I am happy to announce that I have a new definition of pain. It's name is a vertical transverse lobe and it lives in my right ear. If you are wondering why I did it if it hurts so badly, stop reading and go away. I guess I'll start with my piercing history. I have two conch piercings in my left ear, a labret and a standard tongue.
At A Glance Author elbowgrrl Contact sparklyqueenareola@hotmail.com When It just happened Artist Corey Hutchinson Studio Freedom body piercing Location Vernon, B.C Canada Now for my story.
This morning I woke up and it was a great day; a perfect gloomy, cloudy Sunday. I woke up late and had a wonderful lazy morning making sushi, then I called my friend Nikki and asked her if she wanted to go get pierced. We had talked about it the day before and I wanted to get a vertical transverse lobe. I had talked about it with my piercer before and he said I'd be able to do it with a bar I already had so I was like "why not?" always up for some pain. So Nikki came over and we wandered down town to Freedom which is my favorite piercing shop in my town.
We entered the nag chapa filled room and said hi to Corey, the guy that does most of my piercings and some other girls that we knew that were there for a tongue web. I told Corey my plan and he laughed and said I was insane. I filled out a form and watched the other girl get pierced, me sweating and psyching myself up all the while.
Finally, It was my turn. At this point I was pretty exited but also pretty freaked out. I don't do to well with pain but this is something I really wanted to do so I climbed up in the chair and Corey set everything up then disinfected my ear with a disposable alcohol pad and marked it with a pen. Now, I have an ear with quite a big lobe and I have center lobe piercings stretched to a 4 ga, so we were planning to put this piercing on an angle to go above my standard lobe piercing and there is a slight fold in my ear lobe there. Corey said that we had two options: 1) the top ball would be right on top of my anti-tragus and the bottom would come out sort of behind my lobe, or 2) the top ball would be further inside my ear (more like a conch) and the bottom ball would come out right at the bottom of my lobe. I hummed and hawed for a while and we debated the possibility of various other ear piercings. Finally, I decided to go with option 2.
He adjusted his marks a bit and asked me if it looked good. I can't really see it but I trust him so I said ok. Corey is a great piercer. He always discusses everything he's going to do as well as possible side affects and how successful it will probably be. He decided that he would lock the door because he said didn't want anyone to walk in and make a distracting noise, but I think it was just because he was really psyched to do this piercing. He went and got a pillow then reclined the chair for me and got be to lay on my side and stuck some gauze in my ear in case it bled a lot.
I know myself pretty well so I apologized in advance for anything I might call him when he was piercing me. He had warned me that it was a long piercing and it might take as much as 30 seconds. By this time I was bloody scared. I've had piercings before but quite seriously I was scared booger-less at the thought that it was going to take that long (I had some aroma therapy and that helped to calm me down.). So I lay on my side and Corey positioned himself so that he was standing behind my head. This I was glad for because, as nice as Corey is to look at, I didn't really need to see this coming. Nikki came around and stood in front of me and took of her ring (so I wouldn't break her fingers) and held my hand.
Me and Corey breathed together once, then he told me to again and I asked if he was going to start piercing on the next one and he said yes, so I braced myself and breathed out. First came the lobe, then the cartilage. That HURT. I'm not going to repeat any of the things I said because I know that the Internet is accessible to anyone and some of the things I said could be very scarring. I'll tell you one thing though; it HURT. The lobe was all right but the cartilage hurt. A lot.
After the needle went in, a taper went in. Not a big taper but it hurt SO much more than the piercing. I remember kind of going into this state of just not being there. I was screaming and swearing but I wasn't really there. Now I know what women do when they have babies. I remember screaming and cursing on pretty much every exhaled breath. Sliding the jewelry in was next and it wasn't to bad but it hurt too. Soon enough it was over, leaving me breathless, but surprisingly, laughing. I was so glad that I was still conscious and breathing, not that I had thought I would actually die, but you know what I mean.
I sat up and felt pretty good, god damn shaky, but alright. I stood up but then sat back down again. Corey gave me a sucker to get some sugar in my system because I felt pretty weird, so I ate my sucker while we chewed the fat for a while and eventually I stood up, still not feeling great but I knew I'd be fine. I had to cling to Nikki's arm walking home and I needed a smoke pretty bad but I lasted. I ate dinner when I got home and took some T-3's that I had left over from something or other (I don't recommend taking medication that has not been prescribed to you) and I feel a lot better now. I'm going to have to sleep on my left side for about a month probably but I am so glad I got it done.
Pain is one of the things that I fear and I'm so glad that I was able to face a fear and conquer it today. All in all, I know it was and is a good piercing.