What it's like Having Cauliflower Ear

By: Cole Negen


“Harvard Medical School.” Harvard Medical School, Getty Images.

      It’s a very common problem amongst wrestlers past and present. Cauliflower ear is, in my own description, a build-up of cartilage, blood, and puss in the ear because of repeated trauma, causing deformity. Many people deal with it, some in both ears. Luckily I have only ever dealt with it in my right ear. In wrestling practice, I used to never wear my headgear. No one ever did, it was kind of just something you could do if you wanted, but most people didn’t because of how hot it can get in the wrestling room, and having your headgear on just kind of adds to that heat. Initially, when I got it, I thought it was just a zit in my ear. I tried popping it but that just caused a lot of pain. It was very small at the time. As practices went on, it got bigger, and bigger, to the point where it was hard to ignore. My Dad was the first to spot it. It was on the inner part of my ear, and just looks like sac of blood bulging out of your ear at first. The first time we drained it, I was anxious. I didn’t know how much it would hurt or how long it would take to drain it. It turns out, when it was as puffed up and large as it was, it was pretty painless. I didn’t even feel the needle break my skin. My Mom drained a whole needle full, and there was still some to spare. When it was a lot smaller, it hurt quite a bit when it was put back in. So we did this process probably upwards of 10 times throughout last wrestling season. Before the season ended, it just stopped filling up. That was a huge relief. Finally I could stop taking time to worry about my stupid cauliflower ear. So now for the rest of my life I will have a deformed, ugly ear. I’m not ashamed of it though. It’s kind of like a right of passage that I can share with people who have also wrestled. People can look at it and in a way they can kind of get a small glimpse of who I am, which I think is pretty cool. It is very unique as well. No one else has an ear that looks like mine, and unlike most other wrestlers, I only got it in one ear. So I have one “stupid” ear, as I like to say, and one normal ear. Of course I would not suggest getting cauliflower ear, because it is just unpleasant and inconvenient, but having a weird looking ear for the rest of my life is alright with me.