I had each of my earlobes pierced at 14g about 3 years ago. A few months later, I began stretching them slowly to 7/16". You can read about that process here (under my old IAM name). Looking back at that piece of writing, I did a lot of things badly in that experience, and I wouldn't recommend any of the things I did in that experience, especially jumping from 0g to 7/16" with a taper pin with one shove. But back to this experience.
At A Glance Author Phil Campeau Contact Phil Campeau@bme.anon IAM equal When A week ago Artist Azl Golanski Studio Imago Tattoo Location 158 Prince Arthur E, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Initially, I had never intended to stretch them any bigger than 7/16". When I saw those steel tunnels, I knew that I wanted them, because at the time, I had never seen anything like it in suburban Montreal.
Then about two months ago, I began the slow process of stretching my lobes again. While the right lobe was tolerant to the process, my left lobe was not. I also had to deal with the discovery that my body doesn't react well to acrylic jewellery, causing both of my lobes to become swollen and sore. So I eventually dropped them back down to 7/16".
I made a few further attempts to stretch them again, but still to no avail. So finally, I went down to Imago Tattoo to see Azl Golanski. I only met Azl this past summer, but I had heard about him from numerous people on IAM and in the modification community in general. I discussed with him the problem that I had been having with my ears, and told him I was thinking about scalpelling them up, in order to make it possible to stretch more in the future. I took out my plugs and let him look at my earlobes. Right away, he could see that they were pierced at an odd angle, which might have been the source of my stretching problems. So we discussed the scalpelling procedure a bit, and talked about sizing for the jewellery. Initially he felt that I should only go to 5/8", but when I told him that I had already stretched my ears past 1/2" before, he said we could take it to 3/4". He told me he didn't have an y 3/4" tunnels in stock, and that it would take him a long while to get some from a distributor, because this is the time of year that they're doing inventory. So I asked if it would be alright to buy the jewellery myself off of BMEshop, and he said that would be fine, he would just have to charge me the $10 to sterilize them. So we agreed on that, and I left the shop.
When I got home, I immediately went on BMEshop's website and ordered a pair of 3/4" stainless steel straight tunnels. In hindsight, single flared ones would have been better, but I can't change that now, and these are working out fine anyways. I talked about my upcoming procedure with my friends, and their reactions were nearly all positive. Granted, there were some horrified looks from people who don't get body modification, but I never take that too seriously.
About a week later, I received the tunnels in the mail, and called up Imago to make my appointment with Azl. I knew relatively what to expect, so I made sure not to drink at all the night before the procedure, and to get a good night's sleep.
The day of the procedure, I got to the shop about 20 minutes early, and Azl was outside of the shop. I gave him the jewellery, so that he could sterilize it, and I went off to get some food. After polishing off the falafel pita and garlic potatoes, I made my way back to the shop. Azl was just about ready, so I hung my jacket up in the waiting room. We discussed a few things. He asked me if I wanted him to use an anesthetic on my ears for the procedure. I told him that I don't believe in using anesthetics during modifications, because I feel that any serious modification to your body entails a certain amount of pain, and to numb it is cheating yourself out of the experience. If you aren't willing to experience the pain, maybe you don't really want that mod as much as you think. He said that was great, he seemed to like my view on that. So he handed me the release form, I read it all over, signed it and handed it back. Then he asked me to follow him and I went into the piercin g room.
I sat down on the chair and removed my current tunnels, putting them in my pocket. Azl said he wanted to feel my lobes for a bit, to get an idea of where he might run into problems. So he put on his gloves, cleaned off my ears with iodine, and then started feeling around. After a minute or so, he took out a marker and drew some guidelines on my ears. He explained to me that because it was a big change, he couldn't just do a one-line incision, it would have to be a V-cut. I had figured as much, but I still didn't like hearing it. A V-cut meant more cutting, and more pain. Yet, it was going to happen, and I wasn't going to stop it.
Azl decided to clamp my lobe to get a better idea of the surface area he would be cutting. He clamped my ear and asked me how it felt. To be honest, I was completely surprised. I could feel the pull of the clamp, but it wasn't squeezing at all. I told Azl this, and he smiled and showed me the clamp. It was different than usual. Rather than pinching the skin, this particular clamp looked more like a thumb and index finger coming together to form a circle. The idea is that they let you pull back something that has a hole in it, like my lobes. Azl told me he hadn't used these clamps in about six years, and was very excited to use them again. I felt kind of honoured, in a way, that I got to be the guy who brought the clamps out of storage, so to speak. Azl's plan was to use two clamps. One would kind of hang down and use gravity to pull down my ear, and the other he would hold to pull back on my ear with. This in effect gave him three hands, which made his job much more simple.
At this point, Azl began drawing on my ear, plotting the cuts he would make, and exactly how he would do it. He explained to me during this time that the difficulty in scalpelling is that almost as soon as you start cutting, the blood reduces the artist's visibility to near zero, which means you often have to work from memory. He then told me that he was a bit concerned about both of my lobes for different reasons. The right one was a little thinner near the part where my lobe connects to my head, while the left ear was thinner on the back edge of the lobe, and the left lobe was also quite a bit tighter, as that was the lobe with which I was having the most difficulty stretching. It wasn't going to be a problem, just something he would have to keep in mind while plotting his cuts, and as a result the cutting would be different on each ear, to ensure that they balanced out properly in the end. Once he was done drawing the lines, he told me to take a look, and we both laughed a bit, because he realised at about the same time that I did that the lines meant nothing to me. But it was a nice gesture on his part. I just couldn't make out half of what he had put. From what I could tell though, this was going to be long.
Finally it was time to begin the cutting. Azl asked me how I was feeling and I told him I was fine, and not really nervous either. He changed his gloves at this point, for probably the 4th time (and definitely not the last), and then we began. He made the first incision, and it hurt. It really hurt. He began patting down the area a bit with gauze (probably gauze, I couldn't see what he was using) and then he continued a minute later. Second incision. The V section was done. He did a third incision upward, kind of a tail end, making it more of a Y shape I suppose.
Then, he did some more patting, and started talking about how my endorphins would be kicking in very soon. Almost like as if he planned it, they did. It was a surreal feeling, I was a little light-headed, but not in a dizzy way, more in a meditative way. Also, my ear became totally numb, the way your lips feel when you get a Novocain shot from your dentist. It was really odd, realizing that your body can produce that effect naturally. After that little interlude, Azl proceeded to do a few more mini-cuts, mostly to remove little uneven flaps of skin, to ensure that the cutting would heal properly, and without any hypertrophic scarring. Finally, he attempted to insert the steel tunnel. It went in very smoothly, and he was quite happy with his work. He told me that I have really good blood, in that it coagulates quickly; he would lose visibility after cutting, but get it back as soon as he wiped it down. He also mentioned that I had done very well, considering it was my first-e ver scalpelling experience. Then the o-rings were put on to the tunnel. The front one went on very easy, but the back one proved to be a bit of a struggle. He finally got it on, and then started cleaning off my ear. When he applied those cool liquids to my burning ear, it was a rush of sensations at once; pain, surprise, relief, and all in all, a very intense feeling. Once that was done, he let me look at the finished product in the mirror. It was awesome. I walked around a bit, to stretch out my legs, and to clear my head a bit, and then after a few minutes, I sat back down and started mentally preparing for the second ear.
He went through essentially the same preparation process. Clamping, feeling the lobes again to make sure there were no trouble spots that he had missed the first time. I was really hoping the endorphins would hold in my body and make the second lobe easier. Sadly, this was not the case. As it had been a while, the rush had left my system, and I suppose I had grown accustomed to my state. As soon as Azl began the second round of cutting, I knew this was going to be much worse.
The sharp burning sensation that I felt during the first ear came back, and as is usual with mod experiences, the second one in the session hurt much more than the first. The first cut seemed to last forever. It seems obvious, when you're feeling it, and afterwards, but getting scalpelled feels a lot like being on the wrong end of a steak knife during a barbeque. After wiping off the blood, he began the second cut. The second ear took a while longer than the first, as Azl had predicted. The difficulties stemmed mostly from the fact that the second hole was tighter. As the cutting continued, I began to think that maybe I should have just agreed to the anesthetic, but all things considered, I'm glad I did it the way I did. In the end, that ear turned out just as nicely as the first. The lobe is a little thinner near the outer edge of my ear, but that's because of the initial piercing, and has nothing to do with Azl's work.
Once he was done, I walked around a bit in the waiting room, just to clear my head. I was beginning to feel somewhat light-headed, but not enough that I was going to collapse or anything. After a little while, Azl came out and told me the final price. It was very fair, and I was more than pleased with both his work, and his price. I paid him, and gave him a $10 tip as well. He looked almost confused when I offered it, and I was worried that I might have offended him in some way. I asked if he had any problems with tips, and he said "no, not at all, that's cool man," but I still don't think he really wanted it. I'll keep it in mind for next time. Besides, I've thought of a much better way for tipping him. I'll just give him some of my free IAM-access coupons anytime an experience I write about a mod he performs on me is featured. Perfect.
We went over the aftercare procedures a few times, and he gave me a written copy as well. I know my aftercare procedures for piercings pretty well, but as Azl pointed out, this was more like surgery. He told me not to clean the wound at all for the first 24 hours, and afterwards to do two sea salt soaks per day, and one Baxedin soak daily as well. I've been following his guidelines, and everything seems to be doing well so far. The bleeding has stopped almost entirely, he told me that it would probably take a week, so that's just about right.
I'm very happy with the work he did, I have definitely found a piercer that I trust, and like. I've cycled through different piercers over the years, and I think I've finally found one I can keep. I fully recommend him to anyone in or around Montreal looking to get any piercing or scalpelling work done. He does other forms of body modifications as well, so check him out if you're looking for a great artist.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to send me an email, or a message on IAM if you're a member. Thanks for reading.