I have had a bit of a rough life. From about the age of two my mom was in and out, running off with other men, and when she would return there would be complete chaos in the house. Fighting was a big problem. Things would get smashed or thrown out. It was just avery difficult time. All I really had at this point to keep myself sane was music and friends. Then around the age of seven or eight my mom and dad finally got a divorce.
At A Glance Author Me Contact kcthajuggalo@aol.com When N/A We moved from the city out to a suburb and I hated it. I had no idea how to make friends and I was all that popular. In the apartment complex my dad started talking to a neighbor. She turned out to be a professional body piercer. That when it all happened. I FELL IN LOVE WITH PIERCINGS. I would always go to her and try and con her into giving me a new piercing. Around the age of nine or so is when I got my first professional piercing done. I remember it like it was yesterday, I already had my lobes done from doing it myself (a bad idea) so I decided to get my cartilage done. Just a standard 12g piercing in the helix. I loved everything about the piercing and there after.
The physical piece of a needle going through my ear really excited me. I loved the look of the piercing and the taboo of being nine years old and having a helix piercing. My family, all except for my mom and dad, hated it and wanted me to take it out and not let me get any more piercings. But I refused to take it out and from then on continued to get more piercings. By middle school I had several lobe piercings and a few more in my cartilage.
When I was in seventh grade I got my septum done. I wanted other piercings but by that point my dad had grown tired of me getting piercings and refused to let me get any more so I realized I would be able to just flip my piercing up and he would not be able to see it. Around this time is when all of my problems really started happening. I became addicted to drugs, including the deadly and downright horrible crack-cocaine. I was also beginning to have trouble with depression. I was from then hospitalized for psychiatric reasons. When I was admitted they forced me to take out all of my piercings. I lost control, they were taking away a part of who I was by taking away my piercings. I became aggressive towards the staff there. Finally I was released after a few weeks. As soon as I got out I went to Icon Piercing Studio and had all of my piercings redone except for my septum. I felt like me again. Unfortunately this was not the last hospitalization for me.
When I was in eighth grade I started getting hospitalized monthly. I would go in for about a week at a time. Every time they would want me to take out my piercings, but I refused. They seemed to finally accept that. I was still having trouble with addiction and I could not afford that and my normal piercing habits at the same time. I also lost self-respect and did not care about anything, including the maintenence involved with having body piercing and over time they became infected or other reasons for me to have to remove them. I was really down and I hated the way things were but I could not change it. I was hospitalized several more times and was admitted to residential chemical dependence rehabilitation. I was starting to feel better about myself. As this began happening I wanted to get my piercings redone but the facility would not allow it. You could not have any piercings, nor music which was a major coping skill for myself. After a while I began to travel back to de pression. I started to self mutilate. I was sent to a psychiatric center.
They allowed me to have my piercings there so I on every pass I would go out and get a piercing. After time I had all of my piercings back and I was starting to get out of the depression. They released me after six months back to my fathers house. He became very aggressive with me at this point. I relapsed on drugs, and the cycle started all over again.
I was given Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) in which I would have to take out all my piercings. This time I decided to leave them out, at least for a while. At the age of seventeen I was sent to a facility over 3 hours from my home. I did a lot of self work there and was able to be sent to a lower level of care much closer to home. I made some huge progress and I promised myself that was the end of all of the hospitalizations and the rehabilitation centers. I knew it was time to get on with my life. This time I did not get all of my piercings redone as I decided I was going to get a job. I did get my left conch done at four gauge. I also got my helix redone a four gauge. Now I am in recovery from illegal substances as well as taking medication to help with bipolar disorder and depression. Things are going very well. Through all this trouble I kept my love of music, as well as piercings. I am going to be starting an apprenticeship at a local piercing studio soon and I am ho ping to one day own my own piercing studio where I can play my music and do share my interest and knowledge in piercing with others and hope they enjoy their piercings as much as I do.