I'd wanted another piercing for a long time but just hadn't had the money. But when the time came and I had some extra cash to spend, it just so happened I had cash enough for two piercings. I decided on a snug piercing in my right ear and a conch piercing for my left. I wasn't nervous; perhaps because my tragus didn't really hurt, or because I'm not the type to get squeamish over that sort of thing. The only thing to make me a little nervous was the fact that I knew the girl who would be doing the piercing –I'd gone to high school with her. Because of this, I knew she hadn't had much experience and hadn't been working at Divine for very long. However, I went through with it anyway –just because she was new did not mean she was good. Besides, I was probably being slightly delusional, thinking everything would go as smoothly as my last piercing. My tragus, which I had done at Bushido (who, sadly, no longer does piercings), was the easiest experience; it healed just fine, witho ut issue. So I laid down, observing my surroundings as I did so: everything seemed clean, professional, overall fine (except for the construction going on upstairs, making the roof shake and giving me the weird feeling of being in some bunker in a war zone). Finally, it came to the part where the needle was shoved through my ear. The conch was the one I picked to get done first. I have to admit, I was surprised because it hurt a lot more than I expected. My first one really didn't hurt at all, so I was rather shocked to find this one to be exceptionally painful. According to my receipt, she used a 14g barbell for my conch. I don't really know what this means, to tell you the truth. I was also surprised by the large amount of blood –not that blood bothers me, I just wouldn't think cartilage would bleed so much... The next one, my snug, I assumed would be less painful, but I think it was worse, for some reason. But I powered through it, pushing back my feelings of nausea which I was surprised to feel. When she was all finished and had cleaned the blood of the sides of my head, I slowly sat up, thanked her and then checked her work in the mirror. They looked great and I was happy. I thanked her once more (being sure to be extra polite, seeing as I knew her and everything) and went to pay. I left Divine with two burning red ears and down 130 dollars but, overall, satisfied.
At A Glance Author Byx Contact Byx@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Stevie Studio Divine Location Calgary, Alberta Fast forward a couple weeks.
My piercing's weren't doing so well, recovery wise. They were bleeding and swollen and I had to wear my hair down because, frankly, my ears looked ridiculous. I tried to keep them as clean as possible; though I admit I probably touched them far too much. That coupled with the fact that I work at a pet store and my hands come in contact to a number of very uncleanly things all day long caused my poor ears to swell larger and larger. I patiently waited, hoping they would finally start to heal with time. I loved them but after awhile I started to become rather discouraged. They weren't getting any better, there was always blood crusted around the ends and my ears were big and fat. I hated every time my dad gave me that "told-you-so" look to try and prove that he was right, I shouldn't have got them in the first place. Another problem; it hurt to sleep. Since both ears were sore, I couldn't sleep easily on either of my sides. Every morning there was more blood than when I had gon e to bed. I knew then that I should have stuck to getting one piercing done at a time. While the conch was easier to manage, my snug, however, became the biggest issue. My ear was so swollen that my skin was starting to cover the actual earring. It was getting to the point were the end of the bar was completely covered and I could barely pull it out again. I didn't want my skin healing over the actual earring because then there'd be no way of getting it out. I really didn't want to have to take the earring out entirely, so for another week or two I constantly cleaned it and pulled it out from where it was sinking into my swollen skin. After doing this for what seemed like forever, my battle just didn't seem worth it anymore. As much as I hated to think of taking it out, I felt it's what I would have to do. I put it off till the last minute, but one day when I actually feared I wouldn't be able to find the end of the earring again, as my skin had grown over it so much, I deci ded I would take it out then. I sat on my sink for about an hour, struggling to pull it out while wincing against the pain. Finally, I pulled the skin back enough to find the end, unscrew it and pull the earring out. It was a really upsetting moment, though it was a relief at the same time –no more worrying! I was sad because the snug had been my favorite of the two and, I thought, it looked the best. I'll probably make another attempt at it one day, but not right yet... it's been about 3 months and my conch isn't completely healed yet. So I'm waiting until it's 100% fine before getting anything else done.