My addiction to plastic and piercings

At A Glance Author KiD HaVok Contact KiD HaVok@bme.anon Artist some women, some guy named Bob Studio in a mall Location Baltimore, MD

The summer before 8th grade, I begged my parents to let me get my left ear pierced (the cool thing to do back then). They finally let me do it, along with my friend and my cousin. I was psyched, I bought this gold snake earring to put in it once it healed. Well let me tell you, it took forever to get that piercing stud off! When I did though, I put the new earring in and I thought I was the raddest thing around. Over the next few years I would beg my parents again to let me get another hole and to also get my right ear done. They never let me though. Finally, when I was in 12th grade, my friend gave me a mohawk (God, I looked dumb!). When my dad saw this, he wasn't too pleased. He knew about the punk music I was into and wouldn't had minded it so much, but it was a shock. So he made me sit down and he shaved it off. Needless to say I was both upset and pissed. I decided never to go anywhere without a hat until my hair grew back. I pretty much left the house for a few hours that night. When I came home, my dad had realized that what he did was wrong and told me the next day I could go get pierced. And so I did, I got a second hole in my left ear and one in my right. I was pleased for a while, then I felt off-center. I knew that Hot Topic pierced ears fr free on your 18th birthday, so I went and had it done.

I remember looking at pictures of Tom Delonge from Blink and wondering where he got his earrings from (plugs). Then one day my friends Tony and Jon came over my house and jon had this black thing in his ear. They pretty much explained to me about stretching holes. A few months later I went to a local record store and bought some 16 gauge hoops and put them through. Then I went to Hot Topic again and bought 14 ga. plugs (funny looking little things). I eventually got fed up with the little things and went downtown to a store called Karmic Connection. This store is mostly for potheads, but they have plugs for like $6.99, how can you beat that? So I suffered being around burnouts to get a good deal. I then went to this store called Chat St. and talked to the piercer there. His name was Bob. He eventually talked me into letting him stretch my ears with tapers. It hurt pretty badly. I went from a 14 to a 10, to me, that was pain. From that day on, I had the addiction. One thing almost stopped me that night. When I got home, I took out my left plug to see the hole, and blood pretty much poured out of it. Rather than freak, I put some Neosporin on the plug and put it back in. It healed up eventually.

When I went back to Chat St., I talked to another guy who told me tapering wasn't good and I should use fish weights to actually stretch the hold. So a few nights later, I put a binder ring through each ear hole and hung fish weights off of them. A few hours later I pushed an 8 ga. through. I don't know why, but I became physically ill. I literally prayed before I fell asleep just incase this was it. When I awoke the next morning, I thought it looked to big and took it out and put a 10 back in. A few nights later I had both holes at 8. I thought I would stop there, but I didn't.

I remember being both jealous and in awe at two guys in two of my favorite bands. Tom Delonge from Blink-182 and Mike Herrera from MxPx. 1. they had some cool tattoos, and 2. They both had their lip pierced. I after a while I said "screw it" and got my lip done. I thought I would cry (I am a wuss after all), but amazingly, I don't remember feeling a thing. No pain at all! A few days later it swelled up a bit, but that was expected. My dad was pissed, I have to wear a clear plug at work, but I'm happy with it. He seems to have gotten over it a bit though... he may not like, but it doesn't piss him off.

I now have 2 gauges in both ears. After the 8s, I got tired and just decided to push them through no matter how much it hurt. It just gives me a rush. I didn't taper or stretch, I just PUSHED as hard as I could until they went through. I think I want to go to a 0, but I don't know, that's kinda big. My friends have sized down from a 2 to like 4s and 6s and smaller, but none have gone down from a 0, so I'm not sure if I want to do that yet. For now I'm happy with my lip ring and my 2 gauge plugs.