I'd always wanted and industrial piercing since I saw one online when I was 14, but my parents would never let me get one. The more I begged, the more they said no and I eventually gave up on the idea of getting one until I turned 18. Well, 18 came and passed and I didn't have time to get an industrial with going to college and having a job at the same time so I didn't worry about it for a while. When I was 25, and I finally got a job as a vet like I've always wanted, one of my co-worker's friends came in with his dog and he had an industrial. Then I started wanting one again and all my co-workers were saying how gross they thought it was and "Why would you want one of those?". So I decided to wait some more. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and went to get it done.
At A Glance Author Ollie When A week ago Artist Rick The piercing place seemed nice and I met Rick. Rick had done 7 industrials that month and I was pretty impressed by that so I decided to let him do it. I made an appointment for a week later because my birthday was in two days so I decided I didn't want to deal with a piercing at my birthday. I have three cartilage piercings in my right ear that I love and I wanted more but I though that I wanted something different and I knew an industrial was perfect for me so I wasn't hesitant when I stepped into the shop. It was about noon and business was picking up so I sat in a chair near some people who were getting matching tattoos to wait for Rick. Then I started thinking, hey, I'd like a tattoo too but that'd have to wait for a while. I was nervous, I've read stories about how much industrials hurt and they scared me but I kept thinking "No pain no gain". After waiting about 5 minutes Rick called me back. He took me into a small room and I sat on a stool while he prepped equipment. "Are you scared?" he asked with a smile. "Yeah sort of" I replied. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine, it's going to hurt a bit but nothing totally unbearable." I thought about my other cartilage piercings and they didn't hurt too much so I thought I was probably going to be alright. He finished sterilizing the equipment and took a marker and a mirror. "Alright, let's see where we are going to put this." Rick said. He gave me two options for where I could put it, one was a steeper angle than the other one. I chose the steeper one. He held the bar up to my ear to make sure I liked it and made the placement marks. "This is going to look great on you." Rick said with a smile and picked up his needle.
At this point I was really nervous but I knew this was the only way I was going to get what I wanted. "Alright, take a deep breath" he said as he passed the needle through the first target. It didn't hurt too bad but I knew that there was one hole that hurt worse than the other one and was sure that it was coming up. "Are you alright?" Rick asked. I said yes and he told me to take another deep breath. I did what he said and he passed the needle through again. This time it did hurt, as I knew it would, but it was over pretty fast. "Great, now I'm going to put the bar in" Rick said as he grabbed it from the table that held his tools. He screwed the balls on and held up the mirror for me to see. It looked fantastic, just the way I hoped it would and I was really happy with how it turned out. He went over aftercare with me, and gave me his number in case something happened. I paid, bought some H2Ocean, thanked Rick and was off to show my new industrial to the world. The first day I was in quite a bit of pain but I cleaned it and it felt better. The first night I slept on it and woke up with dried on blood but after that I didn't sleep on it and it didn't bleed. My industrial is by far my favorite piercing to date.
For those of you thinking of getting an industrial, I say go for it, it isn't tea and crumpets but it isn't terrible. Just try not to sleep on it or it most likely will bleed and cause you some pain but I believe it is definitely worth every bit of money and pain.
Thanks for reading,
Ollie