Posting this for some guidance on how to handle my tragus piercing that won’t stop giving me problems. So about 10/11 years ago I got my tragus pierced. I never really had any issues with it healing, but I took it out around 7 years ago when I had to get an MRI and never put it back in. I decided to get it repierced beginning of February and I keep having issues with it! Repierced with an 8mm threadless titanium labret (16g with 3mm disc) and 2mm gem end.

First week and a half I had no issues. Didn’t hurt at all, just a bit itchy. I would spray it 2x a day with NeilMed sterile piercing spray. I guess I hadn’t realized that it was pretty swollen. It looked normal from the front and didn’t hurt so I didn’t take a look at the inside for a couple days, I just continued with spraying 2x a day (I know, I got lazy and just assumed it was fine. I should have been inspecting it every day). Well, I guess it had been pretty swollen without realizing. 2 weeks ago I woke up and my piercing was gone! I reached up to scratch the side of my face and couldn’t feel the stud of my piercing. I was so confused and my first thought was that the stud must have gotten loose and fell off. Inspected my bed and couldn’t find anything. Then I went to look in the mirror and saw the flat back hanging out the back. I touched the front of where my piercing was supposed to be and it felt hard so I started freaking out realizing that my ear had swallowed my entire piercing. I tried to push it out the front but it started to bleed and I didn’t want to fuck it up even more. I went back to the piercing shop the same morning, told them what was happening and at first they didn’t think it got embedded, but once I got in the chair the piercer confirmed that it was embedded and that she could feel the stud in there. She told me that she would try to push it back up through the front and replace it with a longer bar. Well, after poking around a bit and getting ahold of the flat back with the forceps, the entire piercing just fell out the back of the piercing, stud and all 🥲 She asked me if I wear over the ear headphones or had hit my ear because it looked like it had been physically pushed in I guess? I have no idea. I haven’t used headphones since before I got this piercing. The only thing I can think of is I must have done it in my sleep, but I feel like I would have felt that? I’m now worried that maybe my body was rejecting it. Either way, with how swollen my piercing was, it needed to be switched with a longer post. It was angry, swollen and had a bit of yellow pus. She switched it out for a 13mm post so it would have room to heal from the swelling. At first I wanted to just have it removed, but she advised me that it would be safer to keep the bar in while it heals and I should avoid touching it as much as possible (do saline spray only once a day, otherwise just run it under water gently when I take a shower). She said pus didn’t necessarily mean it was infected but if I had any pain and the swelling got worse I should probably see a doctor for antibiotics. I decided to wait until the next day just to see how it was doing with the new bar because I noticed the swelling was already going down and I literally had zero pain. After a few days of the swelling going down I thought I was in the clear and could finally get back on track with it healing. I sleep on a neck pillow every night and LITFA!

This is where I’m at today. It’s been around 2 weeks since the whole embedding incident. I still have the irritation bump, no pain. I have been leaving it alone, as my piercer suggested, but the issue is I have quite a bit of crusty buildup on the back where the irritation bump is. It kind of looks like a scab and then has some gunky buildup of pus or skin cells? I have been running it under water when I take a shower and spray it with the saline, but I was scared that using a qtip would irritate it more. After reading some posts on the sub I decided to attempt to clean off the crusties last night after I showered. I put my ear under the shower head for about 30 seconds and when I got out and looked in the mirror, it was still there so I sprayed a qtip with the saline spray and tried to kinda rub off the crusties. STILL WOULD NOT COME OFF!! I kept trying to clean the bar but I think I moved it around too much and it made my ear even more irritated so I left it for the day. I woke up with morning with yellow bloody pus coming out the front of my piercing and the skin looked a bit flakey. I slept with the neck pillow and woke up in the same position so I don’t think I slept on it. I gently dabbed it with a paper towel and sprayed the front and back with saline spray. Now I’m nervous that it’s infected because of the pus. I already had an unrelated appointment scheduled with my doctor tomorrow so I’ll bring it up to her and see what she thinks. Idk, I still think it’s just super irritated because I have no throbbing pain, it just feels kinda itchy. This is the only time I’ve noticed pus since it got embedded so I assume it’s just really really irritated. I’m just sick of this piercing and want to take it out, but that probably isn’t a good idea. 

Would love to hear some suggestions. Should I try again to remove the crusty gunk? I was worried that it was dark pus, but I think it’s a combo of a scab, dry blood, and skin cells, but if you think that isn’t the case let me know if I should be doing something differently 😅 it still doesn’t hurt at all. I just don’t know if I should try to clean the gross stuff off the back or just leave it alone again? I’ll provide an update after I see my doctor tomorrow. 

Pic 1: few days after getting it pierced

Pic 2: embedded piercing

Pic 3: after going to piercing shop to have it replaced with 13mm post

Pic 4: scab/buildup before trying to clean it off last night (wet from shower)

Pic 5: pus and blood I noticed after waking up

Pic 6: a couple hours after gently cleaning up the pus this morning and sprayed with sterile saline 

**Age**: 1 month 

**Jewelry**: 13mm titanium threadless labret with 4 mm disc and 2mm gem

**Upsized**: originally pierced with 8mm titanium threadless labret with 3mm disc and 2mm gem

**Aftercare**: past 2 weeks I have been gently running under water in shower and spraying with sterile saline spray once a day

**Unfortunate events:** became embedded 2 weeks after getting piercing. It has now been 2 weeks since changing jewelry. Attempted to clean it last night with qtip but it became irritated

Tragus issues after getting embedded