I had been at boarding school for several months, dying for more holes to be poked in my body, but with no access to acceptable or safe piercing methods, so after several failed and a few succesful and easy lobe piercings, right nostril with a safety pin(which is not safe and i would NOT recomend doing on your own even if mine turned out great),and stretching my lobes to a zero gage, i was ready for something more interesting!
At A Glance Author Tenaya Contact cynical3066@yahoo.com When A week ago Artist Tim Studio Zebra Location Berkley, CA So there I was, home from school on spring break, cash to spend, walking down Telegraph Avenue. I had a mission: to get my tragus pierced vertically. This had been planned for quite sometime but in Massachusetts where I go to school, the laws for piercing and tattoos are really anal and you can't even get your lobes pierced without parental consent, so I had been waiting for a few months. I had seen pictures on BME and been intrigued. I had gone in to Zebra (my regular piercing place) a week earlier to get my conch and rook pierced and had inquired about a vertical tragus. My piercer, Wes, said that he had never done one before and that there was a very good chance it would be rejected by my body so he did not feel comfortable performing the procedure, but said I should come back on the weekend when the other piercer, Tim, who is more experienced was working. Wes was also very interested in this particular piercing and said he had never seen it before but it looked like s omething he would like to get himself.
The next Saturday I printed out all the pictures from the vertical tragus section of BME and got on the BART train to Telegraph. I showed the pictures to the counter girl and she said she had to talk to Tim before she got the jewelry for me. After Tim looked at the various pictures, he decided that the piercing he saw with the straight barbell looked the least likely to grow out as opposed to the curved one. I selected a plain half-inch surgical steel barbell and was set to go. Tim had also never done this piercing before. The counter girl told me that it would be very painful. My number was called almost immediately since it was about nine o'clock in the morning and I headed back to the piercing room. Zebra's staff and facilities are very clean and professional but also very friendly, unlike some other piercing and tattoo shops I have been to that have very bad attitudes towards customers who couldn't already set off a metal detector naked or be displayed in a museum . I would recommend Zebra to anyone.
Tim said hello and we talked about how to take care of the piercing and the possibility that it would grow out while he get his equipment ready. He said he had never even seen or heard of this piercing before but he felt comfortable doing it. He told me he would have to do it free hand. I was a bit nervous and fidgety because of what the counter girl had told me about the estimated pain factor. Tim also said it would be a slow piercing, five seconds or so. He poked and prodded for a few minutes and then (apparently) slowly and gently pushed the 16-gauge needle through. I thought he was still trying to figure out how to do it when he said all he had to do was put the jewelry in. Even my lobes hurt more than that and they were nothing more than a prick. The only uncomfortable part, though not really painful, was putting the barbell in. He screwed on the balls and cleaned up the little bit of blood and said I was ready to go but he would appreciate it if I checked back in when I came home in summer so he could see how it is doing.
The healing time was estimated at about three months and I am supposed to clean it with the cleaning solution duo I was supplied with twice a day, plus get off crusties with warm water and wash with anti-bacterial dial soap in the shower. So far it has been almost a week and no crusties except minimal bleeding the first night and it is only sore if I press on it. Cleaning it is super easy and I can already sleep on it (which is very good due to a very sore and angry month old industrial on the other ear. I am very, very happy with my new piercing; it is by far my favorite out of eleven piercings. Tim did a terrific job despite not knowing anything about the piercing prior to that day. Tim and Wes are both fabulous piercers and I am happy with all five piercings I have gotten at Zebra. Thank you for reading my story, I hope it was informative.