My parents are against almost all mods (beyond one set of ear lobe piercings), so my affinity towards piercings of all kinds had gotten me in bits of trouble around my house. It was only through much arguing, some manipulating, and ultimately, sneaking, that I was able to end up having 9 different piercing before I turned 18. However, 2 of those I had to take out for different reasons (parents flipped about the tongue ring on their 15 year old, and my nipple piercing refused to heal after a year or more), so I was really looking forward to my 18th birthday, when I could get piercings legally, safely, cleanly, without parental consent.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Derek Studio Ink Wizards Location Loganville, GA My best friend and I share the same birthday, and she had been planning a large tattoo on her back for years, so we already had plans to spend a good part of our birthday in a tattoo shop getting her work done. Even though it was my 18th birthday too, I wasn't sure about getting any piercings done, because I knew it was going to upset my parents and even if I was 18, they still paid the bills and such. Time was winding down, it was 11:30pm and the guy was about to close the shop after her tattoo was done. But I knew I had to get something done; I was my 18th birthday, after all! Derek agreed to keep the shop open even longer so I could give this birthday present to myself. I gathered the guts to do the piercing I had had in my mind all along. I already had a cartilage piercing, and I wanted to turn it in to an industrial-type piercing. At the last minute, I signed the consent form and did the ID-copying thing.
We went back to a little room used for piercings (the rest of the shop was dedicated to tattoos), and he marked the placement. After changing that around a few times, it was time to go. Then I got nervous. Up until the sterilizing happened, I hadn't really comprehended that I was getting another piercing. Also, this was my first ear piercing with a needle instead of a gun, but I knew that the needle was supposed to hurt less. I grabbed my best friend's hand, and had other friends standing around, and told him to go ahead.
Needle piercings are a piece of cake! The piercing itself was almost painless, with no anesthetic. I was truly amazed, and started kicking myself for ever going with the gun for my first piercings. The only unpleasant part of the piercing process was the unpleasant crunch and the grating sound the needle makes passing through your ear. But next came the hard part, getting the jewelry in. Because of the placement of the piercing, it was very difficult for the piercer to get the CBR through the new piercing, because it was also going through my original cartilage piercing.
After a couple minutes of trying to get the ring through, I was really starting to feel dizzy. He had been checking on me from the beginning, but I feel a little lightheaded with all my piercings, so some leeway must be given. But at that point he had me lay down on the table (like a doctor's examination table) and I immediately started feeling better. This change of positions had the added benefit of giving the piercer a better angle to get the jewelry in. This part of the process was extremely painful, but basically necessary since the piercing had already been done.
After he finally got the ring through, the ball had to be attached, which was a problem unto itself. The ball was placed on the back side of my ear, which makes the piercing a little less ostentatious from the front, but made the process that much more difficult. He had to bend the jewelry while it was in my ear to get the ball in, which was not exactly pleasant for me.
Finally, it was done! My ear was very sore from all the fiddling with the jewelry, but hardly swelled at all. It has not gotten infected, but is not healing very quickly, but that is my body; none of my piercings heal quickly or easily. It has now been exactly a month since the piercing, and it is still sore, but improving, very slowly. I'm getting a little tired of only sleeping on my right side, but talking on the phone and such is not and never was a problem with this piercing. I'm now starting to contemplate other ways I could wear jewelry in this piercing, with its partner. I'm thinking about turning the ring around so that the ball is on the front of my ear, so people will notice it more. With the ball in the back, it is hard for many people to understand what is going on; like, does it really go through my ear? Hopefully it will continue to improve, because this is such a cool piercing, I want it to stick around!