Ah, the story of my stretched lobes, aka my most prized and favorite piercing of all(well so far). This wasn't my first piercing, actually it was my third and fourth. The first piercing(my right eyebrow) was a birthday present to myself two years ago. And then the second one(lower lip, left side) was an act of angst and frustration on the most horrible day of the year, Valentine's Day--that's also the sorriest excuse for a commercialized day of celebration ever! So keeping up tradition number one, I decided to get pierced again on my 19th birthday, September 18, 2001.
At A Glance Author worse_thoughts Contact worse_thoughts@bme.anon When Six months ago Studio Andromeda Location nyc Though originally I planned on getting drunk and partying on my birthday, my plans had to be changed when I realized the first meeting of the year for my school newspaper was on the 18th as well; I'm editor of the arts & entertainment section, so I couldn't just ditch this meeting. No doubt I had to go to the paper meeting in style, so I decided to get myself pierced a few days before the 18th--that way if my ears were swollen and all bloody, I'd have a few days of recovery before showing them off.
Unfortunately some terrorists ruined my plans of getting pierced a week before my birthday(not to mention basically ruined my whole life thereafter, but bitching about them is another story). Everything below 14th St. in New York City was closed down after Sept. 11, and with my luck all the piercing parlors are below 14th St.! New York City was told to get back to the routine of living right away, and within a week I did so...by getting my ears stretched as I once planned.
Most of my friends were in post depression(not to mention a bit paranoid) over the Sept. 11 attacks, but my good friend John was down for an afternoon trip to the East Village. My sister had gotten her ears stretched a couple months ago and gave me her old plugs(2G with a 0G fluted edge) so I could save some money on these piercings. According to her, her Venice Beach piercers pierced her ears with a 2G needle, so I expected the same to be possible at Andromeda, my favorite piercing parlor.
I wasn't too nervous about getting my ears done, since I've had prior experience with shoving metal into my skin, but I had heard from my friends that their ear piercings hurt the most. My sister said she bled on her shirt for a couple days after getting her ears stretched. My other friend said he actually cried when he got his industrials done, but he didn't cry when he got his forehead bars. And once a friend of mine and I were discussing my lobe stretching proposal, and so we looked online for pictures and came across "hole punched" piercing where the piercer takes an enlarge hole punch(almost like the kind you would use to punch a hole into paper) and punches away a huge chunk of lobe flesh! That definitely looked painful and scared me away a bit from getting my lobes done.
Anyway, while in the subway station John bumps into some chick he knows vaguely and has the longest annoying conversation, then he mentions the piercing I'm about to get and she squirms out of fear/disgust. I feel kind of special when people are scared of the mere sight or mentioning of piercings; some people are fearless when it comes to spiders or snakes or wild mad dogs, and even the toughest of all thugs can be terrified of piercing a piece of metal into the body! It's so hilarious! Well getting pierced is no biggie for me, just another thing like buying new shoes or something. It has nothing to do with bravery as some people claim; getting pierced is just like getting a hair cut--nothing big!
We finally reach Andromeda and I'm feeling good. It's funny to bring in my "piercing virgin" friends(friends that have no piercing) to Andromeda because no matter how talkative they are, all of a sudden they quickly shut up and are intimidated by the employees. Maybe it's because everyone who works there has a ton of piercing and tattoos themselves. I tell the guy behind the counter that I want to pierce my lobes to fit my sister's 2G(with the 0G fluted edge) plugs, but they won't pierce my lobes with anything bigger than a 6G. Damn! This means I have to buy all new jewelry from them, which will set me back about 40 bucks! Since I wanted my lobes done for months now, I go along purchasing solid cylinder stainless steal 6G plugs, which the guy claims to have, but after searching through the whole box of plugs, he can't find any 6Gs. Ha, this is where my luck gets better. Since he didn't have the 6G plugs he claimed to have had, they agree to pierce me at a 6G, and s tretch me(free of charge) to a 4G. I'm down for saving that kind of money for a free stretching, so I pay for everything, which comes to about $90. The frustration with the high priced purchase has distracted my nervousness of the piercing process soon to come.
I go into the impeccably clean back room and watch my piercer get ready to poke me some new holes. My friend John is standing behind me, watching the whole process, keeping a good distance from me though. It seems like every time I get pierced, the split second before that needle is jammed through my skin, in the back of my mind I want to jump up from that chair and walk out that door without getting pierced. But I never back out because I don't want to be known as a wuss to Andromeda, especially this time with my friend standing there too. Usually to distract myself from the pain I think of myself kissing a really hot guy...but the last two times that really hot guy was John, and there was no way my mind could picture me kissing him when he's two feet behind me! So I thought of Brandon Boyd of Incubus instead, who just so happened to have plugs also. Before I know it, I'm done!
I got up from the chair and immediately looked into the mirror with a huge smile on my face. I was damn cute with the plugs! Light-headed with an unusual ringing in my ears, I walked out of Andromeda constantly asking John if my ears were bleeding because they certainly felt like they were. About a minute later I had to sit down because I felt like passing out; either it was some off balance body thing from creating unnatural holes in my body, or maybe I just couldn't believe that I had holes in my ears that caused me to feel faint. In the end, it was well worth the money, initial nervousness and just another rockin' birthday present that's become a yearly tradition.