It was 2003 when I first discovered body modification.
At A Glance Author Dani Contact dana_boi223@yahoo.com IAM ToastyMcToast When Three months ago Artist Ben Studio Cherry Bomb Location NPR, Florida When 2004 rolled around I got a glimpse of the industrial piercing.
I was watching a piercing and tattoo half hour documentary type deal called Ink'd and Jabbed. Two girls were talking about how they were going to have piercings and tattoos when they were eighty and that they wouldn't ever change for anyone. They flashed a picture of one of the girls' ear. I instantly fell in love with the industrial. I was 12 at the time.
Fast forward 3 years. My birthday was in February and I just had got my third holes pierced [with a gun]. I still felt like I needed something more.
In April I started to bug my mom non-stop about getting my industrial done for Christmas. Her initial answer was 'no'. Since I was so obsessed, I started researching the topic and looking at different pictures. I was on google one day and I came across BME and loved the site and thought it was genius. In my research I found out why piercing guns were so bad [I didn't know this at the time]. I showed my mom the research I found and she finally said yes, but I would have to wait until my 16th birthday.
February 23, 2008.
It was a rainy day, but it was one of the most exciting days of my life. I got my industrial around 2:30 in the afternoon.
My mom, my brother, my sister and I walked inside. All I heard around me were tattoo guns and people talking.
I had my little tiara on and the guy behind the counter was all like 'happy birthday, what are ya here for?' and I was so nervous my mom had to tell him that I wanted my industrial. They asked for my school I.D. and they gave me the papers and I filled them out with a very shaky hand.
Next, a very intimidating man with big stretched ear lobes greeted me and asked me if I was the one who wanted the industrial. I replied with a meek yes.
Ben, who happened to be one of the nicest people ever, took me into one of the private piercing rooms in the back, put on some gloves, and showed me the needles he would be using and barbell. He told me they were sterile and all that junk and asked if I had any questions. The only question on my mind was the gauge of the barbell. He told me it was a 14g. What made me even more happy was that The Used was playing to occupy the silences between all of our chatter.
He cleaned and marked my ear and told me to look in the mirror, the placement was perfect. He took off his first pair of gloves and put on a fresh pair. He then had me lay down. He was setting up the needles, the barbell and the q-tips and things and then came over to me with the fancy silver tray. He put the needle up to the top part of my ear. It seemed like forever and I didn't know when he was going to pierce me so I asked him if he was going to tell me to breathe, he did. He told me to take a deep breath in and breathe out slowly. Breath In *puncture* breath out.
The first hole was all done and I screamed "WHAT!" Then Ben was like "What WHAT?, is that good or bad?" I said it was good, it didn't hurt at ALL! But Ben, being his sarcastic self, told me the second one hurt a lot more, I believed him but he told me it was a joke. To my surprise it did hurt a lot more, but it wasn't unbearable. The jewelry insertion was quite uncomfortable. But what I thought was the greatest thing was that I didn't bleed like at all so clean-up was really quick. He gave me the cleaning 'speech' and told me to come back in 10 weeks if I wanted the barbell changed.
3 months later it's almost fully healed and I plan on getting a pretty purple barbell to wear over the summer on my first trip out of the state of Florida.
Cherry Bomb is an awesome place with cool people and really nice, clean, private piercing rooms. If you happen to live in the Pasco area of Florida, I highly recommend this place to you for piercings and tattoos.
**Things I thought were neat about the room**
- Pretty colors on the walls
- a motion-sensor garbage can that he opened with his butt
- a mirror on the ceiling so I could watch if I wanted to
just thought I'd share that =]