After reluctantly retiring a poorly placed industrial that refused to heal, I decided on two things: 1) I needed a new, much more trustworthy piercer and 2) From that point forward, I would only get piercings that I was absolutely in love with and couldn't bear to live without. Luckily for me, these two things came fairly easily. I had fallen in love with daiths months before and so I decided that it was now time for them. Also, a friend of mine had recently started working as a tattoo artist at Electric Art and he assured me that their piercer, Sophie, was quite experienced and that I could trust her to do my daiths.
At A Glance Author Prow Contact Prow@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Sophie Studio Electric Art Location Lexington, KY So my boyfriend and I went to Electric Art one day in late July with intentions of only having Sophie bend a few nostril screws for me and talking to her about her experience with daiths (apparently they are extremely rare around here since I have never seen anyone in person with one). But since I had wanted them for so long and I was there anyway, I decided to go ahead and get them immediately. I just couldn't resist.
So she began laying out all of her tools and needles with gloved hands, all brand new and autoclaved. She then proceeded to clean my ears and mark them with toothpicks dipped in a tiny disposable well of dark blue ink. After carefully examining the marks, the three of us all agreed that they were appropriately placed and symmetrical with each other.
My left ear was to be pierced first, so I was laid down on my side and instantly began to dread what was coming next. (I am always so excited about getting a new piercing, that I usually forget that it is going to hurt until seconds before it happens.) Sophie prompted me to take a deep breath in and hold it. Then as soon as she said, "Now let it out," the needle went in.
I felt the usual crunch of cartilage along with a dull pain of intense pressure rather than the usual sharp pain that I associate with piercings. It seemed to take forever for her to push the needle completely through, which I had prepared myself for because of the awkwardness of the location and the thickness of the area. When it was finally done, she struggled a bit with putting the cork on the end of the needle and barely grazed my ear directly above my lobe, causing a bit of bleeding. Then she switched the needle to a 14 gauge captive ring (which was again very slow and uncomfortable) and cleaned my ear up, commenting on how the piercing itself wasn't bleeding at all, just the knick was.
Before I could even get up to admire her work, she began raving about how cute it was and how it seemed to fit me perfectly. I looked in the mirror and saw exactly what I had been imagining for the past several months, it was perfect. My boyfriend also agreed that it looked awesome even though he was still recovering from watching the piercing take place.
After a quick soda break, I was ready to get the right one done. Following the exact same procedure as with the first one, the right one felt the same and took just as long (she didn't make the extra knick on my ear this time, though). Sophie then cleaned my ear up, made sure that I knew how to care for them and that they could take up to a year to fully heal. I gladly paid the $35 (I provided my own jewelry, so I got a discount) and Sophie gave me a small cup of sea salt. After she showed off her work to nearly everyone in the studio, my boyfriend and I said our goodbyes to everyone and then went on our way.
Later that night, I didn't feel the usual soreness, but instead felt like I had a very mild case of Swimmer's Ear. I was even able to sleep on them without feeling a thing. For the first few days, the only time they really hurt was when I cleaned them with anti-bacterial soap, but the sea salt soak that I did directly afterwards quickly soothed the pain. The real pain didn't come until about a week and a half afterwards. They began to constantly ache quite severely, so I began taking Ibuprofen which helped out a lot. This intense aching only lasted for about a week and then they went back to barely being bothersome at all.
They looked great for the first month except for the usual discharge of lymph which dried to form the crusties that we all hate. But then slight bumps began to form around the entry and exit of each hole and they began to have minor blood spotting from time to time. I decided to cut down my cleaning regimen to just once a day instead of twice, sometimes even just doing sea salt soaks without using the soap beforehand. Within a couple days of making this change, they began to look better and there was no more blood spotting. Right now, they are about two and a half months old and the bumps have been gradually decreasing in size ever since. I am just being very patient with them and trying my best not to bother them.
So in conclusion, my daith experience has been very successful and they are definitely my favorite piercings so far. I plan on having Sophie perform my next piercing in just a few days, as well. It will be a vertical labret and I can't wait. But it will have a lot to live up to in order to be as awesome as my daiths.