When I started getting piercings, I had them all planned out. My first were obviously lobes, then navel, then second holes in my lobes and then tongue. The next on my list was my Industrial, and so I waited until I was in a position in my life where I could get it and it could heal with suitable time and then I could worry about retainers for work... That position ended up being while I was in my first year of college, just after the winter break.
At A Glance Author VainRadical Contact VainRadical@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Never said. Studio A Cut Above Location Bridgwater, Somerset, England So it was decided that after college started back up after Christmas, that I would go get my lovely new piercing. I couldn't wait!
It was after tutor, on a Tuesday, and my friend and I went into town to where she had gotten her tongue pierced. Anything I had heard about the place was very good, so I felt like I didn't have to worry at all.
It was a hair salon, but the piercing artist who worked there said she had been doing piercings for 14 years I should think of the studio as any typical studio -- in other words, she wasn't a hairdresser, just shared a building with some.
By this point I was excited, I didn't care about whether or not I should have been put off by the fact I was in the back room of a hair salon, I just wanted my piercing. So I went back and I sat on the bed that they had (like what you'd find in a doctors office) and she asked for ID and so forth.
While we were talking, one of the hair dressers came in and asked if she could watch. I wasn't asked if that was ok, the artist answered for me and said it was ok. Needless to say, I was starting to wonder what would happen to my ear. All that sprung to mind at that point was that at least this wasn't a DIY piercing, as then it would go wrong... So I ignored that problem as well. My friend on the other hand was told to wait outside, as it may put the lady off... I was astounded by that, and in my head all I could think about was the fact that the woman had already taken my money, I should just grin and bear it.
After we went through the legal stuff, like signing forms and proving I was who I said I was, she went to a cupboard and pulled out a plastic tub. It was full of bars, all sizes, sealed in the individual plastic and paper coatings to keep them clean. She asked what color I wanted, and then got her needle out of a drawer (that was sealed as well) as well as a pen to mark my ear.
The whole time she was chatting away to the other lady, leaving me to sit there and at no point did she ask me about aftercare, the size of my bar or anything of that nature. Before that point, I had been pierced by a family friend who knew me and my parents, so thankfully I already knew all of that stuff, but it still made me uneasy. Also, all my other mods were not done on cartilage, and I will tell you here and now, flesh is easier to heal then cartilage, hands down.
Before she pierced me, she used what felt like a wet wipe on my ear and froze the area slightly, still chatting away and then just stuck the needle in my ear. I didn't even realize until it was too late. No warning, no deep breath, just a sharp pain followed by another before she said "Ok, let's get your bar out." I was still in awe by the brutality and insensitivity I was experiencing, I was just glad I hadn't jumped as that could have ended painfully for me.
I'm not sure if the bar was sterilized or autoclaved before it was sealed, but it sure as hell wasn't before it was put into my ear. After the bar was ruthlessly put in and tightened, she began mopping the blood from my ear and the side of my head. I'm a bleeder, I expect it, but I wasn't expecting that much.
It was only then that she said that I need to keep it clean and it would take, in her words, up to three months to heal. I only know now how wrong she was, as it's been six months and it still hasn't fully healed, but the story didn't end there.
I was told, by her, that the solution Claires sells would be suitable to keep my ear clean and that I could get away with only using that. With flesh piercings, like my navel, I could get away with that somehow, but I should have known better here. Within a month my ear was extremely swollen, hot, pussy and very, very infected.
My ex knows piercings like the back of his hand, and came to the conclusion that the bar wasn't properly clean, she had pierced my ear badly (the holes don't match up properly, causing painful aggro when I wear a straight bar through both) and that all in all, I had made a bad artist choice and didn't know enough about cartilage piercings.
I shouldn't simply talk badly about the woman, she was clearly an idiot but I was as well. Thankfully I can right my mistake and my ex has helped me with that, I don't know how this would have ended if I hadn't have asked him for help.
So we went out, bought two separate bars for my ear and after my treatment of medication for the infection, I kept it clean and thankfully now (and seemingly only now) my ear is on the right track to being nicely healed. It still gets swollen and hot, but I now know what to do -- something I hadn't been told about before but I shouldn't have relied on that.
I made a stupid mistake, but thankfully that mistake has not resulted in a wasted experience, I still have the piercing and I love it dearly as it taught me a valuable lesson -- don't trust your body in the hands of people who you do not know will take good care of you. If you're going to get a piercing, know as much as possible about it, and if you're going to go to a new studio, research and ask as many questions as you can.
Don't do what I did and just assume that because someone else had a good piercing, that you will too and please don't assume all the piercings are the same.