I am one of the few girls I know who reached the age of 18 completely unmodified. Despite this, I (like many others who post their experiences here) have loved piercing and tattoos for as long as I can remember. Yet somehow I was never really motivated to investigate my options. My heavily pierced best friend dragged me into the studio for my birthday to get my ear lobes pierced, but I never followed up with anything else.
At A Glance Author silent.one Contact quicksilver_223@yahoo.com When A month ago Artist Mike Studio Accent Tattoos Location Ukiah, CA My perspective changed completely when I moved to college. My roommate introduced me to BME, and it was love at first sight. My life-long vague interest in body modifications was replaced by a near obsession. I spent the school year browsing the galleries, dreaming about the mods that would one day adorn my own body. Unfortunately, I was living off a quarterly allowance from my parents, which I would probably lose if I spent any of it on tattoos or piercings. I had to wait for summer and my summer minimum-wage job.
When I made enough money for a simple ear cartilage piercing, I grabbed my sister and headed off to Accent Tattoos, the same place I had my first piercing. It was one of the only places in town, and I had been there several times with friends. It had a comfortable atmosphere; the walls were covered in beautiful art and tattoo designs and there were always people just hanging out and talking.
As soon as I entered I started feeling nervous. I know a cartilage piercing is not exactly considered intense, but my lobe piercings had hurt a lot and I had heard that a cartilage piercing was worse. One of the tattoo artists was sitting at a computer a few feet behind the counter. I knew I had to get his attention but I became unreasonably shy and instead just kind of stood there like an idiot looking pretending to look at the jewelry they were selling. After a moment the artist realized I was waiting and apologized for not noticing me, as if he were quite used to customers becoming mute. I told him what I wanted and he said the piercer would be right with me. He was extremely polite and made me feel a little more relaxed.
I browsed through the flash and then tattoo artist's portfolios while I waited for the piercer, Mike, to finish with another girl. With my anxiety it seemed to take forever for him to finish, though I know it was only a few minutes. When Mike was ready for me, he led me into a room in the back. My wonderfully supportive sister was busy talking on her cell phone and did not accompany me, but I'm beginning to think that it's less stressful to have nobody watching me get pierced. I'm sort of a private soul, and I think next time I'll go alone.
Perhaps to keep my mind off what I was about to go through, I kept asking Mike questions about industrials and foot tattoos, both future mods I was considering. He was more reserved than the tattoo artist, but he answered my questions pleasantly and his friendly manner made me feel more comfortable about having him stick a needle in me.
He showed me the needle and the jewelry he was going to use. Everything was sterile and clean, of course, although I really wasn't in the state of mind to pay as much attention to the details as I should. After we had decided on the perfect placement, and I lay down on the bench, Mike told me to take a couple deep breaths. 'Oh god!' I thought, 'This is it!' I braced myself for a spike of excruciating pain like with my ear lobes. Instead, on my second exhale, the needle slid painlessly through my cartilage. I couldn't believe it! It hadn't hurt at all. I expressed my relief to him as he put in a 16-gauge ring. He seemed amused and went into a little lecture about how much better needles are than guns. I don't really know what prompted it, maybe my obviously crooked lobes.
Mike went over the aftercare with me, which consisted of twice-a-day cleaning and soaks in sea salt solution. I paid and tipped him (he kinda seemed surprised...maybe that custom hasn't caught on in this backwater town. Anyway, he told me to come back for that industrial soon).
The piercing ached for a few hours the first day but a few hours later and I could hardly feel it. It is a little sensitive to being knocked around, like when I answer a phone carelessly, but is nothing compared to my lobes which made it hard to sleep for weeks.
The almost-complete lack of pain (even if it might be a fluke) has given me the courage to pursue more adventurous modifications. I have a million ideas, and one thing is very clear: I need to make up for my late start.