Rook piercing - hopefully 3rd time lucky!

[marls]

So after a disastrous couple of rook piercings on my right ear (both Blue Banana jobs that were done waayyy too deep and I had to end up taking out), I decided last Wednesday to give it one more try and get it done on my left ear this time.

I went to see Mike at Infinite Ink in Coventry and I couldn't recommend him highly enough. He was more than happy to answer my questions, and talked me through every step of what he was doing - for some reason I was really nervous and he helped put my mind at ease! I got marked up, and the placement was perfect first time. The piercing itself was way more painful than I remembered it being the first two times, but Mike had told me that he wanted to do it quite slowly as I have small ears, so that might have had something to do with it.

This is how it looked a couple of hours after getting it done: tinypic.com/r/240xjcg /8

I honestly couldn't be happier with it! It throbbed a bit on the first day but since then it's been pretty uneventful apart from the odd accidental bump. I did sea salt soak it for the first couple of days but now I'm trying to just LITHA, with a daily rinse in the shower. The problems with my previous two were caused by them being pierced too deep, so I'm hoping as this one is a lot shallower it should heal up fine if I treat it carefully. If everything goes fine then this'll be the last piercing on my left ear, as soon as I can sleep on my left side I'm planning on getting my forward helix and outer conch done on my right!

[Boo]

It looks lovely! So glad you found someone competent!

[marls]

Thanks Hazel!
It's been a week now since I had it done and the itchiness is starting to set in, does anyone know if sea salt soaks help with this?

[Boo]

Thanks Hazel!
It's been a week now since I had it done and the itchiness is starting to set in, does anyone know if sea salt soaks help with this?

It can do. I love to use emu oil for the itchies

[MrsLoveLace]

It looks lovely. I don't think my rook is as nicely formed as your's so maybe it wouldn't look as good as that.

[marls]

Thank you!!

[marls]

So after nearly 2 weeks my rook has flared up all of a sudden :( it's really painful and swollen, I've been doing sea salt soaks which give it some temporary relief but as soon as I stop the pain starts up again :(

[sweetpea]

Don't worry too much! My rook flared up quite often for no apparent reason within the first 6 months of having it, I had a horrendous bump on it too which refused to go. Keep persevering, it's still early days. Just don't overdo the SSS (ensure the correct salt:water is being used) and don't fiddle with it too much, if at all. It'll be fine

[Sassi]

All my piercings do that randomly for the first few months. It usually takes 6 months before mine settle down to just mild grumpiness level, until then they can swing from appearing almost healed to having bumps to being pretty tender and swollen. It's always the same lol. Cartilage can be a bitch...

[marls]

Thanks guys! This is reassuring I think since my last two went so badly I'm just getting super panicky about this one haha!