| At A Glance | |
| Author | Ania |
| Contact | Ania@bme.anon |
| IAM | deadly pale |
| When | A week ago |
| Artist | Jacek |
| Studio | tattoo.pl |
| Location | Poznan, Poland |
Over a year ago I decided to dermal punch my septum and ear cartilage. My piercer did not have at that time any experience in dermal punching but, seeing as he was very honest and responsible for things he did, I gave it a try and convinced him (which was not an easy thing to do) to dermal punch my ear cartilage at 4mm and my septum at 3.5mmm Everything went great and a few weeks later, at the end of August 2004, I found myself on his table again. This time we were going to dermal punch my ear cartilage at 4ga (approx. 5.2mm). At first Jacek was hesitant. It seemed relatively easy to punch at 3.5 - 4mm; 6mm was bigger and he just was not sure what the procedure and healing process would look like. Me, being this awfully stubborn and determined person I am, managed to convince him that it was worth a try and I really wanted to get it done but did not feel comfortable enough to do it myself. As with my previous dermal punch experience, Jacek asked for some time to think and do some research. A few days later I called him again and he agreed to do the deed. I ordered both dermal punches and jewelry (4ga Kaos eyelets) from BMEshop and had them in my mail next week. All was set and I was ready to go.
The procedure was quite bloody and a bit painful. It was, however, very exciting as well. Dermal punching is one of my favorite procedures ever and I love to feel sharpness of the tool and warm touch of blood flowing down my neck. Maybe it is a bit creepy but it definitely is very exciting as well. Both ears bled quite heavily and it took some time to stop it. Inserting squishy eyelets was not that easy, either, but eventually everything went well and two weeks later I could take the eyelets out to clean my ears thoroughly and with no pain at all. During those two weeks I felt a bit apprehensive as my reasearch was not as detailed as it should have been and I learned that silicon eyelets are not recommended for fresh, healing piercings. Fortunately for me, I heal quickly and easily, so I never experienced any discomfort or even mild irritation. Those of you, however, who consider dermal punching should keep in mind that it is better and wiser to invest into some metal jewelry, at least for the first phase of the process.
Two 4ga (slightly over 5mm) piercings were my first large gauge piercings as I have never been seriously interested in stretching and bigger gauges. I was fascinated with the "see-through" effect, though, and I liked my new jewelry. When I removed jewelry from the piercings for the first time I felt quite weird looking at two big, gaping holes in my cartilage. For a second or two I was like "Oww, what have I done?" but it soon was replaced by perceiving it as my new experiment to learn and experience more about my body. It is a really strange feeling to see the inner layers of cartilage. Other people's reactions? There were not too many of them. Once or twice I heard some whispers behind my backs or caught strange looks at my ears but most people did not even notice that there was something odd about my ears. Usually they just commented on my "earrings" and that was all. I am sure that some of you can relate to it - if you have stretched ears and wear solid plugs, most people take them for a little unusual earrings and do not notice that your lobes are bigger. The same was here.
Bigger holes in my ear cartilage did not make anything difficult - not too many stares, no problems at work (most people comment on my standard lobe piercings which are not used for a few years now but are still pretty visible), no problems with piercings themselves. Since I was going to dermal punch my ear cartilage more than only once now I could get back to this idea. I have to say, though, that even if those piercings made things difficult to me, I would probably still go for them. Somewhere on the road I just stopped caring that much what others could say about it and got convinced, more than ever, that I should live more for myself than for others and do things that make me happy or, at least, satisfied. Always an experience collector, I decided to dermal punch my ears once again.
As originally I wanted to punch my ears three times to have three bigger holes in cartilage, I decided to go for a second set/part of my project-to-be. During last summer I asked Jacek for taking a closer look at my ears to see if there is place for new punched holes and he decided that there should not be any problem with that. In the course of the last year Jacek turned into a real enthusiast of dermal punching although, sadly, he does not have too many opportunities to use the tool. This time my new/old idea did not demand any of my negotiating/convincing skills as we did it once before and now both of us knew what to expect and what to do. Even though wiser this time, I decided to use silicon eyelets again. This time it was not caused by my blissful (shameful) ignorance but by the fact that silicon proved to be comfortable to wear and easy to clean. It is true that skin tends to adher to it but this fact did not cause me any problems during healing process, so this time I did not expect any troubles, either.
I called Jacek at the end of September to set my appointment for October 14. During this time I ordered and received two 6mm dermal punches and two 2ga black Kaos eyelets. 2ga is approximately 6.5 mm, so the jump would not be considerable. The closer the appointment, the more excited I was although I still was not quite sure about getting a day off.
My appointment was at 1pm, so I had plenty of time to run some other errands in Poznan. On my way to the studio I bought a few sandwiches for the guys at the studio and arrived there a bit earlier to hang out with them a little and enjoy the atmosphere of the studio. Slawek checked my recent tattoo, done a few weeks earlier, Jacek disappeared for a while to get something done and after a few minutes it was time to prepare for the procedure.
Getting the right placement was important, so we spent some time on getting it right. My left ear was easier for Jacek to access, so we started with the left ear. Human memory plays tricks quite often and the amount of pain was kind of surprising to me. Obviously I forgot what it is like to have my ear dermal punched. Sharp pain lasted two or three seconds and I whined a little (ashamed to admit that). Right after asking if it was already done I felt something warm on my neck and knew it was blood which meant that punching was over. Since our duet did the same thing last year we both knew what to do to prepare for that and what to do right after getting the thing done - a few paper towels on my shoulder to protect my clothes from blood stains and some patience afterwards, so the bleeding could stop. Inserting the eyelet was not very painful or uncomfortable which, I think, is caused by Jacek's gentleness - he really is very gentle and quite empathic at that. During this part of the procedure we were accompanied by Slawek's apprentice, Mikolaj, who took a few pictures. Since dermal punching my right ear looked exactly the same, I decided to not force him to witness more of the blood bath that took place there and then and eventually I ended up with only four, slightly blurry, pictures.
When bleeding stopped, Jacek inserted jewelry, gave me some time to gather my strength and took care of my right ear. All steps looked exactly the same as the first time around except the fact that, right after the punching, blood started gushing stronger and it took longer for bleeding to subside and eventually stop. Both my ears felt very hot and got a bit sore to touch but I did not feel dizzy at all (despite the blood loss and not eating since the morning - not recommended). When everything was done and I was allowed to admire the new look of my ears in the mirror I felt really excited and glad that I decided to go through with it. I noticed that my ears seemed to stick out a little bit but I did not pay too much attention to it. After discussing after care (not surprise at all - sea salt soaks and LITHA method most of the time) and placing a deposit for my new tattoo session I was ready to go.
Feeling cold air on my ears or resting my head on the seat head on the train or bus was weird and I had to be very careful about that. On my way back home my ears did not bleed but when I wanted to clean them in the evening bleeding started again and it took a few minutes and one roll of paper towels to stop it. When one ear stopped bleeding, the other one began doing just the same thing, so the process of being patient and trying to stop bleeding started anew. Since I was really tired I decided to leave it the way it was (even though the thought of doing it made me cringe) and clean it the next day. I am a stomach/side sleeper which made my next few nights quite uncomfortable as I had to sleep either on my stomach or on my side with my head on my arm (with some space for my ear).
During the weekend my ears were quite visibly swollen which made my ears stick even more and for a while I was afraid that this state would be permanent as maybe the placement was not right. Both 4ga and new 2ga piercings together made my ears feel quite "crowded" and, afraid of being unable to clean my fresh piercings properly, I decided to take out the first, 2ga set. I did not really worry about losing them as I had the impression that cartilage punched at this size should not shrink too much.
It might be that I misread something, maybe it was my wishful thinking or maybe it is just the way my body behaves but despite the fact that my cartilage was punched at 6mm and for over a year I was wearing 4ga jewelry in both piercings, my first set of dermal punched piercings shrank from 4ga to 10 ga in the course of 24h. I did not like this fact as I imagined that the piercings would stay at the big gauge with no jewelry in. It was not too nice a surprise but it taught me something about dermal punching and the way my body works, so it eventually paid off. It also made cleaning and taking care of my fresh piercings much easier and now, two weeks after the procedure, my 2ga piercings are almost healed. There are still ocassional crusties but both initial redness and swelling disappeared and my ears look almost normal ("almost" as a few people noticed my new "earrings" and commented on them). I still clean them twice a day with sea salt soaks and also make sure to clean my shrunk piercings and try to keep them at their new size. It is quite easy and painless to insert 8ga plugs into them, so maybe I will re-stretch them back to the original size in the future. For now I just let them be at the new size.
All in all, this new dermal punching was very positive and quite educational as well. I dreamed of big, visible holes in my cartilage and things did not turn exactly the way I want them to but I do not regret anything. I wanted to get my new piercings done to experience the pleasure of dermal punching again and to show myself that I am strong enough to sport such a radical mod in my quite conservative environment. Eventually my new mods did not turn out so radical but, in the long run, new experiences and new knowledge seem to be so much better than four gaping holes in my ears.