Welcome to Gaia! ::

My rook took at least a year to settle down, and I still have 3-day periods where it absolutely kills me. Especially if I have slept on it or sometimes when I'm on my period. Its unpredictable.

Its fine for the moment though, and its well worth the wait.

I have both of my tragus' pierced. I got them both at the same time 'cause I figured it'd be easier since they'd heal in about the same time. They were crazy sore for like the first or two weeks. It hurt to smile so I popped advil like crazy. lol.
They're pretty okay now. I can lay on them, but only in a certain positions. I have friction cysts on both of them that are as stubborn as a mule. But I still have about another 5-6 months for them to fully heal.
I have rings in them and I'm hoping to change them to bars sometime soon, I'm sure it'd be a hell of a lot easier to deal with them.

Also, it did take forever by the time I could actually lay on my side. I layed on my back for months. Not comfortable, I'm still tired! lol.

Oh, I love cartilege piercings. I actually have one that is just a year old, and originally it had a regular earring stud in it, but now I have um, I don't know what it is called, a horseshoe shaped ring in it. And I got another just a few days ago, with the same shape of ring.

If you have long hair, like I do, you have to be careful when in the shower or just simply brushing your hair, when the piercing is new. (Bumped the new 'ring this morning, nearly cried.) And sometimes, if my hair gets messy, it can loop around the ring and I have to be careful to get it out without snagging, although the year old I can just pull it off, no problem. And yes, first month or so, it can hurt to sleep on it, but otherwise, I've had no problems. My one year old is just dandy. I plan on getting two more before moving on to the face.

The healing process was just like a lower ear pierce, just higher. And you are NOT to mess with it without cleaning your hands, or just during cleaning. All I'm doing is cleaning the earring during nightly showers, seeing as I'm too much of a chicken otherwise. My ear hasn't fallen off yet! (I use Dial, as I had that at hand even before the pierce, but before I used a saline solution provided by the shop I was pierced in. Yeah, it was Claire's. Yes, I used a gun. Again, I'm a chicken.)

It takes a month to two months, or six to eight weeks to be able to change the ring, but its strongly advised to keep an earring at all times for a year. If any problems occured, the woman who pierced me said to call her rather than mess with the earring or take it out. I don't know where you want yours done, but I think they would give the same advice. It makes sense, especially if you haven't had such an earring before.

Cheers. Don't know what good this will do, I only have six piercings total. But someday I shall be a scholar of knowledge in that area, if things go my way.

~Knowledge

I know this one was from awhile back, and everything but...


DO NOT let it heal as an orbital, my friend did this, and major problems, it didn't heal and she eventually lost it. Let it heal as two lobe piercings, and then once healed, but in the orbital.

Cartilage: I have an industrial in my right ear, and it healed absolutely beautifully. At the place where I go to get pierced, they let it heal with two rings, and then put in the barbell after. After awhile with the barbell though, I decided to put in rings. The rings did not go in very well after though, and tore open the inner helix hole. It ended up having a small hypertrophic scar (very common in cartiledge piercings actually)

It's a lot better now, and the scarring is pretty much all gone, but I can only sleep on my right side if I have the barbell in, and even then, usually it will be tender to the touch if I do.

I'm looking into a rook piercing, or maybe a snug.
Apparently my rook may be a little small though to do it..