| At A Glance | |
| Author | Spacy |
| Contact | spacecadet0001@hotmail.com |
| IAM | Spacy |
| When | Three months ago |
| Artist | Me |
| Studio | My bedroom |
| Location | Newport, S. Wales, UK |
When I first saw a transverse lobe through a tunnel picture on BME I decided I wanted one. Though I knew it'd have to be some time in the future as I didn't have stretched lobes then and I knew I'd have to stretch my lobe for this piercing and I had to decide whether I wanted to stretch my lobe or not. I eventually stretched my lobe (the experience is here) up to 12mm (nearly half inch), as this seemed the right sort of size to pierce through. I needed a biggish tunnel to pierce through as it would look more noticeable and be easier for cleaning the bar. Also, I wanted to use a nipple rounder as the tunnel jewellery and the smallest outside diameter I could order of one was 12mm.
I wanted to pierce this piercing myself as I'd done the ear stretching myself so it was my little project that I wanted to finish off myself. I felt confident doing it, as I've got quite a few piercings, watched quite a few being done, I've read up a lot about piercings on BME etc, I've learnt anatomy in college and I worked in a vet surgery so I know about sterility etc. I also wanted to have a go at self piercing properly, as my last self piercings I'd done yrs before when I was ignorant and I wanted a go at doing it properly with proper needles, jewellery and sterility.
Preparation
I decided to use a nipple rounder as jewellery as nipple rounder's already have the holes drilled in them that I could pierce through. I emailed www.wildcat.co.uk (where I got it from) and they said that their 8mm nipple rounders had a 12mm external diameter and were 5mm deep, which turned out to be fine, though it could really have done with being 6mm deep thinking about it now. I also ordered an orange cap introcan needle from them, which is used for 1.6mm piercings. When they arrived I went into blue banana in town and bought a 24mm barbell, which was long enough that it had a bit of room each end to allow for swelling.
I boiled a metal bowl, the tunnel (nipple rounder), a pair of scissors and the barbell in a saucepan. I know boiling isn't hot enough to kill all germs, but as the jewellery was bought new and the bowl was only used by my family and for nothing coming into contact with bodily fluids I thought boiling it was perfectly adequate. I then sprayed a tray with antibacterial fluid and wiped it over, scrubbed my hands, arms and under my nails then covered the tray with clean kitchen roll and put a few packets of antibacterial wipes and a few more sheets of spare kitchen roll on it. I then washed my hands again and scrubbed some forceps I have with antibacterial soap (the forceps had only been) and dipped the ends of the forceps into the boiling water for a few mins to kill of some germs before using them to fish the metal bowl out of the boiling water. Once the bowl had cooled a bit I picked it up by its base and put it on the tray, making careful not to touch the inside of the b owl which was to remain sterile. I had left the forceps ends down the the boiling water, I now used these to carefully pick up the tunnel and put it inside the bowl pick up the barbell and put it inside the bowl and pick up the scissors and put them inside the bowl. I then took the tray upstairs to my bedroom where I was going to do the piercing.
Procedure
Once in my room I put it on my desk (which I had previously wiped down and covered in kitchen roll). I took the needle and carefully opened the packet, making sure not to touch the contents inside, and dropped the needle in the bowl. I then took the antibacterial wipes and a new non-toxic non-permenant pen into the bathroom, as the lighting was better in there for marking. I scrubbed my hands with antibacterial soap again (I should really have had lots of glove changes, but I didn't have any my size in the house because I have very small hands and don't like using gloves for piercings as I can't feel things well enough). I took out the tunnel that I was wearing (without holes), washed my ear thoroughly then wiped it down with an antibacterial wipe. I then marked on my ear with the pen where at the bottom I wanted the holes to line up, and checked that that would look alright at the top, and also marked the halfway thickness of my lobe. I then scrubbed my hands again a nd went back to my room, closing the door with my elbows.
I took the tunnel out of the bowl, put it in my ear and carefully lined up the holes with the holes I'd marked. I went and washed my hands again, closing the door with my elbows. I then took the needle out of the bowl, took it out of its case and dropped the case on the tray. I then lined it up with the dot on the bottom on my lobe, and with the holes and pushed slowly, feeling to make sure it was going through evenly. It went through the bottom part easily and relatively painlessly. I then lined the needle up again so it was going through the top hole and pushed, feeling to make sure it was going evenly, though this was more difficult because it was cartilage. This part was more difficult and painful to get through, it wasn't too bad till it got to the top, where it really hurt. I wanted to push it through with one hard push, but I was afraid I'd push to hard and it go through a part of my ear it shouldn't. Thinking about it I should really have had a cork to push it into, but I'm not sure that would've worked because of the limited space. Anyway, the last part hurt a lot especially as I had to do it slowly, and it made me feel really squeamish, so I stopped for a minute or two and sat on my bed to finish it off.
I then pulled the needle out, leaving the plastic cannular in place, dropped the needle on the tray and went to the bathroom to wash my hands again. I took the scissors out of the bowl and snipped the orange part of the cannular off leaving just the tube. I then took the barbell out of the bowl, dropped it through the tube from the top down, pulled the tube out from the bottom and screwed the ball on. Complete : ) I then cleared up sand went downstairs to show my mum, who even though I told her what I was doing while I was boiling everything up, still looked surprised that I had a new piercing and asked where I'd been to get it done. Weird.
Healing and aftercare
I had bits of crusty blood on it for about a week and the amount of crustys this piercing produces is amazing. It was bruised for a few days afterwards, but that went and it was just red for a few weeks. Because of where the piercing is it's not as bad as other cart piercings to sleep on, I got used to sleeping on it quite comfortably after a day or so.
For aftercare I soaked it in a bowl of saltwater solution twice a day, used q-tips to get off the crustys and rinsed afterwards, though this got annoying as it soaked my hair. The main problem with this piercing is ear cheese, as you cannot take out the tunnel to clean it. I found that by spinning the tunnel 90 degrees it could easily be cleaned. This is where a short tunnel comes in handy.
After 3 wks I changed the tunnel to a screw together one that I ordered and took to have the holes drilled into in a local jewellery shop. I should really have waited at least 6 wks though, as this made it very difficult to clean. I had to unscrew one side to clean it, and go around the other inside rim with a q-tip.
Also, even though the jewellery shouldn't be taken out for 6wks to 3mths I took it out once week after 3 wks for cleaning as it got uncomfortable. I found after 6wks to 2mths that clean and clear facial cleanser on a q-tip was good for getting rid of the cheese smell around the tunnel, though I probably shouldn't have used it near the piercing because of the alcohol, but it wasn't directly on it and didn't cause me any harm.
I think this piercings turned out pretty good. Pierced people I meet don't believe I did it myself though until I explain how I did it. The bottom hole healed after about 6wks and it's been 3 mths now and the top hole's nearly healed. But still produces a few crustys and is occasionally sore. I found some good information on the vertical lobe part of this piercing and healing times here on the perforations website, though I expect it'd take a but longer to heal when its through a tunnel because of the extra pressure, as its more like an industrial.
If you have any questions about this piercing email or IAM me and I'll do my best to help : )
Pics
There's pics of my piercing on my IAM page There's also:
My fresh piercing
My piercing after I changed it to the proper tunnel after 3 wks
After 2mths
