This is my third experience I have written for BME in the past.... 7 (or so)... months, and I have written about the piercing of my inner conch, and the piercing of tragus. A little about myself: my name is Andrew, though I am commonly referred to as "ATV" (Andrew the vegan). I have been vegan since 8th grade, and I am currently attending NW school of the arts in charlotte North Carolina, and I live in Huntersville (NC). I am gay. Piercings mean a lot to me, and I don't get piercings "just to get pierced." Each of my piercings is important to me, and I would normally never give one of them up for anything...Usually.It all starts in September of 2001, when I got my inner conch pierced. When that happened, I thought of a trio of piercings that I wanted in my ears to complete the "look" I was after. That pretty means nothing more than the fact that I wanted these three piercings, and I wanted those and all of them in a short matter of time. The three piercings that I wanted were my left inner conch (pierced in September) my right tragus (pierced in December) and my right rook (pierced TODAY, 4-29-02.) in December when I was going to get both my rook and my tragus pierced, but between the piercer and my mom, I only could get one. I chose my tragus, and my mom assured me that I would be coming back soon for my rook.Did she follow through?Yea right. That's a mom for you. Anyway, she's the best, but she pisses me off terribly when it comes to piercings. I want to have so many, and quite large plugs, but we both agree on moderation. Just her view of moderation is a bit different than mine! (About the stretched lobes, its in my best interest to hold off on those: I need to know what I am going to do with my life, job-wise, before I make any permanent decisions, such as huge drooping lobes, lol) I am not going to get into the long, tedious, struggle between my mom and I to get my rook pierced, but her final came down to this: I take out one of my piercings, and then I can get my rook pierced. I was devastated. No. Rather, I was torn. Should I give up one piercing for another? I wanted my rook so very much, more than anything at this point, and my tragus seemed kind of normal. Not that that's a bad thing, its just.... I don't know.. I liked the fact that I know very little people with their rook or the ir inner conch pierced (especially at an 8 gauge, such as mine is.) I have a feeling that the tragus is going to become the next navel/tongue/ear rim... I don't like that, and I sure as Hell was not going to give up my first piercing ever, my inner conch. The tragus had to go.It was both physically and emotionally difficult to remove my tragus piercing. I had to get some of my dad's tools, wrapped in tape, to open the CBR, and well; I missed my piercing the second I took it out. I felt like for doing it. It's kind of like dating someone for 5 years, and then you meet someone hotter, so you dump the boyfriend. Well, that's a horrible analogy, but I am sure that anyone else who has removed a piercing before knows what I mean. On to the piercing! My mom picked me up at school early, and we were on our way to Ink Link, charlotte. On the way, I munched on a Luna bar (I hadn't eaten anything all day and I sure am not going to go and get my rook pierced on an empty stomach.) We got there, and I walked in and as usual my eyes searched the room for piercings. It what I do, it happens in every room I enter. My piercer, Elise I believe, had the biggest beautiful one-inch (or so) blue acrylic plugs. I almost melted. Not lustfully (I'm gay...) but I am so jealous, I want plugs just like that! One day my dream will come true, maybe.Anyway, so bla bla bla. I told Elsie what I wanted, filled out forms, the whole ID thing went down, etc. etc. then I went over to go look at the jewelry case, because I was looking for a 6 gauge earlet for my inner conch, and then all of a sudden elise and two other people behind the vounter were talking to me about my inner conch, and the size of it. Well, yea, I guess they don't see too many larger inner conches. Don't get my wrong, I don't get piercings for glory, but it feels neat to be asked questions and get the "wow" 's. 30 minutes later I am called back to get my rook pierced, and I end up going into the same room that I got my tragus pierced. Fun times, lol. The piercing itself was nothing, actually, nothing. My inner conch and my tragus both hurt more, but then again pain is relative, etc. etc. all I do is breath and I am fine! It was a lot of pressure, but nothing bad. I was inwardly smiling, from what my mom said. I guess I liked this pain. Its like I earned the piercing. Anyway, that's it. I paid and tipped Elise, and she was wonderful, sanitary, and nice. I will return for my next piercing. A vertical labret hopefully. I know that will take a lot of discussion with my mom, but I am ready  I will look hot with that thing, ha. My lips are full, etc. Feel free to IM me (Andrew the vegan) or email me (andrewthevegan @aol.com) -atv