DISCLAIMER: This is yet another story of an idiotic teenager piercing herself with inappropriate tools in an unclean environment. You SHOULD NOT do what I do. Piercings should be professionally done in a clean piercing studio. Just because I am an idiot, it doesn't make it alright. You should be smarter than I was and not copy my mistakes.
At A Glance Author Pixie When A month ago Artist Myself Studio Home So there I was, a few weeks before my fifteenth birthday and right before sophomore year was about to start, and I decided that I needed a new piercing. Never mind the fact that my parents were adamantly against any other than a single standard earlobe per ear. I had to have a new piercing, to celebrate my growing up and becoming an individual, as well as having figured out several important things about myself. I decided that I would have to risk the parent thing.
I had been spending way too much time on BME, and fell in love with orbitals. I decided that I wanted an orbital in my left ear. Having a fairly high pain tolerance, I decided that I would just go ahead and pierce it myself. I had a 16 gauge 7/16 inch captive bead ring laying around, and I gathered a approximately 16 gauge safety pin right from the package, and the piercing stud from when I had my initial holes gunned (I was six years old and ignorant, what can I say?).
I took all my "supplies," washed them with hot water and soap, and then soaked them in rubbing alcohol. Then I scrubbed my hands really well. In retrospect, that was not nearly proper sterilization, but it seemed better than nothing. I gathered everything up on a paper towel, and set it down on the bathroom counter.
My initial idea was to use my existing lobe piercing as part of the orbital and pierce a hole above it. I un-popped the bead of the 14 gauge CBR in my ear, and spun it around, so I would know where to pierce. I then picked up the safety pin and stuck it through my ear. It hurt a little, but I couldn't seem to get it all the way through. Realizing that that is why the piercing stud might come in handy, I removed the safety pin, and popped the stud through. Then I removed the stud and stuck back in the safety pin, to make sure it was 16 gauge, and then with a little bit of fiddling I slid in the 16 gauge ring.
At this point I decided that I might as well pierce another hole above that one, so I can instantly have an orbital, and still stretch my initial lobes larger in the future. The first ones didn't hurt or bleed, so I figured, what the hell. I followed the same procedure as before, but it was much more difficult. It hurt a lot more, as opposed to almost nothing at all, and even bled some. It really was that area, right between earlobe and cartilage. Finally with some fiddling and wiggling I got the CBR through both holes and hooked the bead in the front. I cleaned the holes with rubbing alcohol (bad idea), pulled my hair over my ears, and went about my business. It hurt some, but it was that kind of wonderful hurt.
The next day, which was the first day of school, I showed my pretty little orbital off to my friends, who all gave positive reactions. The first couple of days I cleaned it with soft-soap and water, and put rubbing alcohol on it. It was quite sore, so I deduced that my cleaning method was not a good idea. With a little begging from friends I got some Claire's ear care. That had always helped when my initial lobes were pierced, so I figured it couldn't hurt and would probably help. I know using sea salt and such would have been better, but as a teenager with little money and no means of transportation, I had to do with what I had.
I got worried about the two piercing pulling on each other, so I undid the orbital, and just wore two 16 gauge CBR's for a few days. The swelling went down some, but I kept getting the rings tangled in my hair, so I switched back to the orbital. About a week later, the 16 gauge ring was very loose, and moving around quite easily for some reason. So I replaced it with a 14 gauge captive bead ring, which was what I ultimately wanted anyways. After switching sizes it was significantly less sore, which makes no sense, but was true.
Three weeks later, it is healing well, except it is hard for me to resist fiddling with it. Anyways, I love it, and it is worth the trouble I am in with my parents. In the future, I hope to have my piercings done professionally, but this orbital will always be special to me.