Regular earlobe piercing has been popular for many decades in various civilizations, if not centuries. The use of pierced lobes to hold adornments such as earrings and pendants is the most common form of body jewelry after rings, although lately it has become fashionable to use other parts of the ear, or even the body, to differentiate yourself. The tragus was the obvious candidate for this, and tragus piercings have gained popularity in recent years.
What is cartilage piercing?
Cartilage is built, not just of skin and flesh as earlobes are, but also of tough connective tissue meant to give structure to your body’s features. Your joints use cartilage to protect the bones from abrasion when they rub against each other, and your ribcage contains a large amount of cartilaginous tissue. Regarding your face, your nose is mainly cartilage, as is the main structure of your ear, which is increasingly popular for this type of decoration.
Cartilage Piercing Shapes
The cartilage is more difficult to pierce than the soft tissue of the earlobe and special care must be taken when doing so. There are several forms of cartilage piercing that are commonly used, these being:
Propeller
Your helix is the outer edge of your ear, which curves back to form a sound channel, directing sound into the main part of your middle ear. A standard helix will penetrate the ear once, while an industrial piercing will penetrate it twice.
Shell
The conch gets its name from the seashell it resembles. It’s the central cartilaginous area of your ear, and fairly easy to pierce. If you decide to have conch rings, they are quite difficult to match with each other.
Tragus Piercing
A tragus piercing is another common form of cartilage piercing. The tragus is the triangular bulge of cartilage near the cheekbone and slightly above the earlobe. This is a fairly thick piece of cartilage, which is perhaps why it has only recently become popular as an alternative to other ear parts. It is commonly decorated with rings, bars, and tragus bars.
cartilage piercing pain
The pain involved in cartilage piercing depends on the location, the diameter of the jewelry, and whether the tissue is pierced once or twice. The orbital and industrial styles are double perforated and are more painful than the single. Even if you don’t feel much during the process itself, you will know it during the healing, but it’s worth it.
cartilage healing
The time it takes to heal again depends on where you are and how big the hole is. To facilitate healing, your jewelry must be sterile or a bacterial infection will slow the healing process. You can wait anywhere from 2 months to a year for a cartilage piercing to fully heal, and it’s important that you keep your jewelry on while it heals; they can be removed, just for a few minutes or so. to thoroughly wash and disinfect the wound.
A teaspoon of salt dissolved in a small cup of warm water is good for washing your ears, and you could also use a commercial solution like H2Ocean.
other tips
Cartilage piercing should be done with a needle and by a professionally trained piercer. A gun can cause extensive cartilage damage and poor healing. Never try this yourself but go to a professional body piercer who should be professionally trained.