An anti-tragus piercing sits in the small cartilage bump directly opposite your tragus, just above your lobe. It is much less known than the tragus piercing, it hurts a bit more, and not every ear is suited to it. In return, you hardly see it anywhere, and that is what makes it fun. Below, you can read where it sits, how healing goes, and what you can wear in it.
What is an anti-tragus piercing?
The anti-tragus is the small cartilage bump at the bottom of your ear, directly above where your lobe starts. You find it by moving your finger up from your lobe: the first hard edge you feel, that is it. The tragus sits directly opposite, on the other side of the notch.
A piercer places the anti-tragus piercing straight through that bump. Because it is a compact piece of cartilage with little room around it, this is typically a piercing where the anatomy of your ear decides whether it can be done. More on that further down.
Anti-tragus or tragus: what is the difference?
The difference between a tragus and an anti-tragus is the spot, and with that almost everything around it. The tragus sits in front of your ear canal and is the flap you press when you block your ear. The anti-tragus sits opposite that, at the bottom.
| Tragus | Anti-tragus | |
|---|---|---|
| Place | Flap in front of the ear canal | Bump above the lobe, opposite it |
| Pain (scale 1 to 10) | 4 to 6 | 5 to 7 |
| Healing | 6 to 9 months | 6 to 12 months |
| Standard jewellery | Flatback stud | Curved barbell |
| Suitable for every ear | Almost always | Far from always |
| Visibility | Clearly visible from the front | Subtle, you only notice it up close |
Torn between the two? The tragus is safer as a first cartilage piercing, simply because there is more tragus jewellery available and the spot works for almost everyone.
How painful is an anti-tragus piercing?
An anti-tragus piercing hurts more than a lobe and a bit more than a tragus. Most people place it around a 5 to 7 on a scale of 10. That comes from the cartilage: it is thick and compact there, and there is little tissue around it to take the pressure.
The prick itself lasts two or three seconds. What comes after is worse: a throbbing, warm feeling that lasts a few days and that you notice most at night. Sleeping on that side does not work for the first weeks.
Honestly, the pain during placement is not what people complain about. The bother sits in the months after, because an anti-tragus stays sensitive for a long time to knocks, headphones and earrings that rub against it. If you want to know how it compares with the rest of your ear, look at our pain scale per ear piercing.
How long does healing take?
Count on six to twelve months before an anti-tragus piercing is fully healed. Cartilage has a poor blood supply and therefore recovers slowly, and this spot also takes a lot of mechanical stress.
What you can roughly expect:
- Week 1 to 3: swelling, redness, a throbbing feeling. Your ear feels warm.
- Month 1 to 3: the swelling goes down, some fluid still appears now and then, and crusts can form. A small bump on one side is not odd in this phase.
- Month 4 to 12: on the outside it looks healed, but the channel is not closed on the inside yet. This is exactly the phase in which people start changing jewellery too early.
Clean twice a day with a sterile saline solution of 0.9% NaCl and otherwise touch it as little as possible. The full routine is in our guide on cleaning a piercing. If you want to know when you can change it safely, read that in when you can change your piercing. For the official hygiene rules a studio has to follow, go to the RIVM hygiene guideline for piercing.
Not every ear is suited, and that is not a sales pitch
For an anti-tragus piercing you need a bump that sticks out enough to wear jewellery. For many people the anti-tragus is too flat or too small, and then the jewellery sits tight against the skin, presses, and grows out over time.
A good piercer feels it, looks at the angle and says honestly when it cannot be done. If you get an immediate yes without anyone looking, find another studio. And if you are told it will not work: the rook piercing, the conch and the forward helix sit in the same corner of the ear and give a similar effect.
Which jewellery fits an anti-tragus piercing?
A fresh anti-tragus piercing calls for a curved barbell. It follows the shape of the bump, leaves room for swelling and presses nowhere. We do not sell those, so you get one from your piercer. That is also exactly how it should be: the first piece of jewellery comes from the studio that places the piercing.
Once your anti-tragus has healed, you can switch to a small ring. A hoop of 8 mm sits neatly around the bump and is the most worn choice after healing. From our cartilage hoops, these three work best in this spot:
- Cartilage Hoop 8 mm, 118 euro. Clean and quiet, the safest first choice.
- Single Huggie 8 mm, 126 euro. A slightly firmer line, it closes tight around the cartilage.
- Single Diamond Huggie 8 mm, 147 euro. The same size, with a lab-grown Diamond on the front.
Everything at Eline Rosina is Solid recycled 14k gold. That is not a luxury argument but a practical one: there is no nickel in it, it does not tarnish, and cartilage that is recovering for months tolerates it better. What we do not have are curved barbells, clickers, titanium and silver, so if that is what you are looking for, a piercing studio is a better place.
Surface tragus and vertical tragus: the other variants
A surface tragus piercing does not go straight through the cartilage. It runs just under the skin of the tragus, with two visible ends. It is also called a vertical tragus when the placement stands upright. It looks clean, but there is a catch: surface piercings grow out more often than piercings that go through something, because the body treats the bar as a splinter.
On top of that you need a surface bar, a specially shaped bar that you cannot simply replace with ordinary jewellery. If you still want it, have it done by someone with proven experience in surface work, and keep in mind that the piercing will not stay in forever.
The double tragus, two holes one under the other in the same tragus, is the easiest variant of the three. We cover that in the tragus blog.
How you combine an anti-tragus in your ear stack
The anti-tragus sits low in your ear and fills a spot that stays empty in most ear stacks. That makes it interesting, because it pulls attention downward instead of toward the edge.
What works well:
- Anti-tragus plus tragus. Two small points that frame the notch of your ear. Keep them the same size, otherwise it gets restless.
- Anti-tragus plus lobe. The calmest combination, especially if you already wear something small in your lobe. For that lower layer, look at stacked lobe piercings.
- Anti-tragus plus helix. At the bottom and at the top, with nothing in between. That gives air. For this, see the helix piercings.
If you are still working out your whole ear, the overview of all ear piercings from Eline Rosina helps you see what fits where.
Frequently asked questions about the anti-tragus piercing
What is an anti-tragus?
The anti-tragus is the small cartilage bump at the bottom of your ear, just above your lobe and directly opposite the tragus. You feel it as the first hard edge when you move up from your lobe. How pronounced that bump is varies a lot from person to person, and that decides whether a piercing can go in.
Is an anti-tragus piercing painful?
An anti-tragus piercing is more painful than a lobe and a bit more painful than a tragus, usually a 5 to 7 on a scale of 10. The needle goes through thick, compact cartilage, so the prick is short but firm, and after that it throbs for a few days. Sleeping on that side does not work for the first weeks.
What is the difference between a tragus and an anti-tragus piercing?
The difference between a tragus and an anti-tragus piercing is the spot in your ear: the tragus sits in the flap in front of your ear canal, the anti-tragus in the bump opposite it, above your lobe. The anti-tragus hurts a bit more, takes longer to heal and does not fit every ear. In a tragus you wear a Flatback stud, in an anti-tragus a curved barbell.
How long does an anti-tragus piercing take to heal?
Healing an anti-tragus piercing takes six to twelve months. Cartilage has a poor blood supply, and this spot takes a lot from headphones, pillows and other jewellery. After three to four months it often feels healed already, but inside the tissue is not closed yet. So do not change it too early.
Which jewellery fits an anti-tragus piercing?
During healing, a curved barbell fits an anti-tragus piercing, because it follows the shape of the bump and leaves room for swelling. Once the piercing has healed, you can switch to an 8 mm ring, for example a cartilage hoop or huggie in 14k gold. We do not sell curved barbells ourselves. You get those from your piercer.
Can everyone get an anti-tragus piercing?
Not everyone can get an anti-tragus piercing, because you need a bump that sticks out far enough. If your anti-tragus is flat or tiny, the jewellery presses against the skin and eventually grows out. An experienced piercer feels it and says honestly when it is better not to.
What is a surface tragus piercing?
A surface tragus piercing runs just under the skin of the tragus instead of straight through it, with two visible ends at the surface. It is also called a vertical tragus when it stands upright. Surface piercings grow out more often than piercings that go through, so only have it placed by a piercer with proven experience in surface work.
Which piercing hurts the most in the ear?
The piercings that hurt the most in the ear sit in the thickest cartilage: the rook, the daith and the anti-tragus. The lobe hurts the least, because there is soft tissue there with a good blood supply. In our pain scale per ear piercing, each type is listed in order, from mild to sharp.