So I have never had any kind of piercing other than the ones in my ears that I got from Claire’s when I was 5. But for quite some time now, I’ve been really wanting an industrial piercing.

I’m the kind of person who wants cool piercings and tattoos but I give myself constant anxiety about the pain and possible infections. So what I’m hoping some people here can help me out on is if I were to get one, how do I take care of it and keep it from getting the terrible infections that I’ve seen horrifying pictures of? And I know this is a bit of a stupid question, but where does this kind of piercing end up on the pain scale? Is it one of the more painful ones? Or is it one of the easier ones? I’ve had friends tell me that it’s not that bad because it’s all cartilage while other friends say I’ll be in pain for days. I’m very inexperienced in this kind of stuff so I really don’t know what I’m getting myself into.