At A Glance
Author	Josh
Contact	Josh@bme.anon
When	N/A
Artist	Eddie
Studio	Babylon Tattoos
Location	Fort Lauderdale

The Introduction:

It started when a friend of a friend got a job as a piercer at a local tattoo shop. For about a month I was asked if I wanted anything pierced, and I did, I'd always wanted my lobes gauged but I wasn't sure how well it would fly over at work so I never got it done. Then one day he got his stretched to 10ga and that is what I wanted, I decided I did not want to wait anymore. I mean it was only $10 an ear, what could I have to lose?

That day I went into work and asked my boss about it, she said it was ok to get them done as long as it wasn't too obvious that the holes weren't normal sized, she knows nothing about piercing and thus couldn't give me a specific size, so I just assumed that 10ga would be perfect. I called up my friend and asked if he wanted to go with me, told my other friend I wanted it done, and the date was set.

When the day came I was nervous about it, I'm not sure why exactly but I think it was because I'd never been pierced before and I had no clue how it would feel, I talked to a few people and they said its not that bad, and I talked to a few more who said it would hurt so I had no idea what to expect.

The piercing:

We get to the shop around 8, maybe a little later since we got lost on the way, but in any case we got to the shop. I was the only person there for piercing that night so we got started right away. He showed me the rings he was going to put in, they were stationary bead rings with hematite balls, which looks cool as hell, he offered me another pair but they were 12ga and I was set on 10ga. He did the prep work while me and my friends played Tetris and then the time came to get it done.

He brought me step by step through the process and told me how it felt for him when he got it done (he got pierced straight to 10ga also.) It was cleaned, marked, and all that, then he clamped my left ear. Having the clamp go on felt like someone was pinching my ear, and they had small, but still sharp nails. Once the clamp was in place he took out the needle, showed it to me, told me to breathe in, out, and it was done. I was waiting for it to hurt, and it didn't. He put the ring in, cleaned off a little blood and that ear was done. My right ear was pretty much the same thing except there was a little more resistance and it hurt a little more. Those things probably also have to do with why it bled so much, it wasn't a lot of blood, it just lasted about a week on and off.

The Aftermath:

He gave me some cotton swabs with cleaner in them for until I could get to the store to buy stuff to clean it with. That night I couldn't go to sleep, laying down with the new piercings hurt more than getting them done, no matter how I tried I couldn't get comfortable. So, I decided to just stay up all night and I was good. I slept sitting up a little through the next day and the next night I was too tired to not sleep and I didn't care about the pain, after that they didn't hurt anymore.

I cleaned them too or three times a day with dial anti-bacterial soap and got the crusties of with a cotton swab whenever it felt really disgusting. Since I work primarily outside I also cleaned it a little a few times throughout the day just to make sure it would stay good. After two weeks the right side is almost done with initial healing and the left is close but there is a little scaring that I was told a few sea salt baths should fix.

The worst part so far was cleaning the dry blood off of the ring the first few days, it was somewhat hard because there was a decent amount on the ring and I wanted to make sure that it (and the crusties) was off completely before pulling it through. Other than that everything is good, I enjoy cleaning them and can't wait until I get to play with them because it feels good.

Future Piercings (hopefully):

*Inner Conch (14ga stationary bead ring, left ear)

*Helix (14ga captive bead ring, right ear)

*2nd Lobes (12ga curved barbell, both ears)