I have recently become increasingly involved with the whole Body Modification culture; well I call it a culture. I think it's beautiful and could easily spend most of my wage on tattoos and piercings but I have a kid and so I need to be responsible. They seem to speak to me (I'm not crazy, I can assure you) and reflect my inner personality brilliantly.
At A Glance Author Alex Contact Alex@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Tony Studio Grasshopper Location Harrow
Anyhoo, I won't bore you with any more of that! On to the "nitty gritty", as they say.
I had been looking for a unique piercing for quite some time. I already have my belly button done-that was my second and the one that gave me the "bug". So off I went to my trusty friend, "Mr. Internet", to find something that tickled my fancy. I came across Bmezine (an invaluable site) and immediately fell in love with a hand piercing. It would have been the webbing between the thumb and index finger. However, I was advised by my piercer that this was a bad idea. He said it would probably heal quite nicely and then I would just end up tearing it out somehow.
"Damn", I thought, "what the heck now"? You know when you have your heart set on something? It just takes a while for you to let go of the idea. The mourning process came to an end rather quickly however, as soon as I stumbled across the Conch piercing!! I wanted it and couldn't rest until I had it. I read and then read some more; healing times, possible risks (of which there are quite a few scary ones). I looked at many images and then looked at some more. I scrutinized the good, the bad and then some, well, many beauties.
I must say, if you are considering getting a piercing I highly recommend that you do your research! It is so important that you educate yourself on what is and what is not acceptable when being pierced. The hygiene, the risks involved, the healing process, the correct type of jewellery. The list is endless!
Although I had been planning and researching the piercing for some time, it was kind of a spur if the moment thing. I was free that morning and so off I went on an unusually hot summer's day (I say unusual; I live in the UK). After I had taken my kiddie to school I made my way, all excited and jittery like in to Harrow town centre. I went in to Grasshopper or as I like to call it, Aladdin's cave (I press my nose up against the shop glass window regularly, dreaming of what delights lay within) and was politely greeted by two guys. Now what happened next is slightly fuzzy, not sure how but I was then seen to by the smaller of the two guys. Tony his name was, Tony being short for something else. A rather nice name actually but I will not do it injustice by misspelling it.
I told him what I wanted and he explained to me what jewellery he would use and how much it would cost. He inspected my ear and explained that as it was small (seriously, they are the size of a three year olds) the piercing would have to be placed back slightly. I opted for the Zircon "gold" titanium bar with a jewelled ball for the front. This brought the grand total to £30; it's cheaper if you go for the "silver" titanium jewellery. Sorry, I don't recall this price.
He gave me a form to fill out; disclaimer, name, address, age, etc. Then he went off (casually chatting to his colleague about the general running of the shop) to clean the room in which he would carry out the procedure. After a few minutes he called me in, he was still cleaning but this was good. I was able to see how thorough he was being and how instruments were stored. The room although small and somewhat cluttered, was clean, orderly and contained a large mirror along one wall so that clients could easily inspect their brand new tattoos or piercings. My heart was pounding heavily at this point! I asked him about after care, keloids and such. He went through the risks and how to care for the piercing. I was satisfied he knew what he was talking about.
He then got an alcohol pad or two and cleaned my ear thoroughly. Then he got out what can only be described as a small torch and a felt tip pen and marked the area to be pierced. The ink was blue. He flashed the torch behind my ear and inspected his handy work. It was safe to assume that he was looking for the correct placement.
"Ok", he said "can you sit up here for me please? At least I think that is what he said. Either way he said something and I sat up on the couch, darting my eyes around the room trying to find something to focus on. I settled for a laptop that's wallpaper was of a rather cute baby which turned out to be his son. It gave me something to talk about which I did.
I lay down on the couch and was manoeuvred a bit by me and then a bit by him into the correct position. At some point some music was put on, whether it was before or after I lay down is anyone's guess. The jewellery made its way in to a small "cup" of sterile solution and then on to a small table beside the couch. He put on some gloves at some stage and could have danced a jig!! I don't recall any of that stuff but it must have been good because if I had of witnessed anything untoward going on I would have waved red flag pronto.
"Are you ready" he said, "Yep", I said and then in went the needle. It was.....Actually a piece of cake! I recalled all at once the piercings to my earlobes I had had when I was about ten. They were done with a gun and were excruciating! This was relatively painless, there was very little blood. He continued to fiddle about and then was asked something by a co- worker and then went off the answer. "Oh, I'm finished by the way" he said. I was gobsmacked, "was that all"? I had set myself up for much more than that. I sat up and he came in and got me to look in the mirror. There it was my shiny new conch piercing, how pretty it was!
He went in to after care again and showed me how to clean it. He told me to use my common sense and if anything felt odd I should come back and let him have a look at it. I then paid for my "ear art" and then made my way home.
That evening I was still in shock, my ear was in no pain and I cleaned it well with no trouble. It was fine to sleep, as I never slept on the left side anyway. Friday morning came and went without incident and so did the afternoon, the evening and that night! Saturday morning was also fine but by that afternoon something peculiar had begun to happen. My ear had swollen and was quite hot. There were a few drops of blood on the cotton bud whilst cleaning and the gland behind my ear had also become swollen. This worried me but I assumed that I had done something to aggravate the piercing inadvertently. By that night I found that the pain had become unbearable and that it would shoot down in to my jaw and up in to my head periodically. I winced with every shot and had visions of my ear going black and oozing pus. I know, I know I am a drama queen. I finally pulled myself together and got myself down to the pharmacy and bought some Ibuprofen. This would not only help with the pain but reduce the swelling.
Needless to say I took as many as I could (safely) within the next few hours, cleaned my ear again and then attempted to get some sleep. By Sunday the swelling had gone down slightly but I still felt I needed to get Tony to have quick look at my ear.
I went back to the shop and he inspected my ear, saying that it had taken up all the available space on the bar due to all the swelling and that he could change the bar to a longer one which would help to reduce swelling, especially if I managed to disturb the piercing again. I voiced my concerns here. I read that changing the jewellery before the ten week period was a no, no but he assured me that it would be fine and so we went ahead. This again, was a very pain free process. Well, he we absolutely right, within an hour, possibly less, my ear felt like my own again, the swelling had subsided and it was not so hot.
Over the next few days my ear continued to heal nicely and crust over. I was not fussed about the crusting as I knew this was normal.
About a week ago I notice a small, pink lump at the back of my ear around the hole of the piercing, I was pretty hacked off but knew that it was hypertrophic scarring. Luckily I have tones of tea tree oil lying around, I swear by it. I began to apply it three times daily and within four days the lump was gone.
Ok, so all that takes me up to present day. The piercing is magnificent and constantly attracts all types of attention. Some people just stare (I am used to this though, I am a female with a buzz cut) while others will say how good it looks and ask if it hurt. I love it! I have plans to get my right ear done tomorrow!
If you are thinking about having this piercing done, I say go right ahead. Although I know it's not yet healed completely (it still crusts a very small amount), it really hasn't given much trouble. Once I had the initial bar changed, all was smooth sailing. The bump on the back was although annoyed was not painful and is quite common from what I have read. If you get one slap on the tea tree and don't fret. I don't feel it unless I forget its there and accidently bang it but even then I don't really get pain just a dull ache for a bit.
If you're ever down this way, I highly recommend Grasshopper. Ask for Tony or George. George did my last tattoo and he was just as cool and laid back as Tony.
Tony advised me against having the webbing on my hand pierced (mentioned above) and this helped me to feel more confident in him. He wasn't just going to do it for the sake of it and then take money!
Well, I hope I haven't bored you to tears?? I tried to recall as much as I could and hope that my account is beneficial.
Happy Piercing!! x