I had my ears pierced once before, when I was 14. I went to one of those mall piercing places, and they pierced them with a gun. One of the piercings went in at an angle which made it impossible for me to push a new earring through. So they closed up, and I didn't try again until age 20.
At A Glance Author lyric When A year ago Artist Eric Studio Loonar Location MA, US I now have more piercings, but this story is about my first earlobe piercings last year. I call them my first, because they were the first ones that I still have now.
I went to the piercing place and Eric had me write down my information, then he checked my ID and I signed a waiver that stated I was not pregnant, etc. I went into the room and sat in the chair. The place looked clean and sterile, it was also a tattoo shop so there was only one piercing room, but it was closed off by a curtain for privacy. Eric explained that it was better to use a needle than a gun, because a gun is too harsh and I remembered reading a pamphlet given to me by another piercer that explained the differences between guns and needles. I realized that the only places that still used guns were the mall ones, and the people that specialized in piercings did it the correct way. I was much more comfortable knowing that the needle was just going to slide right through, as opposed to a gun jamming into my earlobe.
I looked at the earrings, and the ones he was planning on using were the same style, but 2 different sizes. I chose the larger ones because they looked like they would be easier to clean because they wouldn't hug my ear so tight. He described what he was doing, and he marked the spots on my ears where he would be piercing. After a bit of adjusting the spots, we were ready.
I did have a small lump of scar tissue on one of my ears from when I was 14 and the piercer had used the gun at an angle, and the scarring occurred from when I had tried to put new earrings in before realizing that the path didn't go straight through. It had damaged my earlobe, but luckily it wasn't a problem to re-pierce through.
Eric mentioned that in rare cases, the earring might migrate so it wouldn't be in the exact spot that we were planning on piercing it. He said that was rare and I replied that it would be barely noticeable anyway so I didn't mind. After talking about that, he told me to take a deep breath in...
..and let it out. I felt a small, sharp pain as he pushed the needle through. It was through before I knew it, and the pain was gone, all I could feel was a little bit of pulling and tugging. It was uncomfortable, but not really painful as he removed the needle and quickly inserted the earring. It started out feeling like a bee sting, then as soon as it was done it just felt like someone had squeezed my ear really hard. All in all, the first ear was no problem. I was excited to look at it but we still had the other ear to go.
The other ear hurt more, because he was piercing through the scar tissue. I didn't realize at first why it hurt more, but Eric mentioned that was probably the reason. It still wasn't that bad, though, and the whole piercing of both ears only took one minute.
I got up and looked in the mirror. My ears were red, but there was no blood or anything yucky. I could still see the marks from the purple pen he had made, but I still thought my ears looked beautiful. I was very happy with them, and before I paid and left Eric gave me some sea salt and instructions for aftercare.
On the ride home, I was afraid to touch them because I thought it would hurt. But after awhile, I finally did, and I was surprised because they didn't hurt at all! I could rotate them and they would simply slide right through. I kept up on my cleaning routine twice a day and they were great. It turns out that one of my earrings, the one that was pierced through the scar tissue, did migrate a bit, but that was actually a good thing since I can no longer see or feel the scar tissue anymore.
One problem I had, though, was after a week and a half, the skin around the piercings was starting to peel and flake. I wasn't sure what the problem was, and I researched it online and found nothing. But after I stopped using the brand of soap I was using, the flaking stopped. I realized that the soap irritated my skin. It wasn't a problem when I washed my hands, but I guess the skin on my ears was more sensitive. I still do use that brand of soap to clean my piercings today, though, because the flaking has gotten less and less with each piercing, and it's the simplest brand of soap I can find.
The real problem with my piercings, though, was about 4 months later when I had already changed the earrings a few times. I thought all was well, but one day I touched one of my earrings and I felt a strange pain. So I tried to rotate the earring, it was a post earring with a butterfly back, and it wouldn't move! I didn't know what to think, so I tried to take the earring out. It wouldn't come out.
I had no idea what to do, I couldn't get to my piercer that day, because the place was half an hour away, I had to work, and I believe they were closed that day anyway. I decided to clean the area and pull the earring out no matter how much trouble it gave me, because there was obviously something wrong with it and I needed to get it out.
I pulled and pulled for half an hour, and I noticed some swelling. I had been pulling gently, but after a while even the gentle pulling was irritating my ear. Finally, the earring came out, but I noticed it looked shorter than usual. I was relieved that it came out, but was in a panic when the thought occurred to me that I may still have part of the earring in my ear!
I decided to try inserting another earring, which would tell me if there was a piece in my ear if it didn't go through. And maybe if there was, I would be able to push the piece out. The earring only went through halfway, so I figured there must be something in there. I decided to stop trying to remove it myself, because it was getting painful and swelling, so I called the doctor and made an appointment for a few days ahead.
My ear was still swollen for the first and second day, but by the third day the swelling had gone down. Since the appointment was the next day, I decided to give my ear a good cleaning and see if the piece of the earring was ready to come out by itself. While I was cleaning it, I noticed a silver piece poking out, so I grabbed a mirror and tried to view it from the back. It was so deep inside my earlobe, though, I couldn't remove it, so I decided to wait until the next day after all.
When I went to the doctor, I found it humorous, yet a little disturbing, that the nurse was trying to tell the doctor that there was a piece of an earring stuck in my ear, and the doctor thought she meant INSIDE my actual ear canal. That would have been a much worse procedure to remove it, so I was slightly relieved that didn't happen to me.
The doctor talked to me for awhile about what had happened, and I asked her how much it would hurt. She told me it would be painful, but it would be over in a minute, and I thought that was okay, I just wanted the thing out! She put her gloves on, got her tiny scissors and another instrument, and all of a sudden I felt an incredibly sharp, deep pain that lasted much longer and hurt much worse than the piercing itself. It hurt so much, I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed the examining table and tensed up my whole body. Thankfully, it only took about 5 seconds to get it out, although it felt like it took much longer. Looking back on it, it wasn't that horrible, but in my whole life I've gotten pierced 9 times, and that hurt more than all of them combined, it seemed!
Anyway, it turned out I had the whole back of my earring embedded in my ear! She took it out in one whole piece, looking clean and shiny as new. Which was strange, considering there was a bit of blood coming from where she had pulled it out. There was an infection since it had been in there for so long, so I got a prescription for some antibiotics and felt no discomfort after I left the office.
For three months, I didn't put any earrings in that spot. I had other piercings by that time, but I always left that one alone, assuming it had closed up and I'd have to get it repierced. But one day, to my delight, I stuck an earring in there just out of curiosity, and I did have to push a little, but it went right through! I was overjoyed. My ears were back to normal...at least the "normal" that involves plenty of beautiful holes.