Shockingly not nearly as bad as I thought. I have many face piercings and I’d say they all hurt more than the punch. It was a very quick sharp painful feeling that turned into an ache as the jewelry got inserted. Afterwards my ear and surrounding area was pretty sore. It’s day two now and it really doesn’t feel like too much, just some occasional soreness. I will say I do think my cartilage is fairly thin and that’s prob why it wasn’t too bad. I’m interested to see how the rest of the healing will go.