Tragus Piercings Are Everywhere Right Now — But Should You Get One?

“Any piercing runs the risk of infection, bumps such as keloids, scarring, allergic reactions, tearing, and rejection (some people’s bodies try and push the piercing out of the ear),” says Dr. Michael Jacobs, medical technology director at Cortina and clinical associate professor of dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College. 

Though the risks for a tragus piercing are relatively low, Jacobs does have a few guidelines for when to reach out to a board-certified dermatologist post-piercing. “If the pain starts to worsen over time or it is constantly painful for over a week after the piercing you should probably visit your doctor,” he says. If the piercing starts to look or feel infected — which can mean profuse bleeding, unbearable pain, dark pus, and a warm, throbbing feeling, visit your doctor immediately. 

Don’t believe the urban legends about nerves possibly getting hit during a tragus piercing. “I’ll say in over a decade of piercing, I have never ever had anyone have any serious issue with their tragus piercings,” Castillo says. “I think a lot of that stuff was just spread by people who don’t want your ears to look pretty.”

The short answer: Tragus piercings, and most cartilage piercings, take about three to six months on average to heal, while tragus piercings tend to take at least four months.

“There’s healed, and then there’s fully healed,” says Kelly. “When a piercing is fully healed, you can take an earring out for a long time and the hole won’t close up.” The average healing time for most cartilage piercings is about three to six months, but Kelly says the tragus tends to take a minimum of four months. It’ll take even longer before you can take your earring out without worrying about the hole closing up — or, depending on the elasticity of your skin, your tragus may never get to that point. If you’d like to remove your piercing but retain the ability to put jewelry in later, pay a visit to your piercer, who can help you predict whether it will be possible.

Because many of us listen to music with earphones or headphones regularly, Pearce says special care should be taken. “The contact and pressure on the healing piercing will cause complications such as angle-shifting and even bacterial infections,” he says. He advises switching to over-the-ear headphones, which cause less disruption than AirPods or earbuds. Akhavan recommends avoiding using earphones for the first at least four to eight weeks, though ideally until the area is completely healed.