Hey everyone, welcome to my second story for BME. :)
At A Glance Author Ron Contact spazzistical@hotmail.com IAM Taioka When A month ago Artist Myself Studio My bathroom... Location Mississauga, Ontario My name is Ron, and I'm a 15 (nearly 16, oh la la.) year old girl. The 'Nies/Slip' piercing gallery in BME caught my eye... it looked like such a simple piercing, but there were so few pictures. It looked unique, and also easy enough to do myself. I had recently self-pierced my helix, so I decided hey, let's give this a go.
It was about 3 days after I had just pierced my helix, I randomly got up from the computer and decided I was going to pierce. I found a small sewing needle (must have been 18 gauge at the most) and two different studs: one long-shafted one with a green gem at the end (I think it was stainless steel, but it was damn old.) and one long-shafted one with a diamond at the end (it was also damn old steel).
I decided to do the diamond. It matched my other piercings. Sadly, I was out of curved barbells or captives... so no choice, I had to pierce with the stud for now until I could get something proper! (Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea.)
I rubbed the needle and stud with rubbing alcohol, rubbed my ear with antiseptic jelly, just lined it up and started pushing. (Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea.) It came through after a long time, and it didn't hurt too much in my opinion. The flesh pop noise once it came through the other end gave me the same adrenaline rush. I pulled the needle out, popped the stud in, made sure it was secure, and there you go. It didn't even sting or swell very significantly afterwards. The placement, though not premeditated, was perfect. I'd left just enough space for the skin to breathe and to allow the minimal swelling.
After an hour or three of admiring my diamond Nies, I decided hell, let's do the other one. I picked up the pretty green gem that I'd loved previously and decided to pierce with it. I did the same procedure with the needle sterilization. (Or lack thereof..)
My aim this time was not so great... it was my left side after all. The needle went at an awkward angle and I nearly pierced my head. So... I backtracked a little. Maybe halfway back through the hole, and attempted to go more straight. It popped through the other side and looked pretty good! (I know, this sounds terrible.) I took the needle out right away, though. And when I tried to put the stud in... I couldn't find the back hole. So back it was, to the needle. I pushed the needle through... but the needle also couldn't find the back hole! I pushed and made a new one. Pulled the needle out. Couldn't find the back hole with the stud AGAIN.
By this time my ear was pretty sore, so I decided 'heck. Last try' So I went with the needle again, creating a third new hole. This time I kept it in long enough before pulling it out, and the stud found the exit comfortably. I closed the stud, but the angle was different from the other ear... there wasn't much room.
I left the studs in. My parents didn't notice them at all! And I thought they looked great. My diamond was coming along fine, but the green gem... well, let's say every time I reached to scratch behind my ear I'd find a few crusty crumbs. I picked them off and cleaned my ear each time I found some.
FINALLY, I manage to borrow some money and arrange a mall outing. I bought a packet of two 16ga circular barbells and two 16ga eyebrow barbells at Claire's, stainless steel. The barbells had cute blue acrylic cones and the eyebrow barbells had clear acrylic balls. As soon as I got home, I changed my helix (which I pierced with a 18ga titanium stud) stud to one of the circular barbells. It looked good and I knew my ear would appreciate the room. Then I tried to put the eyebrow barbell in my diamond Nies – it went through fine, but for the love of god I couldn't get that tiny ball on! So I ditched the eyebrow barbell and put the other circular barbell in that Nies. Uh oh... the green gem stud was still in there, and I had no more circular barbells.
I thought I'd try the eyebrow barbell, even though it didn't look impressive. And.. to my horror.. I couldn't get the green gem stud out. The back was locked on MEGA tight!! It became very sore, so I gave up. I kept the green stud in there for another three weeks... and while the correctly pierced Nies was coming along fine (it doesn't hurt to touch or move the piercing anymore, I'm sure it's healed now), the other was not. It was still crusting. So yesterday, I decided I NEEDED a second attempt at trying to get that gem stud out.
I gritted my teeth and pulled extra hard, and with super force, out it came. The hole was still red, and started bleeding slightly out the back. To my horror, the back of the stud was covered in some sort of weird sticky stuff I don't want to think about, and the little silver part under the gem was bloodstained. I cleaned my hands, and rubbed antiseptic jelly onto it. While rubbing, I could feel the fistula at the back was pretty big compared to the one at the front. I reason this is from all the re-piercing and backtracking I did there...
I cleaned up all the blood, since I just took out my 8ga main earlobe which was also being... nasty, though that's a different story.
I took the 16ga circular barbell I had previously in my helix (I switched the helix up to a new 14ga circular barbell), cleaned it with alcohol and pushed it in with no problem. It's not bleeding now, and the barbell gives it enough room to breathe. I'm sitting in hope of that terrible fistula healing up properly. If it continues being gross, I'm going to have to take this one out, sadly. :(
Wish me luck.
REMEMBER, DON'T DO WHAT I DID! DON'T SELF PIERCE! GET PROPER EQUIPMENT! (Never trust studs..)
Happy piercing!