After getting my nose pierced, I was hooked. It wasn't too long before I was trying to decide what to do next. First, I wanted my right eyebrow done(which I still do), then I thought about a labret, but was concerned about gum recession. I had seen pictures of industrials and liked them immediately but made the mistake of reading everyone's accounts of how painful it was. I had been wanting some cartilage done for awhile. I had two standard cartilage piercings awhile back that I had gotten done at Wal-mart, with a gun no less, and they hurt so bad and never healed, so I just let the holes close up. I woke up one morning to find that the face of the earring was actually inside the hole and I had to push it out! I then decided an industrial was what I really wanted, no matter how much it hurt. But this time I was going to do it right, at a professional studio. Knowing now what I know about body mods, I'll never get a piercing done with a gun again. I want to thank BME right no w for being the best place to go to learn about body modification.
At A Glance Author pierced&luvnit When A week ago Artist Mike Studio Artistic Skin Design Location Bloomington, IN I wanted to get my industrial at Skinquake here in B-town because that's where I got my nose done and I was very happy with how it turned out. But everytime I planned on going, something would get in my way and I'd have to wait. I was beginning to get frustrated. When I actually got my chance, I popped in to Skinquake only to find out that the guy who would be the permanent piercer had just finished his apprenticeship and had never done an industrial. The guy offered a reduction in price to be the guinea pig. Reduction in price or not, I wasn't cool with that. So now I had to find out another place to get it done or give up the idea, and I really didn't want to do that. I came across Artistic Skin Design in the phone book and my mother said she thought it was a good place and clean because that's where she had went with her now ex-boyfriend to get his tattoo. So I decided on Artistic.
We went this past Monday and I was all ready to go. I was a little nervous but not too much. I was going to ask about healing the piercing with rings first then putting in a bar later. I thought it would heal better, be easier to clean, and maybe would be less painful. Mike said the pain factor would probably be the same so I said to just go with the bar, it was what I really wanted anyway. But there was a slight problem I had already taken into account. My ears are relatively small and don't have much of a fold along the top so the bar wasn't going to fit exactly like I wanted. I wanted it to be more angled and lower on the ear but because of lack of fold, it would pull on my ear and never heal. He showed me what it would look like and I went and gave him the go ahead because I still wanted it and didn't want to leave the shop and regret it.
He set up everything while I waited on one of those dentist looking chairs and he put on his gloves. Then he tells that we are going to have to use CBRs for right now. I lie back and turn my head to the left. He tells me to breathe in and on the exhale he pierced the top hole. My ear felt warm and tingly but it didn't really hurt. When I got it done at Wal-mart, it hurt ten times worse. I was kind of surprised, but glad. The second hole didn't hurt too bad either but he had to push the needle in harder because the cartilage is thicker in that area. He inserted the rings, closed them, and put on the beads. Afterwards my ear was very red of course but I couldn't feel anything unless I touched it.
Mike told me to clean it twice a day with liquid Dial soap (I've been using Provon which works great) and to come back in a month and if it looked satisfactory to him, he'd put in the bar. He said if it started keloiding to do a sea salt soak or I could do one to just speed up the healing process but to not do it more than twice a week. I noticed on the sheet of cleaning instructions he gave me it said to never use Bactine which surprised me. It seems to be what a lot of people use.
It's been five days now and it's healing good and looking good. It was a tad bruised and swollen but it's been itching which my mom says means it's healing. I clean it twice a day with Provon that I had left over from my nose piercing, and have done two sea salt soaks. Though still tender, after a few days I could rest on it and I can move the rings pretty comfortably and rotate them. So far, I havn't had any problems. The funny thing was Mike said himself he wanted an industrial but didn't like anyone messing with his ears, and he had stretched lobes! To anyone considering getting this piercing, don't worry about how much people say it hurts. For me, it wasn't bad at all. Besides, everyone is different so if you want it just go for it. What may be painful to one person is no big thing to another. I'm so glad I finally did it and am very happy with it. I can't wait to get the bar!