Well I had first encountered this piercing at the Boston Common one fine day. I saw the bar and automatically had to have it. It was beautiful. I spent quite a few weeks/months researching this piercing and soon convinced my mother to allow me to get it done. She actually didn't really care that much as long as I wasn't "marring my beautiful face" or "ruining thousands of dollars worth of dental work". So I got cracking on find the right place.
At A Glance Author Samantha Contact sammella666@aol.com When A year ago Artist Aaron Studio Tribal Ways Location Boston, MA It took me a few weeks to find a good place, I wanted to just take the train in with my father, who would be cosigning for me. I found a wonderful place, nurse owned, clean, and so forth right off of Newbury Street. So off I went to make an appointment and all was well. I had been saving for quite a while and I knew it would set me back quite a bit. The woman on the phone, Katie I believe her name was, said it would be around 70 dollars depending on how big of a barbell I needed. So it was all set. As of Good Friday, 2002, I would be pierced.
So came the day, got up early and headed to Boston with my dad. It seemed like one mighty long ride. Walked around Boston, ate lunch, bought random stuff I didn't need, and then walked down Newbury to Tribal Ways. First impressions are always important and I was quite impressed by Tribal Ways. It was on the second floor, above some kind of ethnic restaurant. The elevator ride was about the only thing that made me scared there. I got upstairs and was greeted by a very cute and lovable puppy. I told them my name and all that and I filled out what seemed like a hundred forms, gave them and my father's ids and whatnot and it was all set. While I waited for the previous girl to finish, my ear was measured and I was lectured with at least a 10 minute cleaning speech which required salt soaks and bactine.
So, I was led into the very clean piercing room. I sat in a chair and I was prepped. The usual friendly small talk happened and it was all gravy. Then came in Aaron and a crew of piercers to watch the process. I was marked with a sharpie and Aaron's father, the owner of the shop, corrected him. All the while I was squirming. Everything was taken from the packages right in front of me and taken from the autoclave right in front of me. It was time.
We started with the first hole, on the top part of my ear. Clamped, pinched, pressure, done with that. Seemed too easy to me. Next came the second hole, I didn't feel the clamp this time but I did feel the pressure. I was expecting much more pain. Just pressure and a prick and then more pressure. No popping noises or anything. I was quite let down because I wanted to hear that! And it was all over in a matter of 30 seconds, but it felt like a lifetime for me. I paid for my piercing, tipped Aaron a 20 because it was all I had left. He was very happy about the tip, he probably needed a good meal anyway.
The train ride home was a lot of fun. The pain finally had set in and I had a good throbbing going on in my right ear area. It was so worth it. It was very red due to it just being pierced and the fact it was cold out. An old man stared at it the entire ride home and I think he was appalled. Overall I am VERY happy with my piercing. A few have commented on it being the semi-small town I live in. It looks more painful than it was/is. I cleaned it religiously and didn't have many problems. The only problem I had was when it finally became warm out, suddenly of course because this is New England, and I had a small hypertrophic scar on my top hole. It eventually went away with some vitamin e-rubbings. It's been a year or so since I got it and its all healed and never bothers me. They are very hard to heal and get cranky very easily.
I have seen a few industrials around here, many done illegally. A lot of people have asked me "how do I ask at "claires" to get that done?" and I just laugh. People around here have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to piercings. I was recommended to use bactine, I did not see any downsides to it. It worked fine for me and often helped with the minor itching because of the salt soaks. Salt just makes me itchy for some reason, I think it was the drying effect. I'm just happy I didn't reject the piercing because I would have been very heartbroken.