My fascination with transverse lobes started right here at BME. After retiring my tragus I felt really metal-deprived and decided the best way to get around this would be to get something new. My dilemma: I didn't want anything big, or facial (not atleast until the holidays), I wanted it to be sort of original and I needed to have some sort of excuse as to why I could wear it to my anal private school. My answer: the transverse lobe piercing.
At A Glance Author Lyndalite Contact shee_devish@hotmail.com IAM shee_dev When A week ago Artist Amy Studio Punktured @ Off Ya Tree Location Adelaide, Australia Over a 2 week period I pondered over the idea of a transverse lobe piercing. At first I was convinced I wanted a horizontal one, but after seeing pictures of slightly deformed horizontal lobes this put me off. Having it pierced horizontally would also leave me without my two beloved lobe holes (the first of which I was, and still am, planning to stretch). And so it was decided, my next addition would be a vertical transverse lobe on my right ear. For the week before I had it pierced I did countless hours of research and questioned friends about how they thought it would look etc. The research settled my anxiety abit, but my friends didn't help at all. I'm not sure if it was because they were having trouble visualising it, or just had no idea but I got no positive reactions at all.
Friday, August 30th had finally arrived. Luckily enough we had a student free day. I was very thankful I could get all the rest I needed to prepare for later in the day. My best friend (Becola) and I decided to meet in the city around 4:00pm and walk upto "Off Ya Tree" straight away so that she could watch on and take photos of the process for me, as part of my school assignment on body modifications. We stopped at a chocolate store on the corner of the mall to get 'jelly belly' jellybeans in hope of easing the nerves that were quite obvious at the time. Eventually we got upto "Off Ya Tree" but unfortunately were told that we'd have to come back in half an hour because someone was already being pierced. That always seems to happen to me. So Amy (the piercer) booked me in for around 4:30pm and we all went our separate ways for the time being. Becola had a ballet class at 4:30 and had to leave around 4:15 to get changed so I was left with a dude I know called Simon.
We headed back upto "Off Ya Tree" around 4:20ish and the other piercer, Pietta (hope I spelled it right) was just finishing up. Amy discussed with me exactly what I wanted and had a feel of my ear lobe to work out exactly what she was doing. I then filled out all the usual mumbo jumbo forms to cover their buttocks and signed a petition, then I sat down on the couch and waited...and waited until she finally called me into the room (it was probably only minutes but it seemed like hours). I sat up on the half-bed half-bench and watched Amy get everything ready for the procedure. She'd never done an anti-tragus to lobe piercing before but was sure she could pull it off, as was I. This didn't make it any better on my nerves but I also felt incredibly special because I was going to be the first.
Amy cleaned my earlobe, anti-tragus and surrounding areas with Betadine and then an alcohol swab. It was now time to decide on placement. I wanted it pierced kind of diagonally, not harshly so, but I didn't want it straight up and down. This did mean that I would have to sacrifice my second lobe piercing, I didn't care, and so I was marked with a pink marker for where the needle was going to go and a black marker for the entry and exit holes. For the first time ever I was able to look at the needle (I used to have a strange thing with them that would make me pass out, not anymore) while it sat in the lube. Amy decided she wanted to try and clamp my ear because it would make it a lot easier for her, I agreed, as I did want to go about this in the easiest way possible. Luckily enough it only took 2 shots to get the clamp on my extremely squishy ear and next thing I knew...the needle was sitting in my ear. I can't remember if it went down through my lobe or up through it, Amy thi nks she did it down but I have a strange feeling it was up (god bless our fantastic memories). It took a few seconds to get the 14ga (20mm in length) straight barbell ready but before I could think it was in and she was tightening the balls. We all admired my vertical lobe for a few minutes (I was extremely happy with it) and Amy decided that she wanted to take photos of it next time I was in. Simon, Amy and I came back out into "Off Ya Tree" gave Pietta (once again sorry if I'm spelling it wrong) a look, paid, thanked Amy for the thousandth time and left.
Now I'm not going to tell you that it did hurt, because it did, but not in an excruciatingly unbearable way. It was fairly quick and didn't bleed too much. All in all though it was the week afterwards that it hurt. It was really bruised for the first week and abit (it bruised up the night that I had it pierced) but at the moment there's only a real tiny bit over my old lobe piercing. The bottom ball is in that kind of spot where it gets knocked around a fair bit when I'm not thinking (eg. on shirt collars, scarves, my shoulder and blankets etc) but just over 2 weeks later it seems to be doing alright. I've had fantastic reactions from everyone, even my anti-body mod friends, which I am so happy about. The first thing anyone asks though is "FUCK!! Didn't that hurt?" I've been back into see Amy a fair few times since I've had it done just to keep an eye on it and make sure it's healing up alright and I finally had photos taken on Friday the 13th (OOOOHHHHH!) so they should be up on my IAM page soon.
If anyone has any questions at all feel free to contact me via email or my IAM page and if anyone from my school is reading this: BE WARNED, IF YOU COPY MY NEW "WOUND" I WILL RIP IT OUT OF YOUR EAR. Okay, thank you for reading =)