When I was 15 I was looking around for an original piercing. It was the year 2000 so a lot of common piercings now, like the snug, were very unusual. I had my snug pierced. I wanted something different. I came across a picture on BME of a vertical earlobe piercing. I had stretched lobes at the time and a couple of holes in each ear, which I sacrificed for the vertical earlobe. I kept the stretched lobes though.
At A Glance Author San Contact San@bme.anon IAM BlueStar When N/A Artist Dan and Lee Studio Artistic Impressions Location Niagara Falls, Canada
I went to Artistic Impressions and asked if I could get a vertical earlobe piercing. My usual piercer, Lisa, wasn't in at the time. Lee was, however, and so was Dan. Dan asked Lee to assist him and told me to come back in about an hour while everything was being autoclaved and such. I went to Burger King, where I worked, to brag about the new piercing I'd be getting. My managers weren't impressed. They said I was "pushing it" with my snug.
I walked back to Artistics with my friend Drew and got ready for the vertical earlobe piercing. I hadn't read any experiences on it, so I had no idea how bad it was going to be, or what it would feel like afterwards. Dan surveyed my ear and agreed with Lee that a 3/4" barbell would be good to start with, and use 14ga jewellery and a 14ga needle because my ear is thin. Dan set up and got ready to pierce me, with Lee watching.
He told me to take a big breath in, and a big breath out, and told me the piercing would be slow, and started to pierce it. He went from top to bottom, freehand. It hurt quite a bit, but it was nothing unbearable. The jewellery follow-through was the worst because of the threading on the barbell catching. Internally threaded jewellery is your friend. Its really hard to find around here though. This was also four years ago.
My ear throbbed a lot. I took a couple of ibuprofins and admired it. I wanted the other one done, immediately. But if I didn't get home in the next 10 minutes I'd end up being late for work, since I hadn't brought my uniform with me. I got a lot of comments at work about it. I tried to hide it from the manager all night and he basically said if the head manager came, I was going to be cleaning washrooms. How much fun is that?!
The next week I went to get my other earlobe pierced vertically. Dan made Lee do it. Lee didn't want to do it, and they got into a fight. She was scared she'd screw up. Dan told her she wouldn't. She was almost in tears, I felt so bad for her. Dan won the arguement and said he was leaving in 10 minutes, so hurry up if she wanted his assistance. We went to the piercing room. Lee set up the same way Dan had set up and got to do the hard part. My left ear, and she had to match it with my right ear. She marked it again and again until it was perfect.
Dan explained how to do it, and to do it slowly. She told me to take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out, and she pushed the needle through, slowly. It went in and came out on the dot. Her first vertical earlobe, and damn near perfect. The jewellery went through and caught a bit, and hurt, but other than that it was fine. It throbbed the same as before, so I took some more painkillers and it went away.
The fun part was healing them. I could sleep on them. But people kept coming up to me and touching them and asking "how does that work?". I eventually switched to 7/16" barbells which fit snugly and that *really* confused people. Eventually my right ear got infected, and I stupidly took it out. I didn't know what to do with an infection at the time. One day I was talking on the phone and poking my vertical-earlobe-less right ear and a glob of puss just exploded out. Literally, you could hear it. I got off the phone and went and attacked my ear with disinfectants, like alcohol. I cleaned it every day with antibacterial soap and alcohol and squeezed the hell out of it. Eventually it went back to normal.
A couple of months later I asked Lee to re-pierce the right side of my ear. She followed the scar tissue and this hurt a lot more than the first time. A bit of puss oozed out at the end, but I had no problems with it. I salt soaked it twice a day, because by then I was educated on how to properly heal a piercing. Lee did a great job and I still have both of them, four years later, with 7/16" barbells in them.
Just be warned. Vertical earlobe piercings are painful and they take a good deal of time to heal. I would advise getting them done at the same time, since they are easy to sleep on. I could sleep on my right side the day I got it pierced. But then again, it all depends on the placement of the piercing. Had it been placed differently I may not have been able to sleep on it, so use your best judgement call in this.
Salt water soaks are very good for vertical earlobe piercings. Mine loved them. They stopped itching, pussing, lymphing and being sore. They did take a while to heal though. 6 months maybe. Most of the time it wasn't that bad, but they had their flare-up's and got really sore. So if you want to try this piercing, be prepared for a long term commitment.
Good luck and happy piercings.