My first piercing came about the autumn after my 18th birthday. I went with a group of friends from college to get my nostril pierced. It was a great experience for a first piercing--the studio was clean, the piercer was friendly and knowledgable, and needless to say, it started off an addiction. After that my experiences ranged from unpleasant but ultimately satisfying (labret) to disasterous (nipple).
At A Glance Author ruby baby Contact ruby baby@bme.anon Artist Bianca Studio Andromeda Location St Marks Place, NYC It's now 2 years later. I'm living in New York and working at a major retail store that has a strict dress code that includes no piercings and no "outrageous" hair. Fortunately, since the store is located in New York, what's on the books is not necessarily what the managers and even district managers are forced to go by. I still have to take out my labret stud while I'm on the floor, but to my surprise I was only complimented when I cut my hair into a "Chelsea girl" style and then dyed it purple.
After a friend introduced me to BME via his IAM page, I started to feel the itch again. It had been over a year since my terrible nipple piercing, and I decided, what the hell, I'll start shopping around. My original hope was to get double side labrets and then wear clear acrylic flat back balls on them while at work. So I started asking customers whose work I liked a couple of questions--"Where did you get your work done? Did you like it?" etc. After about the third or fourth person said "Andromeda on St. Marks Place" I decided to at least check it out.
I'd picked up one of those advertising post cards that every buisness here seems to have, and I visited the website and was extremely impressed by the way the studio was represented on the site. It looked very clean and professional, and I was further impressed when I called and asked for a price estimate on my side labrets. The gentleman who answered the phone was very friendly and outgoing, and after quoting me a price said that they would probably give me a discount for getting them both done at the same time. Then I told him that I wanted to use acrylic throughout the healing process. He very firmly told me that some other studios might perform an initial piercing like that, but that Andromeda was committed to making sure a piercing would be healthy and would heal correctly, and the use of acrylic was out of the question. Well! Rather than being turned off on the studio because they would not perform the piercing I wanted the way I wanted, it only made me feel certain that this was the studio for me. That they would turn down a piercing project that would have made them well over a hundred dollars because they were more concerned about the health of their customers than the cash income to me seemed remarkable.
I had always liked ear modifications, so I decided to go ahead and get my conch pierced. I brought along a coworker and we headed over after work the next day. Throughout the day at work various people had told me things like "Ohhhhhhh, I've heard that hurts!" and "I would never get that particular piercing done because it's supposed to hurt a lot." I hadn't even given a thought to any pain that might be involved but I was starting to get a little nervous.
The studio was as clean and spacious as it had appeared on the website. All of the waitstaff were very friendly and outgoing, and everyone had great Brittish (Scottish?) accents, which is of course always a bonus. They helped me pick out some jewlery and after I'd paid, the piercer, Mikel, brought my friend and I into the little piercing room. He swabbed down my ear and shined a light through the back to check for any veins. He then marked a spot and after I gave my approval, he told me to take a deep breath--I felt the tip of the needle--and then exhale--and that was it. The piercing honestly felt like a light tap, it was so quick and completely painless. I was so surprised. I'd never had a piercing that I'd felt as good about before. I tipped him and said bye to all the people out in the waiting room on our way out.
I couldn't stop looking at my ear for the next couple of days. The conch looked so perfect, with a little light blue bead. The only thing that was making me feel kinda edgy was that now my other earrings just did not look right. I've always worn very small 18g wire hoops and they looked funny next to my 14g conch. I've always liked the way stretched lobes look, and so about two weeks following my conch piercing, I decided that I wanted to stretch the first holes to a 14g also, with the ultimate goal of 0g. I picked up some 14g cbrs on St. Marks Place and attempted to stretch them myself using a lot of Neosporin and elbow grease. I just could not get them through to save my life. I was getting really frustrated, hearing all my friends' stories about how they had stretched their lobes themselves, and I couldn't do it at all. I finally decided, what the hell, I'll just go back to Andromeda and get it done.
Again, I got to hear all the stories from people I work with about "Oh, that's supposed to be soooo painful" and so on. What worried me this time is that I spoke to a couple of customers with stretched lobes and all of them gave me horror stories about how they screamed and jumped out of the chair. That sort of made me think. I'd heard in the past that stretching is one of the most painful procedures, and the next day, when me and my girlfriend went over, I was having some pretty major doubts about whether I really wanted it done. I actually paced around outside the studio for about 10 minutes having an internal debate. I'd chicken out and then change my mind over and over again--and finally I just said "Why am I being such a wimp? If it hurts, it'll hurt for five seconds and be over, and then I'll have something I've wanted for a long time!" I charged up the stairs with my girlfriend following me.
I'd brought the jewlery, so it only took a minute for me to pay and get into the chair. Mikel wasn't there. Bianca, the lady who had helped me out the last time with picking out jewlery was going to be my piercer. I sat in the chair while she cleaned the jewlery I had brought and took out the supplies. She took out the hoops I was wearing and was asking me how my conch was healing up when I felt a kind of sharp burning, like a bee sting, and realized that she had put the taper through! I almost laughed right there. I had no time to get panicky about the procedure before it was done, and that dramatically reduced any sensation of discomfort or pain. The left side was a little more painful (perhaps because I knew what was coming) and she had to put the taper through twice, but it was no big deal. I was again thrilled with the experience I'd had at Andromeda.
That was yesterday, and any pain or swelling I'd initially experienced is completely gone. The jewlery is a little snug, and so I'm not going to try to rotate the cbrs just yet, but other than that they feel almost normal. I was correct in assuming that cleaning 3 new piercings would be just as easy as cleaning one, which I'm doing with ear care solution and salt water soaks twice a day for the conch.
I would reccomend Andromeda to anyone who is interested in having a piercing done. Both of the piercers are extremely professional, and the studio is as clean and pleasant to be in as any. In the past I've gone to 4 different piercing studios and out of all of them I was the happiest with Andromeda, and I definitely plan to go there for any future work. I've learned something about myself through the work I've had done recently, and that is that pain is a completely individual sensation, and what apparently causes others great pain for me is not even an issue. I've always said that people whose main concern in getting a piercing or tattoo is "is this going to hurt?" are not truly interested in having the work done. If you are more concerned with how the mod is going to affect your life, what it symbolizes for you, etc, then pain is not going to affect your decision one way or another. Sure, it hurts, but if the end result is worth it, any negative aspects will seem insignificant.