Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Tragus: A body Piercing Tale

So, if you know me, I've had my tragus pierced for about 5 months now. The tragus is the flap of cartilage over your ear hole. I had seen this piercing on a couple of people and thought it looked cool. You can never have too much "ear bling" lol. Anyhow, my tragus was pierced with a captive bead ring which is a small ring with a snap on ball. I truly think the ring was bumping the piercing around and causing it to bump and swell. Also, the ring wasn't really my style and I wanted it out!

Tragus: A body Piercing Tale

It's not recommended that you try to take this ring out yourself because 1, it's really hard to do with such a small ring and 2, you could seriously rip your ear up. So, I went looking for places around here to get it changed to a bioflex labret stud. (I got it pierced at school and I'm at home now) Bioflex is a flexible plastic material that's great if you have sensitivity to certain metals. A labret is any flat backed stud. These are commonly used in oral piercings. Bioflex labret studs are especially good for protecting your teeth from scraping metal.

I went several places, but the piercer wasn't there, they didn't do piercing, or they flat out didn't want to put in a bioflex piece. I was frustrated so I looked up how to remove the captive bead ring on YouTube and took the plunge. It snapped out after a while, but I COULD NOT get the bioflex in! I had to ask my mom, who didn't want me to get the piercing in the first place, to help. She got it in after much blood and soreness. Yes, there was blood!


Now that the labret has been in a while, the swelling and bumps from the months of wearing the ring has subsided. I think anyone wanting to get this piercing should get it done with something straight. I love my tragus and think the new heart shaped labret is cute. Once I feel it has healed enough from the ring I may go out and get more at Claire's. They now carry little packs of bioflex labrets. I got 2 studs for $12.99 someplace else, but at Claire's that same price will get me 3x as many.

Tragus: A body Piercing Tale

Get a stud similar to the one pictured here!

What is YOUR tragus story? Are you looking into getting your tragus pierced?

KAYLA


5 comments:

christy said...

Hi, I was just googling how to take out the tragus captive bead ring, and found your blog. I had my tragus piercing for about two months now, and I wanted to change it to a labret stud.. cuz the ring didn't really suit my style.. haha. I took out the bead, but couldn't take out the ring. I feel like the ring made a lot of swelling in my ear as well.. and it's too thick for me to take out the ring. I was reading your blog, and it seems like you had a similar issue. Have any tips on taking it out? I tried stretching the ring, but it didn't budge at all :(

Kayla said...

I hope you come back and check this Christy! :-) Anywho, you just have to rotate the ring until the open ends are on either side of your tragus and pull it back from there. If you can't do that then there is way to much swelling going on for you to be trying to remove it yourself. If that's the case you have two options:

1. Go into hyper mode with the care.
No dirty hands touching it, saline solution, the whole nine yards until that swelling subsides

2. Go back to the place you got it pierced.
They will be more than happy to remove the ring and put in a bar.

I hope I've helped you. ^_^

christy said...

Thanks! I guess it's too early for me to take it out. I tried rotating it and pulling it out, but it got stuck on one end, due to the swelling.. :(

Anyways, thanks again!

Amanda Nodurft said...

I have mine pierced with a cbr, and I also feel that the ring is causing more harm than help. I tried to change it to a labret, and had no problem getting the cbr out, but I can't get the labret all the way through. I could find the hole from the back fine, but since its been healing curved i can't get the straight one through. Do you have any tips on switching from curved to straight?

Kayla said...

I answered your question in a coming post so that it may help others, but I'm answering it here just for you...

I definitely know what you mean about the curving of the piercing as it heals! I have to wonder what kind of labret you are trying to wear. I switched to a BIOFLEX labret from my CBR, which is a flexible, plastic type of labret that you can get online, at Claires, and in stores like Spencers and Hot Topic. This labret can get in a curved piercing and bend however it is bending. I noticed that my BIOFLEX bar was curved when I first put it in. It has since straightened out. If you want to go the metal route, you may want to look into a curved barbel.

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