Ever since I was in high school I can remember wanting to get pierced. My brother came home after his freshman year in college with his left lobe pierced?which seemed to have been the ?style? for guys getting pierced back in the 80?s. I was only six years old at the time, but I can still remember how much my dad yelled at him. Needless to say I never gathered up the guts to get pierced while living with my parents. Now I am a freshman in college and I am following in my brother?s path. I called up my mom and said, ?look mom, I am getting pierced no matter what you or dad say, but I don?t want to get something that will get me banned from your house. What do you suggest?? We discussed several possible options; or rather I named everything I wanted to get pierced and she said no to each one. Finally she agreed that just getting my ears done wouldn?t be that big of a problem, which was really upsetting because I had my heart set on getting my labret pierced (which I will just do some other time and not bother consulting my parents first). So I spent a couple weeks trying to figure out how I wanted to get my ears done, and asking around about prices and procedures at various piercing studios in town. I decided that I wanted to get both lobes and the cartilage on my left ear pierced. I was all set to go.
At A Glance Author Hectma Contact Hectma@bme.anon Artist Some really cute girl who flirted with me Studio Claires at the mall Location Bloomington, IN Then the stupid factor in me kicked in. I thought to myself, ?why go to a studio and get it done, when I can just go to the mall and get it done for half the price?? Stupid stupid stupid. So I went to the mall with my friend and noticed that Claires was pretty cheap and not out in the open where everyone could sit and gawk at me while I was getting pierced. I went in and looked at the very limited selection of studs (since they will only pierce with studs). I had no misconceptions about how much it would hurt. Everyone told me it wouldn?t hurt one bit, and it didn?t. The cute girl working there sat me down, asked me what I wanted and then marked on my ears where I would be pierced. Blah blah blah, everyone knows how this works, just putting it in to fill space. Anyways, the two lobes went in first, and then the cartilage. It didn?t hurt one bit, felt like a little pinprick. I paid the cute girl and she gave me some cleaning stuff and information on aftercare such as cleaning and rotating the studs three times a day.
Being paranoid of infection, I did everything I was told to do in respect of cleaning my ears. I was careful not to get soap or shaving cream near them (which was hard since I shave my head), I used the cleaning stuff three times a day, and I didn?t touch them with dirty hands. So basically my ears were clean enough to eat off of. Days past and my lobes were fine and dandy like sour candy, but my cartilage was really red and very sore. For a while I just shrugged it off as normal soreness because everyone told me that the cartilage would be sore for a while. Then after about four days my ear was just throbbing and hurting so much that I decided I wouldn?t deal with it and just take the damn cartilage piercing out. I looked in the mirror and took it would. Much to my surprise an icky flow of puss (sorry for this) came out with it. That?s when I realized that despite my cleaning and vigorous care the damn thing still got infected. Since I now knew the reason for my pain, and I didn?t want to waste the money I spent, I decided to clean out my ear with some of the cleaning solution that I got at Claires and some hydrogen peroxide and then I put the stud back in. I then went to the doctor and he gave me some wonderful antibiotics. Two days later the infection cleared up and my ear doesn?t hurt one bit.
After reading numerous stories and whatnot on BME, I realized that perhaps getting pierced with a gun wasn?t a great idea. It?s possible that I got infected because I was pierced with a gun, though I did request to watch the girl clean the gun before she used it on me, but in my case it wasn?t that big of a deal. If I could go back and do it again I would spend the extra money to go to a studio and get pierced with a needle, since it ended up costing me more with the gun after paying to see the doctor and getting the prescription of antibiotics.