Cauliflower ear: it sucks.

Twice this year I've had to have an auricular hematoma repaired, once on each of my ears. Hematoma is a fancy way of saying "blood blister" or "blood bubble" on my ear. Essentially, during practice, either through a blow to the ear, or from shearing motions against the ear, the skin of your ear separates from your ear's cartilage, and a bubble of blood or plasma forms between your skin and your cartilage. When you get this injury, you have from 3-5 days to get the bubble drained, or the cartilage in that part of your ear dies, and the bubble fills itself with scar tissue. The bubbly scars are what makes up what people call cauliflower ear.

The picture shows my ear after an ear nose and throat guy repaired it. There are stitches through my ear holding two pads in place. The pads keep my ear's skin and cartilage pressed together so that they'll reconnect, and so that new fluid and or scar tissue doesn't accumulate. The whole thing hurt: getting the pads/stitches hurt, they hurt while they were in, and getting them removed hurt.

I now wear wrestling headgear to prevent further injury. I have Cliff Keen tornados, as they're comfy, and don't affect my hearing.