environment, a damp mouldy pool restroom is not it.
How it can be fixed: well, I’m fairly sure said girl removed the piercing and got it done by a professional. By some miracle, there was no associated infection. Just don’t do it kids!
WHAT’S AWFUL: Apparently this shop does 15$ piercings. Most of the tattoos look awful too.
HOW IT CAN BE FIXED: Pay for a reputable shop.
When I was around 10 years old I finally wore my mother down and she allowed me to get my ears pierced. We had just moved away from my hometown and I wasn’t dealing with it very well, so this was sort of my “reward”/birthday present.
The place was immaculate, sterilized completely and staffed with individuals who had earned more First Aid/pathogen certificates than one should be able to in a life time. The piercer sat me down on the edge of the chair and pulled on his rubber gloves. He then pulled out what looked like a plastic “U” in a secure baggie.
I didn’t know piercing guns– even disposable ones– were bad. My mother had gotten her ears pierced in the late 1950s by a girlfriend, so I doubt she’d even seen one before. All I knew was that what happened next was- to this day- the most painful thing that I have ever felt. If the piercer used anything to numb my ear it clearly wasn’t doing its job, and his demeanor wasn’t helping. “Close your eyes and think of something nice.” KA-CHUNK.
It took months for my ears to heal to a point where I could change the earring out. I distinctly remember being able to break off plates of dried blood from the post and I was unable to sleep on my sides for weeks. To this day- 17 years later- I still get inflammation from the holes.
Who was this horrible piercer? MY PEDIATRICIAN. Just goes to show you, you can be pierced in the cleanest spot imaginable, by someone with multiple degrees in health and safety, and piercings can still go wrong.
Thank God it wasn’t a girlfriend’s house!
Source: Me.
Submitter comment: This is what happens when you decide to stretch your ear two sizes up with a silicone tunnel while drunk. Not fun. Stretch carefully people.
Last year, my mom agreed to me getting my helix pierced. We found a shop in Troy, NY (I can’t remember the name) and we went to go get it done. When we got there, there was a woman at the front desk yapping on her cell phone and eating, and we were told to wait until she got off of the phone. When she finally hung up, we asked her what the pricing was and what jewelry she would recommend. She replied “Oh, I don’t know. Ask _____.” Turns out _____ was the artist and piercer, who was piercing a client on a table in the dead center of the room. Once he was done and we had done all of the necessary paperwork, he asked how old I was. When my mom said that I was 13, he said “Oh, we can’t pierce younger than 15 (come to find out later the legal piercing age in NYS on anything besides lobes is 16).” Then my mom said “So, if she’s 15 she can get pierced? Well then she’s 15.” He immediately agreed, and he set everything up and pierced me. Well an hour later I passed out from the pain. And the next day I woke up with a HUGE bubble on either side of the jewelry. I disregarded it, thinking it was normal. A month later, it was still there and was even bigger. I went to my doctor and she told me it was badly infected (even though I had been taking all necessary cleaning steps) and I was forced to take it out. Did I mention that he pierced it with a 12g hoop? Bottom line, don’t go to a place that is willing to overlook your age in order to get money.
SUBMITTER’S COMMENT:I found this beauty on Amazon while looking for some “goal” plugs for myself (a reward for being patient with my stretching)
WHAT’S AWFUL: I don’t claim to be an expert, but I’m pretty sure that uneven/holey surface is not good for a stretched ear, especially one that’s not healed yet.
HOW IT CAN BE FIXED: do your research and don’t buy things that your ears are going to hate you for?
_______________________________________
MODERATOR’S COMMENT:
Lesson? Don’t buy plugs on Amazon. ;)
