It had been months (well, maybe 2) since my last piercing and I was starting to wonder what would be next. After my nape I had promised my mom I wouldn't pierce anything else besides my ears, so I knew it would have to be my ears or something she'd never see. I didn't really think about it too much because I was concentrating on making sure the nape healed well, but when my friend asked me to take her to Zak (my piercer), I couldn't resist. I HAD to get something done.
At A Glance Author Blakey Contact behrlich@gwu.edu IAM blakey When It just happened Artist Zak Zito Studio Main Street Tattoos Location Edgewood, MD I had my lobes stretched to 0g and a helix-helix industrial in my left ear. I knew what every it was would go in right, to keep some sort of balance. I thought about rook, but the nightmare of healing my industrial kept me away from a cartilage piercing. Then I though about a transverse lobe. Yes! This would be it! But what about the jewelry? I didn't want to wait for or pay for expensive custom work, so I thought about my options. What I came up with was my Kaos silicone tunnels... they were implant quality, autoclavable, and could be inexpensively modified to include holes through them. Yes! This might just work.
So then I went to thinking about how to get the holes in them. A hole puncher was the first thought, but then the holes would be way to big and might even cause the tunnel to collapse due to the loss of support from the missing material. If only they made tiny hole punchers- oh wait, they do- dermal punches! So I hypothesized that if I could bring my silicone tunnels in, Zak could dermal punch them and autoclave them, then pierce through them. I called his shop, but he had left. I posted to LiveJournal and got varied responses. I called the shop again the next day and he agreed to try it!
Three days later I hopped in the car with Emily, who was planning to get an ear spiral. I warned her about the lecture that was awaiting her when she showed Zak her externally threaded jewelry, but we decided to go anyway because I was totally psyched about my piercing experiment and she was awesome enough to go with me and maybe get hers done.
So we drove the hour and a half (which was more like two hours with traffic) from Washington DC up to Edgewood, MD and walked into the shop. I saw Zak and told him I was "the girl with the transverse lobe through the silicone tunnels" girl and he remembered me. I gave him the tunnel I wanted to use in a ziplock baggie. (I had washed it thoroughly with Provon beforehand, because who wants to touch someone's ear crusty tunnel?)
He took my tunnel back to punch it and then had me go into the piercing room to get my lobe measured. After he figured out I'd need a 1" barbell to accommodate for swelling, he told me to go back to the waiting room while he autoclaved the jewelry. We chilled for about 10 minutes, then Zak called me back to the piercing room. I laid on the table and the process began.
He measured and drew on me for maybe 10 minutes, both with a tunnel in and out. He contemplated piercing me with the tunnel in, but decided it wouldn't work because any pressure would collapse the tunnel. In the end, he decided I would have to be pierced twice from the inside out, then the tunnel inserted, then run a taper though before the barbell its self.
The first piercing was not very painful, the second was only a little bit worse. The most painful part was when he was trying to get the tunnel in. Finally he lubricated it with something and managed to slip in it. Then I heard him laugh, evidently when he was rotating the tunnel so that the holes lined up, bubbles came out of one of the piercing, although I still can't figure out why or how.
The taper was more painful than the barbell, and when he told me all he had to do was screw the barbell on, it was great to know the whole ordeal was over. It had taken about a half hour. I bled but not enough to reach my clothes or hair, and Zak cleaned me off before I sat up. I walked over to the mirror and it looked great! It went better than I could have imagined and the result was wonderful. I am really glad a thought of something new and different.
He told me to come back in 2 weeks if I wanted a shorter barbell, and put the taper he used in my baggie so that I could bring it back for him to use again- that way, the shorter barbell would only be $10 because the only thing I would need is the shaft.
The biggest problem with this piercing is simply lack of jewelry. I am going to buy a dermal punch on BME so I can punch the rest of my silicone plugs. My dad is going to try to drill my bamboo, wood, bone and horn plugs, but it looks like I'll have to sell my steel and titanium jewelry. I can buy steel earlets with holes drilled if I want to, but I don't think I can just drill into the steel pairs I have now.
On the second day (today), the piercing looks fine. Seasalt soaks and occasional provon washes should keep me infection free and happy.
For a picture of the piercings, go to http://www.bluenugget.net/~blake/trans.jpg