At A Glance Author Skatekeykumquat When A month ago Artist Me Studio My room Location Rochester, New York Before I begin, allow me to give all of you out there a little back round on myself. I'm 16 years old, and have been interested in the piercing and modification world for a little over a year and a half. My discovery of this amazing site happened about a year ago, when, as usual, I was sitting at the computer, searching for new piercing ideas for my ears, my favorite (and only allowable by my parents) place to pierce, when I came across BME. It opened me up to a whole new world, and made me realize the key point upon which this experience is based: people actually do pierce themselves.
About two months ago, after I had just gotten over a nasty infection from my right ear cartilage (pierced with ::scream:: a gun), I felt the need to get something pierced, as I often do when I get over infections and illnesses. As I thought about it, and looked over the infinite resources here on BME, I decided a conch ring was right for me. It was beautifully simple, superbly exquisite. So, I brought the idea up to my mom. Before I even had a chance to present my argument, I hear the dreaded and resounding "NO", her reasoning being that it was disgusting, trashy, and dangerous to my health. So, as quickly as it had come, it had left, my dream for a conch. I moved on, thinking a tragus would be a nice addition to my minimal collection of seven holes in my ears. I thought about it, and (wrongly) thought that my mother wouldn't mind if I had a stud instead of a ring. WRONG. She used the same excuses as with the conch, and I was back to square one.
So, there I was one night, feeling sorry for myself because my boyfriend's mother allowed him any mods he desired, even though she was a proper Christian woman. Then the light bulb went off. Even if I couldn't have something creative or unique, I needed a piercing. I decided a third lobe hole in my right ear, or a second cartilage piercing would be okay, and brought the idea up to the devil of the mod world, my mother. Surprisingly enough, she agreed! Now all I needed was money...
Fast-forward a week. Here I am sitting at my computer longing for my new metal, with my bad of earrings in front of me, teasing and taunting me. So, I decided it was time. No need to wait for money. I took the stud with which my angry cartilage was pierced and soaked it in alcohol. Believe me this is not a good idea. It has little chance of killing the most harmful of bacteria, and me, being in a state of craziness, chose to ignore this little factoid. I waited as long as possible (about two minutes) before my impatience caught up to me. I grabbed a purple marker, and marked the appropriate stop on my earlobe. I cleaned my ear with a little alcohol, and completely ignoring the fact that this was probably going to hurt and that I should use ice, I set the stud at the mark and pushed. I felt this really strange crackling, it was actually pretty sick. It started to bleed a little and throb a bit, but I kept pushing, not bothering to look in a mirror and check the dir ection the post was pointing in. I kept pushing and pushing until finally I heard this horrifically loud POP that made me jump. I couldn't believe I did it, because of my startlingly low tolerance for pain. Out of pure euphoria, and maybe a little bit of adrenaline, I shoved the backing on and didn't bother to clean it or look in the mirror. I went to bed that night a happy girl.
The next morning I woke up to find my ear in a bit of pain. I took some of this ear care solution I got when I got my ear pierced the last time, and cleaned the nasty crusty stuff off my ear. After doing so, I looked in the mirror, and was more than agitated at what I saw. I pierced it completely crooked. The post was almost coming out of the side of my earlobe; it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen. So, I promptly removed it, and cleaned the hole three times a day for the next two weeks until I was sure it was fully closed. I suppose it was a good thing that I did it so disturbingly crooked, because I didn't fully think through the situation, and my mother would have killed me if she found out I pierced my own ear. She pierced her earlobes when she was sixteen because her father wouldn't let her do it, and she's had problems with them since. I've learned from this that I really shouldn't pierce my own ears, or any other part of my body, unless I actually knew wha t I was doing and had the right tools and such. I do, however feel, that this was an experience worth telling, because I feel it has changed me, and gave an amateur mod-er a story to tell, and some insight into this wonderful world we call mod.
~*~Happy Trails~*~