So anyway, I've had a number of piercings done over the past four years (dermaled conch, nipple, helix, dermaled orbital through cartilage) which could be considered on some level to be painful. I'm sure they don't compare to things like deep chest piercing or the like but for me it was an experience. That being said I decided I needed to get my lobes re-pierced.
At A Glance Author Ry Contact Ry@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Jacqui Studio Addictive Tattoo Location 181-2 Dundas St. - London Ont - Canada I had my lobes pierced a year ago, just normal run-of-the-mill lobe piercing. I was pleased with them at the time, they were done cleanly and placed perfectly (also done by Jacqui). They had been pierced at a 12ga and I figured that stretching was something that I definitely needed to do. I began the stretching process and by May 2001, Houston we had a problem. When I had gone from 10ga to 8ga, there was, well, let's just say that my right lobe wasn't in a very happy place. It wasn't doing badly or anything, it was just a bit raw. I should've thought a bit harder before trying to stretch that day but I didn't. I'm not sure if the state of my ear was the cause of the MASSIVE keyloid that ended up forming over the past few weeks but needless to say this was one of the biggest keyloids that I'd ever seen. It looked like an implant for a while, it was that bad.
I decided that I needed to sacrifice my nice 8ga tunnels to save my ear from being over-grown by this massive piece of scar tissue. I took out my tunnels and let the hole close, the theory being that the keyloid would hopefully get the hell off as my ear. The holes closed, the keyloid shrank and things were looking up. I figured I could just get my ears re-pierced; after all I still had all the jewelry. After a while I noticed that the keyloid was more or less gone, except for this little tiny bump which, if you pinch my lobe, felt like a little pebble in my ear. Damn it, the part of the keyloid that had form underneath the skin wasn't going away. I thought about dermaling my lobes and just chucking the tissue with the keyloid in the garbage but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't come back.
The problem that arose was that I really wanted to get my lobes re-done but this damn keyloid was making it harder to re-pierce my lobes than it was to drive to states on September 12th. What could possibly be done? Well, if you can tunnel through a mountain, go around it. Jess (the other piercer at Addictive) and I realized that I could just pierce my lobes transversely, avoiding the inner keyloid and - bada-boom - problem solved. Finally, once my financial situation was back in the black I decided it was time to get this done. Last Saturday I drove down to Addictive, stopped to get a coffee (I needed my strength to get this done) and swung by.
While I was waiting I was talking to Chris (one of the Tattooists, who did my tattoo outline the previous Tuesday) and he was laughing at me telling me how much it'll hurt. I figured that it wouldn't feel like someone tickling me but I didn't figure it would be all that bad. The process eventually got rolling; all the marks were made, checked and re-checked. Due to the nature of actual piercing the marks need to be pretty damn accurate (y'see, all that geometry you learn in high school does come in handy)
So, sittin' in the chair, ready to roll, it begins. There was the typical pinch as the needle goes in and then, with any other piercing, that's pretty much that but not this time. I didn't realize there was that much more area for the needle to go through, don't know why I didn't, just never thought of it I guess. Man that first one hurt, I had the left one done first which I guess was the harder of the two because of the angle. I contemplated taking a break after the first but decided to go for the gusto and get the other one done. Fortunately with the second love I was able to anticipate the second one, which kind of made it worse so maybe it wasn't that fortunate at all.
After it was all over there wasn't that much blood, which isn't surprising seeing as how there were only lobes. However I had some stuff to do afterwards so I was driving around town. At one point I went to grab my seatbelt and slightly whacked the jewelry, didn't notice anything though. After a while I felt something on my neck, touched it and my hand was drenched in blood. I pulled over and looked at my neck. I looked like I'd been hit in the side of the head by a 2x4, it was awful (but kinda cool at the same time). When I got home, I cleaned myself up and washed the mofos down, cleaned 'em and such. They're actually doing quite well and I've gotten a shitload of compliments on them, which is always nice. If you wanna get something like that done, go talk to Jacqui or Jess at Addictive – 519-679-1456 – they're great. I wouldn't go anywhere else, in fact, I'm living in Cornwall for the summer (outside Ottawa) and I'm driving back to go see them.