At A Glance Author Peccavi Contact Peccavi@crackdealer.com IAM Peccavi When A week ago Artist Aron Studio Third Eye Location Edmonton Well let's see. I guess I had been thinking of doing what I did for a good deal of time, and had thought really heavily about it, because it's something that is not easily reversible. That was something I had accepted when I decided to have my ear lobes scalpelled to zero gauge.
The piercer that did my apadravya is very highly respected by me, yet he lives a good distance away from me, so I could not see him for this procedure. Although, he recommended a shop of his pals here in Edmonton, so I figured I would give them a try. I called them about two months before I had even decided whether or not I was going to do this, to find out if they even did scalpelling. Which they did, hurrah. So I waited.
In this period of a couple of months, I gave it alot of thought. I knew this was something that could possibly affect my ability to get a job, and would cause alot of criticism from family/friends who didn't understand why I wanted to do this. I figured that if my family and friends couldn't accept it, screw them. And I could find a job that doesn't require me to be seen by customers, so that could be easily worked around. So I decided to go through with it.
I planned [in my head!] to do it after Christmas break from school, but on December 20th, I wanted to go down to Third Eye just to scope them out, see if they were alright. But when I called them to see if they were open, my mouth spoke before I thought, and I jumped the gun. I was mentally ready to do this, and I guess I just blurted out a question, "Can we do this today?" And Aron said yes, we could. So we chatted about the aftercare, if I could wear hoodies during healing, how weather affects them, how to clean them. All of the juicy important details.
I was hoping that I would be able to have my friend Susanne film this procedure for me, as I thought it would be a nice addition to send to BME, so I also asked about that. Aron said then that it would be okay, if she was the only person in the room [two of my other friends came as well.] so that was cool, I told him I would be coming down in a couple of hours, then we hung up on eachother, and I went and ate a good breakfast. Breakfast was a good thing to eat before this procedure, or before any piercing, [just a quick tip of advice in the middle of this. :-D ].
So we went down to Third Eye, which was a good drive from my house, but not hard to find at all. We sat in the car for a few moments to allow Nicole to finish her cigarette, and for Susanne to get a tape in the right spot on her hand held camcorder. Then we finally went inside.
I can honestly say, I was quite a bit nervous about this. I had never met this man before, and I was going to allow him to cut semi large holes into my ears. Then again, I was nervous before the majority of all my piercings. My nervousness was calmed rather quickly.
As we stepped in, I could tell this was a very professional place, just judging by the overall cleanliness, and the smell of the air. I was greeted by Corey and told him that I had called earlier about having my lobes scalpelled today, as I was unsure if it was him I spoke to or another person. It was indeed another person so he called Aron in from another room to talk to me. He went over quickly again that this is something that cannot be reversed, and I will forever have holes in my ears, without a lot of work to get rid of them, and if I was sure I wanted to do this. I said yes and that I had given it much thought. He then asked how old I was and for my id, which was fine by me. They were out of solid steel plugs [which I am glad they were now.] and asked me to pick some jewelry. I picked a pair of Single Flared Pyrex eyelets. Got them for a price of 42$, definitely not a bad deal. Aron then went on to tell me he h ad thought more about the videotaping while he was waiting for us to get down there, and had decided that he wouldn't allow us to film the actual procedure, but before/after is okay. As he doesn't want people to see the tape and say, "hey that looks easy, I think I'll do it myself" and stuff like that. Which is quite easily understandable.
So he gave me some aftercare sheets to read over, most of which we had already gone over on the telephone, and the consent form to look over and sign while he prepared his area and cleaned the jewelry. After that I sat around for a bit and looked at their jewelry. Some of the nicest stuff I've seen in Edmonton, all of it was internally threaded and they looked immaculate. I believe I'll pick up some barbells from them for my tongue stretching as soon as I get more cash. My friend Susanne isn't very educated on jewelry so she asked quite a few silly questions, it was really funny to hear, I thought.
Anyhow, we killed some time talking with Corey, and looking at their jewelry until Aron was ready, he also chatted with his family for a little bit as they were in town for the Christmas season. He was ready soon after that.
He led me and Susanne into his "office" ;) and we left Nicole and Ashlee in the front. He got me to sit on his bed/table as he did the cleaning and we talked more about the procedure and aftercare, yet again. He changed his gloves every time he touched something, which is something that is very reassuring and something that I love to see because it makes me feel a lot less nervous. I asked him a few questions that I still had left, like how long I should wait before changing jewelry, and what are some good methods for stretching [he said a couple months, and Teflon tape wrapping]. He also asked me how large I was thinking of stretching to, as far as I can see myself going to at this present time is 5/8", but I imagine that will change when I get there. He said that because I had said something that is "larger" that he would make the cut a little higher than normal to give me extra tissue under the hole to work with, fine by me. He drew on the lines, and measured them a couple of times with calipers. He told me he prefers to do things with the piercing standing up because he feels he works better like that, and is more comfortable working with me sitting up, as he learned that way. But said if I wanted to lay down it would be alright by him. I figure that since he's the piercer, whichever way he works best is the best way to do it.
So I put my back against the wall, and moved closer to the left edge of the table for him. This was it, a moment before a permanent change in my body, I'm sure most of you reading this understand the feeling right before you have something done, knowing it will be with you for at least a very long time, if not forever.
He went through the breathing, in through the nose, deeply, and out through the mouth, slowly. A couple of these, and he penetrated my flesh at the beginning of an exhale. This feeling was not a painful feeling, oh no, it was much more of a "neat" or "peculiar" feeling. Yes the initial poke was like a hard pinch, but after that it was like a sawing feeling. A feeling of a piece of metal inside your body, sawing a line, quite a "different" feeling.
After he finished the cut, which was about 2.5-3 seconds of cutting, so quicker than I had expected, my lobe was already starting to "burn". So when he placed the 0-gauge insertion pin into my ear, the coldness of the metal was greatly appreciated. Then I was told to breathe yet again, and the jewelry was pushed in behind the pin. Didn't feel that very much, but it was nice to know it was done. He slipped an o-ring on, and wiped up some of the blood, which was running down my neck. Made me sit for a few moments and he sopped up some of the blood which was still coming out, then gave me the option to take a quick break, or just do the next lobe right away. I wanted to look in the mirror quickly so I chose to take a quick break.
I looked into the mirror, and there was blood all down my neck, and around my ear lobe, but it was so pretty at the time. I said "cute" and I think Aron said something like, interesting choice of words, or something to that effect, and I giggled. Susanne filmed some of the blood and stuff before we started on the next ear.
Sat back down and was told to turn to my left, so I was facing the end of the bed, with no wall to lean against. Oh well. Aron began the cut in the same manner as he did the other lobe, ie: the breathing routine, etc. The insertion pin felt a little tighter on this ear, which he explained after was because he cut it smaller, and had cut the other side large in order to judge how large he needed to cut exactly. I actually felt the pin going in this time, as a bit of a shock, as I was expecting it to be the same as the other side. The jewelry was then inserted and an o-ring popped on. This side bled considerably less, as it was cut smaller, and Aron cleaned off much of it as he was able to. He didn't want to clean directly on the lobe because he said every time he hit them, they would start bleeding again. He told me it would not be a good idea to get them wet for the next 5 days, so if I could avoid that it would be great, and I couldn't clean them for the next five days, either. I said I would try. [Heh, since it was holidays I just didn't shower for the next 3 ½ days, an even then I kept my head as dry as I could.] So I slipped my T-shirt back on but left my hoodie off, as I thought that wouldn't be good to put on so early, and went back out to their front. I think the total price came up to 92 or 93 dollars but I just gave a 100$ as it was all I had in bills, although I wanted to tip more. :-\.
After that, my very good pal Nicole got her tragus pierced while myself and Ashlee waited in the front room, and ate suckers.
So far my lobes are healing well, but it's only been 7 days now. I cleaned them for the first time on Christmas day, and they are starting to lymph / crust up now which is a good sign they are healing. All in all I am very content with these for now, I do want to begin stretching soon, but I am not going to rush it in the least as I'm going to take extreme care of these new holes.
To anyone considering this procedure, I would say give it a lot of thought, it is something that will be with you forever, and if that's okay with you, go for it.
--Peccavi X. C.