Well, I've already posted my story about my unique industrial piercing. Just a little recap if you haven't read that one yet, it hurt, a lot. Well, it's been 5 days now that I've had my new piercing, and although I absolutely love the look of it, I am in so much pain. I'm constantly taking Ibuprofen for the swelling (which won't go down by the way), I follow my aftercare instructions religiously, but still, the pain is intense. Whenever I walk somewhere my ear feels like it's going to explode with every step.
At A Glance Author Nat Contact natalie_rivet@hotmail.com When It just happened Artist Jeremy Studio Hanger 18 Location London, Ontario, Canada I finally decided to do something about this today because I just can't handle the pain (and I have extremely high tolerance for pain). I went back to Hanger 18 where I got it done so that I could have a chat with Jeremy (he's done all my piercings to date) about this killer industrial.
I originally had a bar going through both holes, so he suggested that he put in a hoop for the top hole, and a curved bar for the second hole. As a side note, the second hole isn't where a normal industrial one is, it's much lower, that big piece of cartilage just above the anti-tragus. Anyway, he went to work setting everything up to get me all better. Taking the bar out was very painful. My ear had swollen up so much that the balls were pushing in at both holes, and he had move my ear a lot to get a grip on the ball to untwist it. There was some teeth grinding, but no complaining, I didn't want to look like a pussy. He pulled the bar out. Ouch. That was step one. At that point I had started shaking a bit. It was weird, totally uncontrollable. The good thing was that there was finally some discharge. There hadn't been any discharge since I got the piercing, which had me worried. It was just swelling up and all that crap inside had nowhere to go.
He cleaned the discharge off before putting in the hoop. That one wasn't so bad, it hurt just because he had to touch other areas of my ear that were quite sore. Now for the second hole. That bloody painful second hole that actually makes me regret getting this damn piercing. He got the curved bar ready and gave me ear another quick wipe-down. Because the second hole is at a weird angle, there was some difficulty getting the bar through. I was shaking so bad, and I was in so much pain that I actually felt like I was going to throw up. Horrible experience. He eventually got the bar through with some effort (and some crunching - yuck). We both assumed that because my ear was so swollen, it wouldn't swell any more, so he put in a bar that fit it's current level of swelling. I asked him if I could sit in the shop for a few minutes because I really did feel like puking. He said it wasn't a problem, he wanted to make sure I left there feeling ok and that I wasn't going to pass out on the sidewalk.
Once the sick feeling passed, my ear was feeling remarkably better. The pressure was still there, but not as bad. I was upset that I didn't have that kick-ass bar in there any more, but these two pieces look good to, and I'm going to put the bar back in once it heals up properly, or at least once the swelling goes down.
Now it gets interesting again. I was home for a few hours and my ear started to act up. Not the top hole, that one's ok, it's the bottom hole. It's actually more swollen than before, so the new bar isn't fitting properly, the balls are pushing in again on both sides. There isn't any discharge, but I know it's in there. My ear is so hot I could probably heat my whole apartment with it. So what did I do? I decided to mess around with it because I just couldn't handle it (again). I soaked my ear in sea salt solution for about 10 minutes, cleaned it up, slathered some vitamin E oil on there and got to work.
I started to squeeze around the bottom hole to try to force out the puss. It kind of worked, a little bit came out, but I really had to work at it. That was probably a really stupid thing to do because now I'm in a worse situation than before because all that squeezing made it swell up even more. My ear looks grotesque, it's very upsetting. I don't know what to do. I'm thinking I'll wait a couple of days then go back if the swelling doesn't go down. Maybe he'll put in a longer bar (which I think would be good - but hey, what the hell do I know).
I've never had a piercing go this bad before. I don't blame Jeremy in any way, he does fantastic work, and I will still go there for all my future piercings. Anyone ever go through this before? Did you have to take it out eventually?
Anyway, I would still recommend getting an industrial. They are amazing. But I wanted to share my experience because so many of the stories on here talk about such nice cushy, no-issue industrial piercings, but that's just not the case for everyone. There are risks. Even though I've had a few piercings (not including my lobes) go perfectly well with no problems, this one is going south in a big way. My best advice is make sure you get a bar that allows for a lot of swelling (mine allowed for 2mm of swelling on both sides - NOT ENOUGH!!). Follow your aftercare instructions and hopefully your industrial will go better than this bitch.