It was summer 2003. I was in Baton Rouge Louisiana and it was a HOT muggy day. I was slightly drunk from drinking Jager shots when I turned to my friend and said lets bring some of Louisiana back home with us to Los Angeles. She said Lets do it. We began our hunt for a tattoo or piercing shop, and we were on a mission whatever we found first was going to be what we were going to do. What we found was "The Ra Shop" near the LSU campus. It is a head/piercing shop; so piercing it was going to be. I already have a couple choice piercings and my friend had none so we began looking at the choices.
At A Glance Author Piper Contact Piper@bme.anon When Three months ago Studio The Ra Shop Location Baton Rouge Near LSU The theme from the guy behind the counter was "Get your nipples, navel, or hood". By the way he was talking we thought he was the piercer, so naturally we put our flirty faces on to try and get a good deal. We were, after all, somewhat on a budget. We were wrong, the real piercer came from the back room, he had tar stuck between his in his finger nails, and we both stared at his dirty hands, we looked up at him and he reassured us that he was going to clean them and sterilize them and wear gloves. We felt instant relief.
I knew I wanted Industrial, but all of a sudden my nerves started kicking in. I found myself procrastinating the decision, She was going for a tragus. Neither of us were ready to commit, so we watched reruns of SNL on the TV they had going in the shop and looked around at the other items they sold a zillion times. Finally we were like okay, we are here, and lets do what we sought out to do.
We handed the man at the cash register our licenses and signed the waver forms.
She went first. He began marking her ear and I stayed in the room with her for support. He slid a cork on the underside of her tragus and began telling her to breath in and out as he counted. He slid the needle through easily. I got excited about my decision and began daydreaming about getting my industrial piercing. Next thing I knew she was standing up off the table and she had the jewelry in. It was fast.
My turn.
My heart began pounding. I had to keep telling myself that this wasn't my first piercing and it would probably wouldn't be my last, and that there was no need for me to be so nervous about it. He asked me if I wanted to lie down on the table. I looked at him and told him I would be more comfortable sitting up, he asked me if I was sure, and I put my confident face on and said that I was sure I wanted to sit up for it.
He began marking my ear and checking angles, this process seemed to take forever and I was so ready for him to be done with the piercing. I noticed that it was warm and I was hoping that I wouldn't pass out from the heat and all the adrenaline pumping through my body.
I felt him line up the needle on my ear and he pushed it in a little so it would slip from the position that he was holding it in. oddly enough that was the most painful part of the piercing. He told me to begin breathing in and out and he counted and then boom, the first one was through fairly simple and no pain. I relaxed. He lined up the second one and began telling me to breath again while he counted. I felt sort of pro by this one and my heart had stopped pounding. I began daydreaming again about my new piercing and how I was finally getting it done. I smiled and then I felt him slide the needle through. The second piercing was slightly more painful but still fairly simple and painless.
I felt the sweat dripping down my face. I thought to myself I can't believe it is this hot and that I am sweating this much. Usually when I get nervous I dry up and my throat gets all parched but I could feel the sweat on the side of my face. He was busy preparing the jewelry when I looked down to my jeans. I felt a bead of sweat drop off my chin, and watched it land on my pants leg. It was red. It was my blood, I realized that I wasn't sweating it was all blood running down my face.
I looked to my friend who was in the room with me. She was pale white and had a huge fake smile. She tried to comfort me by saying "It looks really good" I began to laugh a little at her. I knew I was okay and that a little blood never hurt any body. The real pain came when he slide the jewelry in. he tried to clean up my face and the surrounding area of all the blood as much as possible. I told him I would do it and asked where a mirror was. There was my new baby and I love it.