"I'm Baaaack!"
At A Glance Author Rhiannon Contact SmidgeByrd@yahoo.com IAM RunninRiot When Three months ago Artist John Studio Infinite Location 4th and South St., Philly PA Well, kind folks, I've been waiting for a couple months to tell this story. Finally, my ears are happy and healed and I can move on to even bigger sizes eventually, so let me tell you about how my scalpelling went.
I've been wanting to get my ears scalpelled for quite some time now. If you happened to have read my other stretching story (linked in my IAM page), you'd remember that I said my ears had been pierced quite low (with a gun, alas) when I was eight years old. The fact that my ears were pierced so low was the major contributing factor to why I would rather "make the cut" than keep stretching on my own.
The skin at the bottom of my lobes is pretty thin. Not thin enough to have to be afraid of tearing or anything, but thin none the less. I had successfully stretched my ears to 5/8" (over the course of about 5-6 years) without any problems. But once it came down to getting closer and closer to an inch, I figured I better not fudge them up.
I went to Infinite about four months ago hoping that my favorite piercer, John, could successfully stretch them to 3/4". I picked out some Pyrex single flared tunnels for a decent price and we got down to business.
My ears just weren't having it.
John had tried tapering (very slowly, hiss!) my lobes and popping the plugs in. We never really got close to that whole "popping in" of the plugs. About halfway down that massive taper, I said, "Ooooh!!" and he said, "Yeah, this isn't going to work."
So we talked for a little bit. I explained to him how I had them gun pierced at a very young age and had never expected to be stretching in later years, they were pierced pretty low, etc., etc. After I explained how I've been stretching very slowly over the past 5-6 years, I asked him if he would consider scalpelling them.
Ends up that John is very picky when it comes to cutting people. However, he was convinced that I only wanted to cut to be safe from tearing my ears, not just for "bigger sizes faster." He agreed that he would scalpel my ears, but to just think it over for a while first, and to e-mail him if I had any questions at all.
Damn, I was psyched. I was in no big hurry to have a metal blade come slashing through my ear lobes; I sat around, thought about the cut, e-mailed John approximately 3,085 times, and tried to plan a convenient date.
I finally set the date for July 3rd, ironically my parent's 20th wedding anniversary. They were on vacation in Maine, and I had the house to myself (read: I had the time to initially heal a big bloody ear wound with out sicking them out). I made sure to eat plenty of vegetables high in iron, like spinach, beforehand to help lessen the bleeding. No big deal, I'm vegan so veggies are my friend.
After I had hung up the phone with the counter guy, Matt I think, I screamed. Really loud. I was scared. Real scared. I kind of felt like I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Even though I had researched the procedure for months. Oh well, can't back out now, right? I grabbed an apple, ate it, nearly threw up, and took my friend Hil with me.
Once I got into Infinite I practically peed myself. I was very scared and was convinced I was going to throw up all over the kid sitting in the chair next to me. There was a decent amount of people in the waiting room, so I had kind of a long wait in front of me. This was appreciated.
I gave the guy at the counter (I swear, I think his name is Matt...) my ID and filled out their forms (have you been drinking, did you eat in the past 4 hours? etc.) and drank half of the water in their water cooler. When John finally came out of his room and asked if I was ready I promptly said, "of course not," and he lead me and my friend to the back.
I had asked beforehand if I could have pictures taken during the procedure. I can only imagine the fuzzy moments around the fireplace when I'm old: "See kids? This is when your grandma was badass. Do you know what 'scalpelling' is?" John said pictures were fine in between his work, just no flashes going off while he was cutting or tapering. I was pretty thankful for that. A scalpel blade in the good ole ear canal sounds like a bad time.
I took out my old plugs, John cleaned them for me and put them in a little plastic bag. He then cleaned my entire earlobes, switched gloves about 200 times (right on, brother), and marked where he would cut. Now, one thing you have to understand. When John scalpels someone's ears, he doesn't like to remove any tissue. He would be making an angled cut from the side of my pre-existing hole and letting it follow the natural curve of my ear, so the plugs would lie more comfortably.
So... It was cut time. I wanted to run out of the place screaming. No matter how cozy John was trying to make me feel, I was still afraid and making these nervous laughing sounds. But, I layed down on the cushy doctor's type table like a champ and told him it was "go time."
The cut took about .7 nanoseconds, I swear to God. I was all like, "Ooh! Done already?" Not quite. After the cut was made, John would have to immediately taper my ear. If he just made the cut and put in the plugs, there would be two flaps of skin, not a round hole. Oh, great!
The taper was lubed up with some really cold stuff (thank you so much!) and POP! put through my ear. OK, I will not lie. It hurt. It stung pretty bad, not like "I got into a car wreck" kind of pain, just crazy heat and sting. John put in my plugs, and fiddled with the O-rings.
"Whatcha doin' back there John?!"
It took a little while to get the O-ring on the first ear (left). Thankfully, the first was done. I sat up on the table and checked it out in the mirror. Hil snapped some pictures. There was barely a drop of blood. Thank you, Mr. Spinach.
The right ear hurt a bit more than the left. I was expecting this. I have always had a hard time stretching/healing anything pierced on my right side. It's a curse. All in all, though, the second ear went as smoothly as the first with just a slight bit more pain. Luckily, that O-ring was on in a jiffy.
After my ears were officially cut to 3/4" I just kind of chilled in the room for a while. I was scared I might get light headed (never did), and I wanted to make sure that I soaked in every single word John said about aftercare. More pictures were taken, John was tipped, and I was home free.
My ears felt relatively pain free for a couple hours. They did start to bleed a little, and eventually a pounding headache came along. I had something to eat in the South Street Diner and begged around for non-aspirin pain reliever.
I left my lobes alone for the first two days. No salt soaks or anything. I let them bleed out and do "their thing," only putting a bit of anti-microbial soap on them in the shower. After that, religious sea salt soaks twice a day.
The only gross thing about getting them cut was the plugs. You see, they were Pyrex... as in glass. You could see the cut healing and all the blood trapped between the plug and my ear. I remember John being very excited about this: "You'll be able to see the cut heal! Isn't that neat?!" Oh yeah, "neat" was the word.
When my parents got back from their vacation and my ears still had a solid cut that could be seen through the plug they just kind of went, "Ewww!" They've gotten used to me by now, HaHa. One thing that really irked me during the initial healing process was that people would always say things such as, "Didn't that hurt!" and "Did you know your ear's bleeding?" Whoa there, guys! Quite the little Einsteins, now aren't we?
I, unfortunately, worked at the mall this summer. Yes, gross, I know. It seemed like a decent idea, since the place I worked for not only allowed, but encouraged my big old ears and septum piercing. Here comes the bad news: Mallrats like to touch stuff. Besides tearing apart my store, they also liked to jab their finger through my plug when I wasn't paying attention. It was cute! They would ram a finger right into the side of my neck, via my tunnels, while asking, "Dude! Didn't that hurt!"
What little sweethearts they were! I wish I could have installed a guillotine inside those tunnels and hacked off each of their fingertips. This was most painful during the first few weeks of healing. I would immediately run into our back room and clean off the area with soap.
I have also noticed that complete strangers will just up and touch my ears. That is always fun. I would never just walk up to someone and like... poke them in the eyeball. They did this to my ears quite often. Kids, adults, senior citizens. You name it, they poked my ears.
It is safe to say that my ears are completely healed now. I take out the tunnels once or twice a day and massage my lobes with either Jojoba or vitamin E oil. Softens up the skin real nicely and can help break down any scar tissue. I am pleased to say that my ear lobes are now the softest part of my body.
I plan on taking my lobes probably to 1", though I've been checking out that 1 1/4" and it's kind of calling my name. My plugs keep falling out, especially once I get out of the shower (when the skin is the loosest), so I am guessing that from just the weight of the jewelry and me tugging on them they have gotten to about 7/8".
I plan on getting some wooden plugs at Infinite on Friday. I deserve them. I've been taking good care of these babies. Maybe I will go to 1 1/4", but I'm in no hurry. Who knows? Maybe it'll take me another 5 years to get around to it.
*Best tip I have for cleaning all large gauge lobes- when you're in the shower, pop out your plugs and wash them and your lobes with soap. Keep the plugs out for the rest of the shower and let all that nice steam and hot water get in there. After you're done showering, massage your lobes with oil. It will trap in the moisture and keep them healthy looking and soft. I've noticed that the rim of my holes can get dried out, and this helps a lot. Feels SO good!
I hope I kept this interesting and helpful to anyone out there in BMEland looking to get cut. You can also check out my scalpelling pictures on my IAM page (RunninRiot) [pictures weren't sharp enough to send to regular BME galleries]