Tragus - Am I doing something wrong?

Baffled

I got my tragus pierced about 6 weeks ago and its still really tender. I wash it twice a day with sea salt and boiled cooled water, as advised. Also it seems to be lower than it was. Am I doing something wrong?

Will

You are probly sleeping on it, same thing happend to me. I got it taken out cos it was moving. Go to your piercer, see what he/she says about it. If its moving theres probly no stopping it really

porn_star

yeah..go to your piercer..if your sleeping on it stop...but best to get your piercer to have a look at it...might just need another few weeks yet..

Baffled

Yeah it would probably be the best thing. I'll go back and see what she says. Really dont want to take it out though!

Baffled

Just a quick update - I didnt sleep on it at all last night and its not half as tender today. Think thats what was wrong in the first place. My pillow was just dragging it. Gonna make a concious effort to avoid sleeping on that side.

Will

If its moving though its probly gonna keep doing so until it falls out

squiiish

Was it pierced with a barbel or a ring ?
If it was done with a barbel you may need to get a shorter one - some times during the initial healing period you require a longer barbel to accomodate the swelling but as the swelling goes down you end up with excess length that catches more easily on pillows clothes etc. Might be worth dropping into a studio to see if it is healed enough for a shorter barbel.

Baffled

I have a ring not a barbel.

_sara_

i got mine done on saturday and i havnt slept on it and iv been cleaning it and haveny been touchig it and its fecking killing me!! and i tryed to take it out to squeeze it just incase but it wont come it!

Will

i had to go to my piercer to get mine out (stubby fingers ) there hard aul things to get out in all honesty

_sara_

bu the wierd thing is iv got a good grip on both ends but when i pull it it just wont move!!then ends up hurnting more! its gay!!! ut looks soo damn good

Baffled

I dunno whats wrong with mine. Now ive got this big lump on it. And every couple of days it fills up with pus or something. Think it might be some kind of drainage problem. Sudocreme usually reduces the swelling of the lump and drains it but if it doesnt clear up soon im gonna take it out.

Its not that sore anymore, the lump is just the problem!

_sara_

Baffled wrote:

I dunno whats wrong with mine. Now ive got this big lump on it. And every couple of days it fills up with pus or something. Think it might be some kind of drainage problem. Sudocreme usually reduces the swelling of the lump and drains it but if it doesnt clear up soon im gonna take it out.

Its not that sore anymore, the lump is just the problem!

thats what happened when i got the top of my ear done i just ignored it and its gone now!

porn_star

i know so many people who get that 'lump' on tragus piercings...or just cartilage piercings...there's no need to take it out...all you need to do is stop sleeping on it/playing with it/touching it with unclean hands...and keep cleaning it...it's go down in a week or so...

jimmidy_cricket

When I got my tragus done it was soooo sore for ages then got a lump on it and it kept getting bigger and bigger, like the size of a skittle, loads of people said to take it out but the golden rule with piercings is Do NOT remove the jewlerry until the wound is fully healed, I decided I'd leave it and if it got to the size of a malteaser (I love sweets sorry) I'd either get it lanced by a doc or go to a piercing studio, 1 person told me I migth have blood poisoning..talk about over reaction. Anyway I left it alone and then one day I was cleaning around the lump with a cotton bud and it exploded, god it was the most satisfiying thing ever. The amount of goo that came out was unreal, I was at it for ages with half a carton of cotton buds, it was excrutiating but damn it felt good getting that gunk out! If it gets really big put a little grermolene on it, its anticeptic (unfortunately I didn't have it when I de-gunked mine) so will take the edge off and also it'll soften the area so the crap can come out easier

Blub2k4

jimmidy_cricket wrote:

When I got my tragus done it was soooo sore for ages then got a lump on it and it kept getting bigger and bigger, like the size of a skittle, loads of people said to take it out but the golden rule with piercings is Do NOT remove the jewlerry until the wound is fully healed, I decided I'd leave it and if it got to the size of a malteaser (I love sweets sorry) I'd either get it lanced by a doc or go to a piercing studio, 1 person told me I migth have blood poisoning..talk about over reaction. Anyway I left it alone and then one day I was cleaning around the lump with a cotton bud and it exploded, god it was the most satisfiying thing ever. The amount of goo that came out was unreal, I was at it for ages with half a carton of cotton buds, it was excrutiating but damn it felt good getting that gunk out! If it gets really big put a little grermolene on it, its anticeptic (unfortunately I didn't have it when I de-gunked mine) so will take the edge off and also it'll soften the area so the crap can come out easier

You already had an encapsulated infection, or an abcess so i dont see what difference taking the jewellery out would have made in this case as you already had the situation that you were trying to avoid.
Hot compresses would have been the way to deal with it.
Generally the jewellery should not be removed but like I say there would have been no difference in your case as it could not have worsened from where you were already at.

jimmidy_cricket

Would it have done any good taking the ring out? Its gas im really quite squeamish when it comes to other people going at me so thats why I avoided the doc and even ther piercer, I had visions of rubber gloved hands pokeing and prodding at my very sensitve ear, pian I can handle, so long as I'm in control of it! The reason I didn't want to take it out was cause I figured I had already gone through so much pain, it'd be a shame if the cu*ting thing closed up and it was all for nothing.

Blub2k4

Normally the advice is to leave it in as the fistula (flesh tunnel) has the infection within it and when you remove the ring/bar both ends close up and the infection gets trapped inside, so normally you were right to leave it in. the thing is that it sounds like you already had a trapped infection or an abcess so taking it out would have made no difference in your case it would seem cos it was already trapped inside.
Personally if it gets bad I think go to a piercer, and if it's really bad a doctor, some disagree, but I'll go with the person who has 7 years experience of healing people rather than the person who learned how to poke holes in people in some backalley parlour and knowing how many of them have ANY idea of what they are doing, the only piercers I recommend are snakebite anyway.