Hi everyone! I am Amy. I am a 20-year-old female living in Clearwater, FL. You might remember my navel piercing experience that can be found here. Since then, I have acquired two new piercings, second holes in my ear lobes. See, my mom found out about my navel ring and she was not happy at all! When someone says piercings are addictive, believe them! I really wanted my tongue pierced, but since I am still living at home (I know, I know, it sucks) I have to abide by their rules somewhat. So one day I asked my mom if I could get my ear lobes pierced a second time, she said "sure". I knew my dad would be ok with it, because I asked him if I could get my tongue pierced (right in front of my mother) he said "sure", but then my mom said "no, and if she comes home with a tongue ring, you will need to find another place to live." So, I settled for my second earlobes, hey, it's better than nothing! Just enough to fuel my addiction, hehe. I already made up my decision to go to a pierc ing studio instead of having it done with a gun. Yes, guns are bad. As I read in an article here on BME, they cannot be sterilized, and needles are one per customer, guns are used over and over.
At A Glance Author Amy Contact flippy@tampabay.rr.com IAM Lil Butterfly When A week ago Artist Laurie Studio Atomic Tattoos Location Clearwater, FL So, on Sunday, September 21, 2003, I decided to get myself an early birthday present. My friend Amy chipped in some money. We decided on Atomic Tattoos, as they were having a two-year anniversary special, and piercings were $10. But since mine was a double piercing, they charged me $25, still not too bad! To top it off, I have heard the piercers were professional and the place was clean, that made the deal even better.
The word I heard was true, the place was clean, while it was very crowded, it was clean. I mean, hey, $10 for a piercing? That's a pretty good deal! So my friend Amy and her friend Laura come to my house, we get in Laura's car and we drive the short distance to Atomic Tattoos. Atomic Tattoos is right near my house, easy walking distance, but it was pretty hot that day, so we decided to go in Laura's car. We got there around 11:45. As I said before, it was quite crowded! So we walk up to this table, where they are giving out numbers, green for piercings, red for tattoos (they were also doing tattoos at $40 off). I got number 39, Amy got number 38. So we waited around for a little bit until they were going to call out numbers, we ended up waiting like three hours, but for that price, it was worth it! I am sitting near the door and a girl hands me her ticket, I guess she changed her mind, and the number was 28! They just called that group of numbers! (26-30) So I thanked her a nd went inside. Boy, was it crowded! So they collect our ID's and make copies of them. Then hand them back to us along with consent forms. All necessary information: Name, age, piercing you want, allergies, bleeding disorders, etc. So I signed 2 papers and handed them back to the guy, but I forgot a few sections (oops) and filled them out, then handed them back. Then I had to wait in line for a little bit, then it was finally my turn. So they lead me back to the piercing room, it was very clean, I saw the autoclave and everything was in sealed packages. They had 2 piercers; Laurie and Stan, so they decided Laurie would do my ears. So she had me sit down while she poked around in the drawer for the right size of earrings, then she had me stand in front of the mirror so she could put a mark on me. Laurie was very friendly and made me feel a little calmer, since I am scared of needles. So we chatted for a little bit while she cleaned my ears off with iodine and got the tools r eady, she did not use clamps because it was my ear lobes. So I see eve rything opened in front of me, including the needle, the earrings, the lubricant, and the iodine wipe she used to clean my ears. The earrings were standard 14 gauge Captive Bead Rings (CBR's). I do not know the diameter, I am sorry. So she gets everything prepared and counts to three and pokes the needle through. Ouch! It hurt! So she gets the earring in my right ear, puts the ball on and gets ready to pierce my left ear. I just knew this one would hurt more, probably because of the psychological aspect of it. You knew the first one hurt, so you know the second one will also hurt. So again, she counts to three and pushes the needle through. Ouch! This one she had a little trouble getting the earring in, so she put a 14 gauge taper in and grabbed some ring openers. By this time my left ear is bleeding and she has already used up a gauze pad to help stop the bleeding. So then she grabs a pair of ring openers, opens them from the sterile package and opens the ring, takes out t he taper and puts in the ring and puts on the ball. She then cleans my ears off and goes over some aftercare with me, apologizes for having trouble inserting the earring and sends me on my merry way. I pick up my sea salt at the front desk and go outside and wait for my friend Amy to get pierced.
She gets pierced with no problems, she got her cartilage done and we go back to my house and Amy's friend drops me off. I go inside and show my dad my new earrings. He liked them! I knew he would, hehe. Then my mom comes home and I show her my earrings, she likes them too. I was quite surprised my mom liked them.
The aftercare they gave me was wash with anti-bacterial soap (my soap of choice is softsoap), don't clean it with alcohol, iodine/betadine, bactine (I used this on my belly and it irritated the poor thing, it was pretty gross) or peroxide and to do sea salt soaks. It also said sea salt soaks help your piercing heal faster and help with getting the "crusties" off.
Here is a two-day update:
Monday: they were sore, and burnt like anything to clean them in the shower, but then after I cleaned them, I barely felt them except for if I bumped them.
Tuesday: Barely any soreness, burnt a little to clean them in the shower, but other than that, absolutely no problems!
Well, I hope you all enjoyed my piercing experience. All in all, Laurie did an awesome job and I would definitely go back to her! However, she was just at the Clearwater shop for that day, she usually works at the Tampa one. Go to the website (www.atomictattoos.com) to see her work and the other locations of Atomic Tattoos. I would definitely recommend Atomic Tattoos to anyone wanting a piercing. I have seen some of their tattoo work too, and it is excellent! Do not hesitate to e-mail me and ask me questions! I do not bite!