One day I ventured into the city with my Mum. As we sat casually chatting in the bus an incredibly gorgeous and pierced girl sat in front of us. My Mum's eyes widened as she took in the girl standing before her. I would not have been surprised if she started poking and analysing her. Instead, she kept her cool. She looked at her, glanced back at me, then pointed at her ear.
At A Glance Author melon Contact melon@bme.anon IAM melonoma When Two years ago Studio The Piercing Shop Location Brisbane, Australia "Mel, what's that piercing called?"
"Which one?"
"The one with the bar and the two ear piercings?"
"Oh, you mean the industrial piercing?"
"What is so industrial about it?"
"It is also called scaffolding... like a building?"
"Oh."
"Why?"
"It is really cool."
"Are you kidding me?!"
"No, I think it is awesome!"
"Yeah, me too!"
"I think you should get one."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Fuck yeah!"
Anyone that has come in contact with my Mum would know she's a pretty cool person. Pretty 'with it' I guess. Although, when it comes to piercings she's not so lenient.
It took me a good three months to convince her to let me get my lobes pierced for the third time, and another cartilage piercing so you can imagine my shock when she suggested I get an industrial piercing. Looking back at the other experiences I have written for BME, all of them involve some sort of battle with my Mum over piercings. I prevail every time, so let that be a lesson to everyone! Never give up!
As soon as I got home I called up The Piercing Shop who booked me an appointment on 30th of April. Exactly one week before the Mad Caddies played at The Arena. No problem, I thought, I will just avoid the mosh pit.
I would trust The Piercing Shop with my life. I love the girls that work there, I love the way it is set out, I love the way it smells, and the way that they are so constant with their cleanliness and their professionalism. They really make you chill out if you are worried or nervous about getting a piercing. Now that I have promoted them a bit more, maybe I will get a free piercing!
The 30th of April could not come quick enough. I sat there anxiously in class waiting for the minutes to pass knowing that I would be one minute closer to a pretty new piercing.
The day came, and I woke up at 7am bouncing around like a fool. We all hopped in the car (and by all, I mean my Mum, Dad, and sister) and headed into the city.
Got to the desk at The Piercing Shop and decided on a 12 gauge (I think) medium length bar, with medium balls.
They opted to use Tygon while it healed to give it more flexibility instead of using two CBRs (the bane of my existance). Through using the Tygon, my industrial would be able to move and breathe easily and cause it to heal a little faster. No problems I thought! The Tygon ended up being a life saver when I was in the mosh pit for the Mad Caddies as my ear was nudged once or twice and the Tygon just moved with my ear.
As I waited in the room, I had a chat with a guy called Travis who was getting his tragus pierced. I later got my tragus pierced, and called it Travis after the nice guy. My name was called and I was taken into one of the many piercing rooms.
My ear was cleaned in many a solution, and I was shown the stickers and times from when the jewellery was cleaned in the autoclave, my piercer washed her hands, marked the spot, washed them again and re gloved them. That is how you know you've got a cautious piercer!
My piercer opted to go for the top hole first as she said she thought it was the most difficult to pierce. She used the clamps, which puzzled me a bit as my regular piercer Jackie had mentioned that she rarely ever uses clamps doing industrials and goes free-hand. The clamps clicked into place and my piercer had her hand poised and ready to pierce the top hole.
"Alright, a deep breathe in... and yep! All done!"
The needle was through the top hole and I barely felt a thing. A little burning sensation came but subsided soon after.
The piercer left the needle in and went on to the next one. She told me that by leaving in the needle she could accurately angle the bottom hole so that the piercing was even.
For the second hole she pierced it freehand. The piercing was a little more painful than the first hole and for some reason decided to bleed substantially more. We sat there for a few minutes while my piercer swabbed up the blood and had a casual chat.
Then came the jewellery. I am not sure why, but I believe that by using the Tygon for healing the piercing made it a lot easier to get the jewellery through.
I barely even felt the jewellery sliding through and before I knew it I was standing up and admiring my beautiful new piercing in the mirror.
This was over two years ago and I still have my beautiful industrial and I have gotten a lot more piercings since then (with or without my Mum's permission) I now have a tragus, snug, two helix, 8 lobe, a double navel and a sternum piercing. All piercings (except for one of my belly piercings which was done in Munich, Germany) were done at the Piercing Shop in Queen Street Mall in Brisbane. I highly recommend their services (yes, I do realise I've already said this) and I hopefully I myself will be working there soon as a young apprentice.