At A Glance Author Kate Contact Kate@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Unknown Studio 310 Tattoo and Piercing Location Wilmington CA I had been thinking about getting an industrial bar for quiet a while. I already had my ears gauged to a 6, my tongue pierced and my nipples pierced, so body mod was nothing new for me. A friend of mine got an industrial bar around Christmas time and I immediately wanted one. My boyfriend and I discussed it (as we always do before I rush out to get a new piercing or tattoo) and he felt that it would look cool. I always check with him because he's the one who has to look at it the most.
While I was working one day, another close friend came into to visit me and proudly showed off her new industrial bar. I was jealous and we decided that it was time for me to get mine done.We planned to go the following week after she got out of school.My only problem was the debate of which shop to pick. There are so many good studios around our area that picking one can be hard. While I have no problem paying top dollar for piercings and tattoos, I was a little strapped for cash at the time and decided to go to "lesser quality" studio. I was just so excited about getting a new piercing that I didn't really care about health issues at the time.
My friend and I meet at my work to drive to the studio. She knew where it was, so i followed behind her. I wasn't feeling too nervous, i was more excited then anything. Until, of course, my boyfriend called me to ask how I was doing. He did very little to reassure me of the pain factor involved, offering only the thoughtful words of "it's gonna hurt bad". When I got to the studio, a girl was sitting on a folding chair blowing smoke from her cigarette out the window. She was waiting for a tattooist to arrive to finish her tattoo. She went on and on about how well the work is at this studio and how she drives an hour to come here because these "are her boys." The shop is a little hole in the wall, and not very tidy.I was surprised that there were no flash art on the walls or portfolios out to view. The cleanliness, or lack thereof, should have been reason enough to turn around and leave but I stayed for some odd reason.
The only guy working took me back into a room with only a couch and what looked like a second hand dentists chair.He explained the procedure, and made jokes about how it would be nothing compared to my nipples. Before he began, I asked my friend to sit next to me and hold my hand. The piercer marked my ear, and asked for my opinion in the placing of the holes. I looked in the mirror and we agreed that they were fine.I sat back down and he placed the clamp upon my cartilage. The clamp wouldn't hold, so he decided to just slide the needle right in. I took a deep breath and felt the worst pain I have felt in my life followed by the warmth of blood down my ear. The second hole didn't hurt as bad, but I heard the popping of my cartilage as the needle went through.Im not a chicken by any means, but the pain I felt was nauseating and no where near the euphoria I usually feel when getting work done. After getting cleaned up, I looked in the mirror to admire the work, but was only di sappointed by the amount of blood and swelling already produced.
The piercer didn't know how much to charge me, so he only asked for forty dollars, followed by a 15 dollar tip. As I was leaving, he didn't give me any aftercare instructions, which kind of made me nervous. When I asked him what I should do, he just told me to wash it every now and then (GREAT ADVICE.) I decided to look up aftercare instructions online and followed them closely. I washed it three times a day but after two weeks, the swelling had barely gone down. I began to get nervous about the lack of healing that was going on. About a month after I got my industrial, I got a head injury that required X-rays and me taking my bar out. A large blood blister formed on the back of my ear that needed to be popped by surgical needle. This happened again two weeks later when I was back in the ER after a late night fight. Once again, a blood blister that needs popping. Hopefully one day my ear will have time to heal. In the mean time, I've learned that lower prices never means eq ual quality. Hopefully if you read this you will learn from my mistakes.