At A Glance
Author	b^2
Contact	b^2@bme.anon
When	A month ago
Artist	Jon
Studio	HTC
Location	Tempe, AZ

Before:

I had wanted to get an industrial for a while- ever since I saw this guy with a beautiful long white bar through the top of his ear- I was on campus and actually stopped walking when I saw him. It is still a fairly unusual piercing, and one also one of the only ear-piercing I find attractive. At the time I was planning to get my eyebrow pierced the following week, and didn't have the money to do both, so I ended up putting it off for almost six months.

In mid February I realized that I had the money to finally get my industrial done, which pretty much made me jump with joy, and I started planning ahead for the piercing. I had done a bunch of research on the variety of piercers available in my general area, and HTC was pretty consistently recommended- I got my eyebrow done there, and was very impressed with the atmosphere. It wasn't too intimidating, smelled clean (kind of like a hospital) and the people were super nice, so I knew I was going there, but I didn't know what to expect from the piercing itself. I ended up asking everyone I knew with body mods if they had heard any stories about industrials before - everyone's stories were pretty different, but I heard from a few people that it bled a lot, which kind of worried me. I also read some of the accounts on here on BME, which were very informative--although also some were kind of worrying-- and it seemed that one thing that many industrials had in common was that they hurt, BAD. But, I was not to be dissuaded, and forged ahead in my plans to pay someone to shove a sharp object through my innocent, vulnerable ear.

I invested in some extra hair ties and clips to keep my hair off of the piercing while it was new, and I bought a gallon of distilled water to use for sea salt soaks. I also got my hair cut and colored (which I needed to do anyway) so that I would have a lot of time to heal before I had to get those things done again.

Day of Piercing:

The day of the piercing I had to work in the morning- needless to way, I was in no way productive, in fact I spent the whole time surfing the web for pictures. When I got off work I dropped my car at my house and caught a ride to HTC with my friends, Jana and Erica, and my sister, Becca (I had heard that some people get light headed, so I thought it would be best if I didn't drive; also, I personally get really hyper after getting pierced, so I knew no one would want me behind the wheel).

In the car on the way there I did deep breathing exercises to try and keep myself from getting too nervous - it seemed to work, since I didn't end up freaking out. When we got to the studio I told the guy behind the counter (I don't know his name, sorry) what I wanted to do and he got me the forms to sign, asked for my ID, etc. He offered me a sixteen gauge bar, but I ended up going with the fourteen gauge instead -I wanted a bolder look- one thing I really regret is getting an eighteen gauge eyebrow ring instead of the sixteen, but at the time I thought that would be more appropriate for work, so this time I went with my first desire.

There were a couple of people waiting before me so I took a seat and tried to do deep breathing exercises to keep my self calm - I could feel the butterflies in my stomach- but my friends kept making me laugh, so it wasn't as effective as it could have been.

After a bit of time had passed Jon came out to measure my ear for the jewelry - he looked both of them and pronounced that my right one would be better suited for an industrial than the left, but I had my heart set on left, so we ended up going with that one (it balances out the eyebrow - it probably would have driven me crazy to have it on the other side- I would feel so unbalanced). My bar ended up being a little over an inch long. We waited another few minutes while he got the room ready, and then went back (there was a bit of confusion there, though, since I could only bring two people into the room with me, but I had three who wanted to see...)

In the room, while he was setting up, Jon explained what to expect in the piercing and also about the aftercare. He cleaned my ear, and marked it --the line of it ended up being more horizontal than I would have liked, optimally, but because of the structure of my ear anything lower would have cut into the inside of the ear-- I was pretty happy with the placement, though, so we continued. He changed his gloves probably five times during the whole process, which I found extremely reassuring. He also did that thing that I think everyone does, where they tell you that you will feel it on the count of three, but then they put the needle through on 'two' instead. And this has to be said: the piercing itself HURT LIKE FUCK. Which I was not expecting at all- I thought it would hurt a little, but no, the experience was actually rather similar to that of having a burning hot poker shoved through your ear. Ouch. The first hole hurt the worst- I think it probably went through the thickest part of the cartilage- the second one wasn't nearly so bad, but it still hurt. It didn't bleed very much, though, which I was happy about.

After:

The first week or so after I got the piercing done my ear absolutely throbbed constantly. It did look fantastic, though. It was a pain in the ass soaking it twice a day, but I did (still do) cause it would probably be more of a pain if it were infected. I also took vitamin c supplements and zinc tablets for a few weeks, just to make sure my immune system was in the best shape to deal with this thing, and I made sure to sleep on my right side to give this thing time to heal. After the constant throbbing stopped the only problem I had was when I got the flu- my ear actually got really irritated at the same time (red and with puss), but it cleared up when I got better.

Right now, a month and change after the fact, I absolutely love, love, love my industrial -the only real issue I have with it is that my hair always gets tangled around it...but. It is a small sacrifice to make for inimitable hotness.