Cartilage piercing is a popular form of ear piercing

The normal earlobe piercing has been popular for many decades in various civilizations, if not centuries. Wearing pierced earlobes to hold ornaments such as earrings and pendants is the most common form of body jewelry after finger 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 from skin and flesh like earlobes, but also from tough connective tissue meant to provide structure to your body’s features. Your joints use cartilage to protect your bones from abrasion when they rub against each other, and your rib cage contains a large amount of cartilage tissue. Regarding your face, your nose is mainly cartilage, as it is the main structure of your ear that is becoming increasingly popular for this type of decoration.

Cartilage piercing forms

Cartilage is more difficult to pierce than soft tissue in the earlobe and special care must be taken when piercing. 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 do so twice.

Shell
The conch gets its name from the shell it looks like. It is the central cartilaginous area of ​​the ear and is quite easy to pierce. If you decide to have conch rings, it is quite difficult to combine them with each other.

Tragus Piercing
A perforated tragus is another common form of cartilage piercing. The tragus is the triangular bump of cartilage near the cheekbone and slightly above the earlobe. This is a fairly thick piece of cartilage, so perhaps it has become relatively popular as an alternative to other parts of the ear. It is commonly decorated with rings, bars, and drink bars.

Cartilage piercing pain

The pain involved in cartilage piercing depends on the location, the diameter of the gem, and whether the tissue is pierced once or twice. The orbital and industrial styles are double perforated and are more painful than the simple ones. Even if you don’t feel much during the process itself, you will know it during 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 delay the healing process. You can wait anywhere from 2 months to a year for a cartilage piercing to heal completely, and it is important that you keep your jewelry on while it is healing; 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 can also use a commercial solution such as H2Ocean.

Other tips

Cartilage piercing should be done with a needle and by a professionally trained piercer. A gun can cause great cartilage damage and serious scarring. Never try it yourself, go to a professional body piercer who must be professionally trained.