I promised this would be a two-part experience story. Well, now it's looking to be at least three parts.
At A Glance Author Niles Contact Niles@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Danielle DeBonis Studio Artistic Skin Designs Location Indianapolis, IN To recap, in part one I discussed my motivation for having two parallel surface bars pierced into my forearm and the skepticism I initially faced when talking to piercers about the procedure. Basically, I used to have a bunch of decorative piercings, especially genital, but then I got sick of taking care of them and they no longer made me feel special. So, I resolved to only get a piercing if it was very useful. After a few months with no metal, I decided to get a watch pierced to my wrist. To read the entire experience, visit http://www.bmezine.com/pierce/11-surface/A50926/srfmywat.html.
Right after I got the piercings, it was kind of rocky. I used H2Ocean ($13 per bottle at Artistic!) to clean them regularly for the first few days, but I was so liberal with it that I soon ran out. Unable to afford more, I tried to concoct something comparable out of household ingredients.
First I tried saltwater made from ordinary table salt, which irritated the ever loving crap out of them. After that, I tried lubricating the staples with Neosporin. It had worked well with my PA, so I figured it might work here.
Bad idea! They swelled up and got crazy infected, actually becoming hot to the touch. So I did some reading and backed off with any treatment, instead applying a hot compress several times a day to accelerate my body's natural defense system.
When they calmed down, I tried one last time to self-medicate by creating a slurry from Neosporin and table salt, which felt like injecting fire into my wrist. Afraid that I would lose the piercing, I returned to Artistic to beg advice.
Danielle was blown away by how well they were healing. She toted me around to the different artists to show off her project and graciously gave me a free bottle of H2Ocean.
>From there, I followed a regimen of H2Ocean every six hours, which left me with little pain and reduced visible signs of recent piercing quite rapidly. I went ahead and bought a nice watch to use in the project, had some custom barbell ends made so I could fasten it to the surface bars.
I was planning on linking it up through a pretty elaborate contraption, actually. I wanted the watch to have some float in case I snagged it and to prevent the skin underneath from rotting.
But when all the requisite parts arrived, the measurements were just a bit off. So, I proceeded to try and bend them – with proper metalworking tools, mind you – and learned one valuable lesson: titanium does not bend, it breaks. Spectacularly.
The next problem came about when the piercings got to a certain point in the healing process and suddenly quit. No improvement. They didn't hurt, but the holes stayed pink and scabby. Additionally, the area directly above the bar became pink and occasionally scabby, which I initially interpreted as migration.
This turned out to not be the case, however. The piercings were simply being irritated repeatedly by natural motion. The piercer and I decided that if they were migrating, there would be a clearly evident change in the depth of the staple ends and they would become much more sensitive. At another piercer's suggestion, I tried emu oil to accelerate healing, but I was unimpressed with the results. I just ended up with a really fascinated dog, as the stuff makes you smell like a pork chop. It also creates one hell of an oily mess, so you can't really take it with you to work or even wear a shirt when it's freshly applied.
The final problem came when my brother moved to town. We are best friends, but like many guys our age, our relationship is somewhat... abusive. I hit him, he hits me back. He makes me look bad at work, I program gay porn into his computer. It's generally fun, but not good on already delicate piercings.
They bled for the first time in two months last week. Not gushing and not painful, but way disappointing. It was then that I decided something had to be done.
For a while I've been planning on getting magnetic implants in the bridge of my nose to hold armless glasses in place, and I thought that the same idea could be applied here. After talking to Danielle at Artistic on the south side of Indy about it for more than half an hour, we agreed that the existing staples could be removed and replaced with cylindrical neodymium magnets, which would then be sutured into place.
And that's where the project sits. I'm going down there to talk with her tomorrow, and we'll hopefully be doing it the next day. It's been weird not knowing what time it is for the last few months.
Stay tuned for episode Three!