It's right in the middle of your auricle: the conch piercing. But did you know that a piercing through the flat part of your auricle is also called a conch piercing? How is a conch piercing done, what types of conch piercings are there and what about healing? Questions that we can answer for you, so read on!
What is a Conch Piercing?
A conch piercing is a piercing that goes through your auricle, usually in the deep, cup-shaped part of the inner auricle. The piercing goes through the thickest part of the cartilage in your ear.
Inner, outer?
Inner or outer conch, you may come across both terms when you search for conch piercings. An inner conch piercing is therefore really in the inner part of your auricle, while an outer conch piercing is in the outer, flat part of your auricle. Not quite the same as a helix piercing (this one is actually against the curled edge -aka the helix- of your ear), but close to it.
How is the conch piercing done?
Your piercer will first determine the desired location together with you. Important questions that need to be answered are:
Do you wear glasses regularly?
What kind of jewelry do you want to wear eventually?
Are you going for an inner or outer conch piercing?
Once all these questions have been answered, your piercer will clean the location, mark it and pierce it with a sharp needle. The jewelry will then be placed, usually with a bar with more than enough length. After a long healing period, this bar can be exchanged for a shorter bar or ring.
Glasses and conch piercings
If you wear glasses, you need to take the placement of your conch piercing into account. The legs of your glasses can touch the piercing, which is certainly not pleasant in the beginning. A good piercer will of course check this thoroughly in advance and if your optician is also super cool, they may also be willing to help you adjust the bend of the legs. No worries, there are plenty of options to combine the conch piercing with wearing glasses.
Healing period
A conch piercing is a cartilage piercing, and cartilage piercings have a longer healing period. Cartilage heals more slowly than piercings that are placed in softer tissue (with better blood circulation). You should therefore often take into account a healing period of at least 6-9 months. Don't worry if that period takes a bit longer, that happens more often. As an aftercare method, you can choose a (warm) saline solution for your piercings, or use a mild piercing soap from EasyPiercing, for example. In general, your piercing will heal well with a cleaning routine of 1x per day. If you use soap, you can choose to do this in the shower, then you don't have to struggle with a crooked head under the tap.
And as with all piercings: during the healing period it is important that you keep your piercing out of the sun as much as possible and do not go bathing/swimming or to the sauna with it to prevent infections.
Cartilage bumps
It can happen that after a while you suddenly see a bump appear around your conch piercing. Not nice of course, but it happens regularly. There can be several causes for these bumps, but in general these bumps are caused by a small bacterial infection or by excessive scar tissue. In both cases it is often just a matter of bad luck, because due to the longer healing time a conch piercing is exposed to all kinds of external influences that can cause a bump. Usually such a bump does not look very nice, but you do not have much trouble with it. Sometimes they can be a bit sensitive or itchy, as soon as you notice that you are getting more bothered by it, it is important that you check it with your piercer or GP of course.
You can try to get rid of the bump yourself by using a warm saline solution and compresses, which you gently press on the bump. The Silicone Healing Discs can also help to make the bump disappear faster. If you want to be completely ready right away, order our Piercing First Aid Kit especially for cartilage bumps. In any case, always make sure that you wear good piercing jewelry that offers room for any swelling during healing, but is certainly not too big.
Which jewelry is suitable?
Usually, a standard 1.2 mm or 1.6 mm jewelry is chosen for the piercing, preferably a barbell. A barbell bar with ample length to absorb any swelling is perfect for this. After the healing period, you can switch to a shorter piercing jewelry that fits a little better. For inner conch piercings, rings are of course also an option. In our shop you will find a gigantic collection of conch piercing jewelry, with barbells, click rings and more. Our Swarovski Click Rings are incredibly popular with conch piercing wearers!
Do you have any questions? Please feel free to contact us!
Telephone: 072-7370119
Whatsapp: 06 4049 4149
Email: info@alloverpiercings.nl
