Well about eight months ago or so I decided I wanted a large gauge ear piercing. I was originally going to stretch my fourteen gauge holes up slowly, but then I decided that I really wanted to be at zero gauge now. What options did I have though? I sent an e-mail to a very reputable piercer here, Shawn, at Naked Al's. I originally was asking him if we could do an eight gauge piercing and immediately stretch to six or four gauge. Then he suggested that we just dermal them at zero.
At A Glance Author Kount_Moo Contact kount_moo@yahoo.com IAM eggroll When It just happened Artist Shawn Studio Naked Al's Location Bakersfield, CA It took me only a few minutes to decide that I wanted to do this, however there was still one problem, I had no money and Shawn was going to be off work for a month for surgery. :( So, during the month that he's off I finally get the cash ($80US). I call up the place and ask for Shawn since this is the day he's supposed to be in and they tell me he won't be in until the next Thursday. Bummer. A week goes past..
I e-mail Shawn and ask him if he's going to be there today and he tells me yes, and he tells me that I should eat a couple of meals a couple hours before the procedure and give him a call before I'm ready to go. So I wake up the next day, the big day, at 4:45 A.M. and I run around eating little Halloween Snickers all day to get my glucose worked up. Around 10:00 A.M. I finally sit down and eat a real meal. I wait for a couple of hours and then try to call the place.. no answer.. I'm beginning to get sad, so I head on over to my friend Nick's house to ask if he wants to go with me when they get there.
While I'm there I give Shawn a call and he tells me that he can't do the piercing until 1:30, it's now 12:10, more anticipation building at this point, but I'm not really nervous yet. So while we're waiting me and Nick go down to the local DMV so he can apply for his ID card.
After we finished up at the DMV it was 1:15 and time to head on down to the studio. We got there at around 1:20 and just kicked back for a while, I think Shawn could tell I was nervous as hell. Finally I filled out the paper work and we headed back to his room.
He was very clean about the entire procedure, he carefully cleaned my ears and washed his hands frequently and changed his gloves a few times. Finally it was time he opened up the package containing the dermal punch, this is where I got nervous and I started shaking a little bit. He marked the entry spot and asked if I was ready, I wasn't but I said yes anyway.
Now, this actually didn't hurt bad at all, my septum and industrial piercings were way worse, the only bad part was that I was watching myself in the mirror, and there was a really nasty cracking sound the whole way through. Finally he said, "Here comes the blood." and my entire neck just felt wet. It took about fifteen minutes to get the bleeding to stop on each ear. The second ear didn't hurt too bad at all I was so happy after seeing my new plug in my ear in the mirror. :) Once we were done he told me where I could buy some sea salt mixture and Bactine to clean my ears with and he gave me a couple Bactine wipes to use until I got them. We sat in the lobby chatting for a few and then I got up and payed him. Then he asked me if I'd get back to him and let him know how they heal and everything and I said sure.
It's now been one day since the procedure, and my ears feel great, I've already done two salt soaks, one last night, and one this morning and they feel orgasmic on the ear. I've also been soaking them in Bactine for about three minutes before I do the salt soaks and that also feels very good on them. They have bled a bit since then, but that's expected in a zero gauge wound. I really can't wait to get some new jewelry for them, I may stretch them to 1/2" or 5/8" later, but for now I'm going to enjoy this, since I've wanted it for so long. I'm so happy with them, he did a great job on placement and at calming me down for the procedure. If you're ever in the area I'd really recommend him. I may be going back in a month or so for an ampallang.