Hi. If you've never had a scalpelling done before, I suggest you get it performed for your next mod. I'm a 23-year-old male, from Newfoundland originally, now living in Ontario. As soon as I got in this province, I wanted a new piercing, because back home, in my area, we have no piercing or tattoo shops. We have the odd person that does such work, but none I would trust enough to go to. I thought long and hard about what my next mod would be, I knew I wanted another piercing; just what I wanted was the question. I finally decided on getting my ears scalpelled, to 00 gauge.
At A Glance Author -Matt- Contact -Matt-@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Dan Studio His Apartment Only 2 days after arriving in East York, the girl I went to see and was seeing at the time took me to her friend she knew, Dan. He apparently works at a studio in the area, but I don't know where it is or what it's called. We took the subway to his apartment, where he had everything in his living room cleaned off and disinfected and such. By this time I was getting a little nervous.
So, I sit down on the chair at the dinner table where the work was to be performed. He already had most things laid out, ready to go. He begins to tell me about what he's about to do, and what to expect and such, and if there's any questions I have or anything he should know about me to let him know now. He explained what was about to happen rather well, so other then letting him know about how many piercings I use to have in my left ear, I shook my head no, and to get on with it, so he does.
He then proceeds and picks up a little pen, and marks my ears, where he thinks the placement would be best. He lets me look in a mirror to see what I thought and I said 'looks good by' so he put the mirror down and reached for a pair of clamps and a scalpel. By now I was thinking holy shit, what am I doing here? My right ear was to be cut first. He then says 'ok, take a deep breath', so I do, as I grip onto the bottom of my chair hard, then he says 'let it out slowly', and when I do, he pushes the blade of the scalpel through my ear. It stung a bit, but not like I expected, not too painful. He then started cutting upwards along the line he had drawn, explaining what's going on as he's doing it, I only had a drop of blood come from the cut he said, then removed the scalpel and got a BIG taper, that was all lubed up, ready to slide through the hole. He slide it through the hole with ease, in one end, put the jewelry on the end, and out the other, leaving the shiny St ainless Steel eyelet in its new home. The taper I found hurt more then the actual scalpel cutting through my skin, but not by too much, it was bearable.
He asked how I felt, which I replied alright. I asked for a glass of water, Melissa, the girl I went there with, got me one. I was asked again how I was doing and if I was going to pass out or what not. I said I was fine, just had a lot of adrenaline flowing through me now. I felt like I could pick the table up and throw it though the wall, the feeling was so strong. Five minutes passed, and he asked if I was ready for the left ear to be done. I said not yet, that I wanted the Incredible Hulk feeling to subside a bit first, so he said alright. After 10 more minutes had passed, I said 'ok, I'm ready'. I thought to myself, 'if the other ear's as easy doing as this one was, I'm laughing' Boy was I wrong.
See, I've had my left ear pierced with a gun at the mall home, over the years, I'd say 5 times. I don't ever remember, either 4 or 5 piercings, but at this time they were all retired due to infection, tearing or I just got bored with them, so there's a good bit of built up scar tissue in that ear you could say. Anyway, he does the same as he did before, puts the clamps on my ear, and tells me to take a deep breath, and as I let it out he pushes the blade through my ear on the line that was drawn, and begins to cut up along the line once more. That's fine, not too much pain, just the stinging like before. He removes the clamps, and scalpel then, and gets the taper again. He begins to push it through, then I feel the taper bring up solid for a second, he pushes harder, thinking it will slide on through I assume, but it doesn't. Now, this fucking hurt, I thought I was going to tear the chair apart I was sitting on; I had it griped so tightly. It was pretty uncomfortable . So he stops, and looks on the back of my ear in through the incision. There was some scar tissue in the way, blocking the taper from coming through. He got the scalpel again and cut on the back of my ear, cutting a path for the taper, he cut a tiny piece of scar tissue out, then pushed again and the taper slide through easy. He put the jewelry on the back and slide it into its new home. Ok, that one HURT. It wasn't as bad as when I had my nipples pierced, but it was runner up, defiantly.
I then looked in the mirror at my new mods, I thought the placement was awesome, and told him good job on the work and paid him, and we left, me and my girl, and him and his girl. Took the subway home, leaving them halfway through the ride home. My right ear was fine. But my left ear bleed almost from the time it was worked on, all that night, the next day, and the next night, and a little the day after that off and on. It just didn't want to stop. I soaked my ears in salt water for 10 minutes each, like I was told, and cleaned them with q tips with salt water, it eventually stopped bleeding altogether, about 2 weeks later or so.
At this time I'm in St. Catherine's, visiting some friends as I look for work in the area. Jeff and I go to this shop, not a piercing shop, but they have some jewelry there, so I pick out these tunnels. I asked the girl if they were 00 gauge, and she said yeh. I said they look a bit small for 00 ga., comparing them to the jewelry I had in at the moment, so she measures them, and sure enough they were 00gauge. I thought to myself 'hmmm, by looks of things my ears were done at 7/16" then.' I buy the tunnels anyway, thinking the look of my eyelets were deceiving me, and we went home.
About two weeks later, after I left there and went to Brantford, I went to the local tattoo/piercing studio in town, to look for double flared eyelets. The girl asked what size my ears were and I said I was supposedly done at 00ga., but I thought they were 7/16". She looked, and got 00ga tunnels to compare with, and said that yeh, that I was done at 7/16". I didn't know what to say. I left then and went home, I told her I would be back later on when she had some double flared eyelets in my size in.
It's been three months and one week now. My ears are almost healed up. My left one is still sore a little and bleeds a very tiny bit off and on, but it's healing, slowly but surely. My right ear is fine, it doesn't hurt too much anymore, and no blood at all. I'm happy with my ears. I suggest anyone that wants large gauge lobes, to get them scalpelled, especially if your ears aren't pierced already. I didn't want to get mine pierced small and stretch up. I'm not a very patient person; I wanted my ears big NOW. I think scalpelling was the best route I could of taken for this mod.
Where I went to get modded, I dont advise. I shouldn't of done it myself, thinking back on it. I'v had my share of hackers work on me, and it is not fun, and I'm lucky this wasen't another hack job. I was told the guy worked at this professionally, and I figured 'ok, how bad can it be, he should know what he is doing so it should go fine.' Thats about as far as my brain activity went too. I think the best and safest place to get worked on is a proper studio, thats where I plan to go for my future piercings from now on. What I do a lot of the time is not very smart, don't follow in my foot steps please.
My parents, and a lot of my friends from home don't like my new piercings, but then again, this was the first time most of them have ever seen such piercings, anything but standard earrings and the like, They aren't into the body mod scene at all. I like my ears now though and am satisfied with them, and that's all that matters, right? That's my story for the day. Take it easy and happy piercing.