"Ouch!"

Thursday, April 2, 2009
9:24 am Late.

I have some sad news. I took out my cartilage piercing. For good. (I can see my mother jumping up and down right now...)

I pierced my cartilage second semester of my freshman year at a Claire's boutique in Downtown Crossing. Maria stood by for moral support, and we got dinner in a sketchy food court after the ordeal was over. Ironically, I provided her with moral support that same year when she got a tattoo on her wrist. She's currently undergoing laser surgery to have it removed. We helped each other make some dumb decisions freshman year.

Anyway, I loved my piercing. If I could, I'd have at least 7 piercings, but I've had to face the truth - my body doesn't like when I shove precious metals into it. For example, shortly after I got my cartilage piercing it became infected. Crazy infected. Like ear swollen, running a fever, swollen glands infected. I refused to take the piercing out, even though my ear had swollen up around the earring, so it became embedded in my ear. A doctor at Student Health prescribed me antibiotics, which eventually cleared up the infection, but also caused a brutal yeast infection (too much information? DEAL.).

For the past three years, the piercing has been getting infected every other week, no matter how often I clean it. I haven't been able to sleep on my left side. Every morning I have to pop my earring out of where it's become embedded in my cartilage. I have a bump of scar tissue on the back of my ear where the earring stud sticks through. It's been a struggle.

So the other night, after I had cleaned my ear and the earring and was fighting to shove the earring back through my poor ear, I thought why? Why are you doing this to yourself? Blood was starting to drip as I stabbed myself in the ear, and I looked at myself in the mirror, my face contorted in pain, and I just stopped. I slowly put the earring down, grabbed a tissue for my ear, and stood there, looking at the bloody hole I had created in my cute little ear. I was done.

Now I have a scar on my ear and a lone diamond earring on my dresser -- two things (scars and diamonds) that last forever and will serve as a reminder of an important lesson...

There are things in life you'll want, and you'll fight and suffer to keep them, only to realize you're much happier without.

Love,
Tara