For the majority of people, a tragus piercing is on the more painful side of piercings due to the location and the technique use to pierce. However, this pain is short-lived and will quickly be replaced by excitement over your new piercing. 

The healing time for a tragus piercing is between 6 to 12 months. For the first 72 hours localised swelling, redness, a warm pulsing sensation and a small amount of bleeding are all completely normal.

During the 2 to 4-week mark you may still feel some faint pulsing and you can also still expect a fluid-like substance to expel from the ear and form a crust - especially at night as this is when most healing happens. It is extremely important to treat your piercing with care and do not touch it unless you are cleaning the area.

Between the 5 to 12-week mark although you may not be feeling any discomfort it is important to remember that the piercing channel will not be fully healed so we strongly advise that you avoid friction and irritation. Do not twist, push or pull the earring if possible. This is also the stage where it can be considered to downsize your post to promote faster healing.

The 3-month mark and beyond is where you must be patient and where most piercings are known to cause trouble. Although you may think that the piercing is fully healed and go ahead and change your jewellery early, it can cause infection and keloid-style scarring if changed too early. That is why our number 1 recommendation is to choose a piece of jewellery that you love for your initial piercing, downsize your post at the right time and wait the full recommended period before changing your stack. For a tragus piercing it is recommended that you wait a minimum of 9 months before you change your piercing jewellery over.

If you remove your jewellery from your piercing with out replacing it your piercings can close over in just a few hours so it is essential that you keep jewellery in the piercing at all times.