My second cartilage piercing hurt for a long time, Amy. Did you get yours done with a gun or a needle? That's why I'm delaying so long on the third--want to get it done with a needle, so the cartilage doesn't get smashed.
Also, it was a true pain finding the right comfortable earring for them. The silver's looking a little tarnished, but I really don't want to have to wrestle the damned sleepers back in again. Getting the holes accustomed to the slight curve was a bitch. But posts had backs, and the backs drove into my skull.
It was a gun. And I'm wearing white gold in it now, and keeping it scrupulously clean, and using the antibiotic ointment, but I still have to take it out at night to sleep on that side of my head.
And after three months of not, my neck was completely jacked, so.
After years of not wearing any, I can still put earrings in all of my ear piercings! But now they're mostly a little irritated. Ah well. Science!
I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but I always wear earrings. Love them.
I'm a notoriously slow healer. My "bad" cartilage piercing was sensitive for over a year. The good one, where the cartilage didn't get smooshed too hard by the gun, was only sensitive for a month or two. Both more troublesome than earlobes. But I'm still convinced three is the right number of holes up there.
I started wearing earrings in my lobe piercings when I started at the job again, and had just about gotten them back to the point of no soreness (after not wearing any when unemployed, because why wear earrings when you don't leave home?), and then I got distracted.
Next week, earrings every day, dammit. Maybe even in every piercing.
Weirdly, even if I'm in sweats with no makeup on, I have earrings in, all four holes. And now the cartilage piercing, of course.
Silver hoops stay in my 2nd and 3rd holes, just like my silver necklace and 3 silver rings don't come off (unless necessary). The bottom holes are empty or match my outfit.
I had to work hard not to take off my wedding ring every night for the first few years. I like jewelry enough but I want it *off* when I take off my dressy clothes.
I got my ears pierced as a reward for my first penance when I was seven. Right after my Hail Marys or whatever, my parents took me to JCPenneys.
I put a second hole in my own left ear when I was 13 because my mom wouldn't let me get it done. I took a pin off of my jean jacket (a silver phoenix with turquoise that I still have) and stuck it into my earlobe. No alcohol, no ice. Miraculously, I never got an infection. I covered it up with my hair. I'm sure my mom knew, but she let it slide.
I got my cartilage pierced in my left ear in college at a Piercing Pagoda in the mall. I never felt it, and it never gave me any problems.
