Everything You Need To Know About Getting Your First Cartilage Piercing
Cartilage piercings are a great way to show off your individuality. Why not have your first cartilage piercing be your first step to your own uniqueness.
Nervous or Anxiety
Being nervous or having anxiety about your first cartilage piercing is completely normal. Think about it, you are inserting a foreign sharp object through your ear.
Go to a Professional
Make sure they have a good reputation. Do your research. You want your first cartilage piercing experience to be a good one, not one that will cause you harm in the future. Before piercing your ear a professional will put on gloves and sterilize your ear and their equipment. You and your piercer should agree on the location of your piercing. You shouldn’t feel forced to have your piercing in a location you don’t want. Your piercer will place a dot on where they are going to pierce, this is the final step before they pierce so make sure you are 100% sure about the location of the piercing. Once you are pierced you are pierced and there’s no going back.
Metal
Are you going to get stainless steel, nickel, gold or titanium? Nickel is a popular allergen for a lot of people, so you may want to steer away from nickel. This piece of metal is going to be in your ear for at least 6 months before changing to a new piece of jewelry.
Needle VS Gun
Gun, when the piercing goes through you, will hear a crunch sounds, heads up in case you get grossed out easily. Some states have banned piercing guns for ear cartilage because it is said to bring more trauma to your body than the needle. If this is not bad enough guns contain the remains of other people’s ear tissue before you. Gross. The hollow needles that are used are very sharp and your piercer will be more in control with the speed and puncture location.  Little to no pain is experienced with the needle than the gun.
Ask Questions
Ask questions before and after you get pierced. This is your body and your first cartilage piercing. This is not the time to be silent. Speak up.
Pain
The pain usually comes after the piercing is complete. Your ear may throb and have some discomfort for a while. For most people, the first 2 weeks are the worse, pain-wise. Your body is adjusting to a foreign object, so patience will help you get through this.
Time
It will take less than 30 seconds to pierce your cartilage. It will be over before you even know it.
Healing
Allow about 3 to 12 months, maybe even longer, to heal. Unfortunately, there’s no magic number. Discomfort is part of the healing process. While your piercing is going through the healing stage don’t touch it, you will only delay the healing process. To reduce the risk of infection, every time you touch your piercing make sure your hands are clean. The bigger the jewelry piece the longer it will take to heal.
Addicting
They say it’s a myth, but I believe it. Once you get one piercing you start wanting more. Not seriously, but more in the way that you will want more than one. Once you get the jitters and nervousness out from getting your first piercing you will become excited to get more. It has been said that after the first piercing your body then reaches a point of relaxation. There has not been proven research that piercings are addictive, but I know a very small amount of people that only have one piercing.
Jewelry
Changing out the jewelry can harm your ear if it’s not completely healed. Remember the internally the cartilage heals very slow. Changing out the jewelry can cause your body to reject the piercing, expose you to infection, or even a delay in the healing process. Once the healing time is done you can get varies types of jewelry, hoops, studs, and barbells.
Sleep
You will need to adjust if you sleep on the side with your fresh piercing. You can try sleeping on your back or on your opposite ear. Sleep can speed up the healing process, so get some extra shut-eye if you can. When you are sleeping, your body heals and recharges itself.
Clean It
This is very important to prevent infections and increasing your healing time. Cleaning requires more than just soap and water. Specific cleansing solution is not required. Clean your piercing twice a day. How you clean your first cartilage piercing is important as well. Clean each side of your cartilage with a cotton ball soaked in saline solution or with sea salt and hot water. Depending on the time of day you get your piercing you may need to clean it the same day you get it. Â Some cleansing solutions can decrease your healing time and reduce long-lasting soreness. The only time you should touch your fresh piercing is when you are cleaning it.
Infections
Infections in your cartilage can not only be super painful but can spread. So the 30-second piercing you got now is costing you more time and money to correct. Cartilage infections require a trip to the doctor ASAP because they are the worse infection you get in your ear from a piercing. You will know if you have an infection if there is drainage, bumps, excessive bleeding, swelling, itchiness, redness, or even if you develop a fever. If an infection is not bad enough your ear can end up permanently deformed.
Rejection
Rejection of any type sucks, and it can happen with your first cartilage piercing. No matter how you prepare yourself for the piercing and how often you clean it, rejection can still occur. Rejection can happen for many reasons; allergic reaction to metal, infection, improper placement of the piercing, and unfortunately so much more.
