"Yeah, but you know what I've never done..."
At A Glance Author cheryl Contact cheryl@bme.anon IAM Born_blu When A month ago Artist Clem Studio Millenium Location Southampton I've never really felt very excited about ear piercings: I wasn't one of those girls that had to beg my mum to let me get my ears pierced; she got mine pierced as soon as my dad left when I was 2! So, it was hardly "wow, I'm special" at that age. So, anyways, by the time of my "first real ear piercing", I'd had my lobes pierced about 4 times in each ear, but never even wore earrings because they just weren't enough. (well, to be honest, I looked like a butch lesbian in earrings!)
Right, so, I never felt passionately about it, I never planned to get anything done in my ears, it was more of a "yeah, one day I guess", until I went to get my tongue ring changed. I turned up at the studio a week after the tongue rim piercing, expecting to get the ring taken down a few sizes – even though I knew I blatantly couldn't because of the massive keloid – but I figured I'd try. He wouldn't, obviously, and I felt as if my trip was wasted, and wanted to get something done.
"Well, I guess I need something in my ears, y'know? I've been looking at some pictures and stuff, and I guess, like, some scaffolding or something would be cool. What do you reckon?" I said in my oh-so-decisive tone of voice! As you can tell, I was incredibly eager about this, and I really should stop being sarcastic now...
His reply was "yeah... but, y'know what I haven't done..." and he described a piercing that sounded far out! I'd seen a transverse lobe, and thought that was something I could live with, but this was like a transverse lobe, but with a ring, slightly different, and I was intrigued as to how it would feel going in.
He told me he'd only seen one other person in Southampton with it done so it wasn't especially common, and he thought it would look cool. Well, I didn't need much persuading, I jumped in and said "yeah, go on then!"
So I sat down as he got all his bits ready, gloves, a 12mm titanium bcr, a 1.6mm needle (I think, 1.6, its still in my wallet to remind me!), and all the other gear. No clamps or anything though because he was doing a free hand job, curving it round. He cleaned the area with some sterets, drew on some little dots, which I checked and approved and then got to stabbing!
"Close your eyes," he joked – because he knows I like to watch it in the mirror.
I felt the initial prick of the needle puncturing my skin, short and sweet. This was followed by a slow progressive movement through the flesh... not what I would describe as sharp, but just smoothly pushing through. There was a slight crunch as I felt him knock the top near some cartilage (and I've never had a crunchy piercing before, so that was a bit of a jolt!), and then I felt the downward curve, pushing through my lobe. I braced myself for the impending puncture back out again, and was nicely relieved when I felt it. Wow, I thought, that was really cool.
He pulled out the needle, and twisted my ear about, to put the ring in sideways. It seemed to take forever, but I suffered every millisecond of it thinking how very groovy it was. Snapped the ball in place and cleaned away the blood. I never bleed, but this one poured! After most of it had been wiped away he let me see it, commenting all the way about how he reckoned it looked "really mad" and how everyone would look twice at it because it's so different. I really didn't need any convincing of how great it was, because I was still smiling from the adrenaline kick. Well, I stayed and chatted for a bit, paid the man for his excellent job, and then went on my merry way to work!
The healing has been absolutely fantastic: the best healing experience of my life, seriously! My regular lobes had been nice and crusty, but this one didn't crust once. Although it did have a spot of blood the next day, but that, I found perfectly acceptable. I cleaned it twice daily with nipple spray - an anti bacterial spray for nursing mothers, which works really nicely - and some cotton buds. There was a bit of bruising on the back of the lobe in a semi circular shape, which I found quite amusing, hehehe, but no pain, no gak and a lovely clean piercing which everyone - even my boss – thinks is nice, and not at all scary!
i did have a brief "Wham!" flashback when i caught sight of myself in a mirror suddenly, since i only had one ring in one ear. That was a frightening experience (and my only bad experience of the piercing)so i tried to balance it out by stretching the other lobe with an old tongue bar. so no more bad.
This one has really changed my opinion of ear piercings, and I've gotten ever so excited over them now. I'm waiting for the bruising to go before I get an orbital to interlock this one, and I'm trying to be creative with what will follow that, but no thoughts yet. If you have any funky different ideas, then feel free to help me in my imaginings!