Like many people, I had been fooled by the ear piercing gun craze in the mid eighties, early nineties. Body modification wasn't particularly mainstream, and at the tender age of 11, the mall was where you went to get your ears pierced.
At A Glance Author synde terror Contact punk_terrorist@yahoo.com IAM punk_terrorist When Ten years ago or more Little jewelry stores specializing in overpriced junk jewelry for teens, were the craze of the day. You weren't cool unless you were pierced at the mall with the newest and coolest thing, a gun.
By about 7 years old I already had by lobes double pierced to match my mom's. It was a special bond we shared in knowing it secretly annoyed the hell out of my dad.
I had just turned 11 and it was the end of October. I had been begging and pleading for my mom to let me get a set of third holes. At the time, it was absolutely impertinent for me to get them, and my life would be over if I didn't.
Finally my begging and pleading paid off. My Mom agreed, and off to the mall we went. I had put on my best clothes, and dressed up all girlie like to commemorate this occasion.
There was a teen jewelry store in our mall that had huge signs everywhere that said free piercing with purchase of starter kit, or something to that effect. We went in, and I proudly told the lady I wanted my ears pierced, a THIRD time.
She made my mom sign a bunch of forms since I wasn't old enough to get it done without my mom being there. Then she lead me over to a stool set up in the corner in front of a huge mirror that had light bulbs sticking out of it. Like those old vanity mirrors.
She held up a card with the types of sleepers I could get, and I picked the pink jewelled ones, of course. She cleaned my ear with something, I assume was an alcohol swab, and pulled out a black felt marker. I remember being nervous, but excited, and my mom stood to my side, holding my hand.
The lady marked 2 holes, one on each of my lobes, and loaded the gun with the jewelry. She told me to take a deep breath, and PUNCH! A slight burning and my ear was ringing from the sound of the gun punching right in my ear. PUNCH again, and we were done. I slid off the stool and looked in the mirror. My ear were pierced alright, but the left side was pierced really close to the edge of my ear. The lady noticed my concern, as well as my mum's, and told us that she did it that way to make it look even because I had mis-shaped ears.
My mom threw a fit and refused to pay, and stormed out, dragging me behind her.
Mom told me to take them out, but I refused. I cried and whined, and finally I got to keep them, despite the horrible piercing job.
My mom cleaned them for me with some bottle of stuff she had laying around from when she got her ears pierced. When I woke up the next day, my left ear was swollen to huge proportions and you couldn't even see the sleeper I had in. I was running a huge fever, and was delirious ( I don't remember this, but my mom tells me the account quite often).
I was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors put me on IV antibiotics and removed my right ear jewelry. They told my Mom that the piercing was infected probably because of the dirty piercing gun. My mom says that the doctor told her that they see lots of cases like that (surprising!)
I was held over night until my fever broke, and the swelling had gone down enough for the doctors to remove the jewelry. My mom phoned and harassed that jewelry store quite a bit, and they legally held no responsibility they claimed because my mom signed forms.
As the swelling continued to go down, I noticed a chunk of my left ear was missing. Because it had been pierced so close to the edge of my ear, the swelling had pushed it further out, causing my ear to tear when the doctors had taken out the jewelry. I was in pain for weeks, and was on high amounts of anti-biotic.
Nothing ever happened to the store, and they still continue to gun pierce to this day, things like ears, cartilage, and noses and labrets (I guess to keep up with the times)
My ear healed, but I still have a chunk missing out of my left ear, something I'll have to look at the rest of my life.
Gun piercing is dangerous, especially in the hands of an under trained individual. The only way it can be prevented is through education. This is why I wrote this story. Maybe some 11 year old or their parents will read this and see what I went through.