At A Glance
Author	Megan Speers
Contact	awesomeg13@hotmail.com
When	A month ago
Artist	Ivan
Studio	Anipeg
Location	Ontario, Canada

I'm a piercing freak. I live in a little town that wickedly lacks diversity, and so I soak up "weird" people, especially being one myself. A few months ago I decided to go get my lip pierced (hear me out!). So, I walked on over to Anipeg and asked the fellow at the front desk about it. BURN! I found out (because he told me) that the legal age for this is 18, and not 16 as I had assumed. Things like that, here, are weird. It's 16 for navel, nose, eyebrow and ear piercings, and 18 for everything else. That pissed me off like mad. But, hey, what could I do? Go on BME and figure something else out, that's what. And so I found lobe piercings.

Of course I had seen them before, big hoops on people at my school.... I've even had them done, twice, by my local mall merchants... that didn't go over too well. I'd heard mildly about stretching, but it never really caught my attention. That day it did. I loved the way it looked, and I thought it'd be perfect to get them pierced and stretch them up... a very original concept in my very unpierced school community.

A couple of months later I had saved up some cash and again I walked on down. I opened the door and again met the man who had turned me down so recently. I asked him about lobe piercing and he told me, "$40." Very reasonable, I thought, since they have quality service, and there are no other actual piercing places where I live. Then he added "...per lobe." I was shocked, and I'm a cheapskate, so I thought of just going back to the mall and getting it done there (again). But a little voice told me no, probably the little voices from the five ex-gun-holes about my ears, all of which became infected... guns are NOT for me. So I went for it. You only live once, right?

I filled out the forms and what not, and waited while Ivan, the piercer, cleaned up his room. My friend and I looked at some flash until he called me in. I explained to him how I wanted to stretch, and asked about gauges. He recommended I start small, at 14, and work my way up from there. I trusted him, seeing as it's his job to know these things... and he has stretched lobes himself. So I sat up on the chair and watched him get everything together. He explained the autoclave process, and what he was going to do,... the usual drill. Finally, he whipped out the marker to figure out where they were going to go. It took FOREVER, because of my many old holes that were still visible, but when he finally got it, it was perfect. I wasn't in a rush or anything anyways, so I didn't care.

Out came the first needle. I clenched my eyes, and through it went. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as the gun did, and it was comforting to know it was nice and clean and safe and disposable! He put the ring through and shut it, all nice nice.

He then started up with my left ear. Just as he was about to open the package for the needle, my right ear started to bleed like a sonofagun. Of course I was wearing a white sweater to top it off..! As fast as he could, he stuck a pile of paper towels under it to catch the blood. Relief. So back to the left ear. Out comes the needle and through it goes, no big deal. In goes the ring, meh. It hurt, of course, seeing as it's a chunk of metal through my skin, but not enough that it wasn't still fun.

So, still sitting and bleeding in the one ear, he gave me a juice box for whatever reason (so I didn't pass out, I think... it's their policy) and went through the cleaning instructions. Twice a day with saltwater and all that jazz, and then I was off.

Well... I really should've asked him for advice on HOW to do the soaks, as I realized once I got home. I was used to my navel ring, which I just suctioned an upside down cup onto. I tried every way I could think of, from dipping my earlobe into the saltwater to using a cloth, but eventually I just gave up. They still aren't fully healed, which kind of scares me, but I'm sure they'll be fine. I'll probably start stretching them in about a month or two, depending on how the healing goes. I'm planning on taking my time and doing it right... I wouldn't want my $80 to have gone to waste, after all.
(note: follow your piercer's advice, they know what they're talking about!)