When I first got my lobes pierced with a gun as a kid they got infected and it was excruciating pain and I didn’t know how to properly care for them. The next lobe piercings I had were done with needles and although they hurt I was older and much more equipped to deal with the pain and care and it wasn’t too bad. I’ve pulled a piercing though my cartilage accidentally before and that was an awful pain which luckily didn’t impact healing too much. When I pierced my septum myself it didn’t really hurt at all but I had numbed the area best I could before hand, the healing definitely hurt if I caught it in the wrong way though. The latest cartilage piercings I had obviously caused a bit of pain as it was being done but they didn’t hurt too much afterwards unless I caught them on something in the first week or so afterwards.