I don't agree with piercing little children's ears (much less anything else). I know I won't ever dream of poking holes in my kids when they don't understand the implications of doing so or anything like that. Apparently, my mother saw it differently.
At A Glance Author Hyacinth Contact hyacinthsuarez@yahoo.com When Three months ago Artist Geoff Studio Skin Factory Location Las Vegas, NV My mom used to tell me how she had pierced my ears herself when I was a baby. I was probably no more than three weeks old (I remember her saying three days old, but I might've heard wrong, but I do know that I was less than a month old because of my baby pictures) and my mother had pierced my lobes herself. I was really unsure of how exactly she did it, but I didn't even give it another thought.
Flash forward twelve years later- I'm twelve years old and my sister was just born. My mom self-pierced my sister's ears when she was three or four months old. In retrospect, I think the only reason she did it at that age was because my sister was a few weeks premature and she wanted to wait until my sister was better. My mom used two needles with suture material that she got from work (she's an operating room nurse), wiped my sister's lobes clean with an alcohol wipe, and stuck the needle in one after the other. The suture material was the kind that doesn't "dissolve" on its own, so my mom used that to heal the piercings with and later used fake gold kid ear studs. I have no doubt in my mind that she probably used the same (or almost the same) procedure with me. I now totally shudder at the thought.
Growing up, I hated my earlobe piercings. I wasn't much of a girly-girl and preferred video games and rolling around in mud to tea parties and the like. My mom would buy me so many girly ear studs, it was disgusting. I stopped wearing earrings when I was about twelve (when my mom stopped bugging me to put them on), but the holes never really closed. Once in a while, my mom would get the occasional stud and poke them through the holes to make sure they stayed open. I allowed her to just because she really liked me with my lobes pierced. She told me how I looked like a boy when I was born because I was bald, so she pierced my ears so everyone would know that I was her little girl. Fine, whatever.
A few months after I turned eighteen, I had a couple of 7/16" inner diameter 14ga CBRs from what used to be my nipple piercings a few months prior. I thought it would be such a great idea to force them through my extremely small earlobe holes. I mean, if my mom wanted me to keep my earlobe holes open, might as well make them bigger and more pleasing to myself. I cleaned them up and thoroughly destroyed my ears.
For the next 9 months of my life, I wore the CBRs in my ears, wanting to stretch them a lot more. But I thought about my future and my career goals. My future profession surely wouldn't allow me to have the modifications that I've envisioned myself with for years. No high school would allow a teacher with visible facial piercings and tattoos and surely not gaping holes in their earlobes. I needed to find another option.
Before my nineteenth birthday in September, I opted for a lobe orbital. A friend of mine had one in one of his ears and I was dazzled by its looks. While he had a 16ga CBR in it, I wanted mine to be a 14ga CBBs with the balls showing in the front, as I love the look of circular barbells in most piercings. On the day of my birthday, I was more than anxious to get it done. I did, however, have school. I had afternoon and evening courses at UNLV (because I'm really NOT a morning person), and the wait was killing me. I was finally free and Jared and I headed off to see Geoff at the Skin Factory. I waltzed in and Geoff and the rest of the staff were seated on the couch watching something on the television in the lobby area.
I talked to Geoff about the orbital and in a flash, he gave me the paperwork to sign and I offered him my identification. He made a copy and asked me what diameter CBB I wanted. I asked him what was the biggest he could do, and upon a bit of inspection of my earlobe, he said that a 1/2" CBB would be fine at the gauge that I wanted. He gloved up, took two needles, two clamps, two 14ga CBBs and put the packages down on a tray with the dental type paper on it. He used his calipers to mark from my existing lobe piercings to 1/2" away. He marked meticulously and I got up to look at them myself. They were fine, but the sudden urge to stretch was in my mind. I asked him what the next biggest he could do and he said 7/16". He used his trusty calipers and marked 7/16". I told him to go with 7/16" so if I ever did decide to stretch either or both of my lobe piercings, I would have adequate tissue to do so safely.
Geoff put the unopened packages of 1/2" CBBs away and took out two packages of 7/16" CBBs. He asked me if I was completely positive that I wanted the 7/16" and I assured him that I did, I really really did. He opened the packages and carefully dumped the instruments and jewelry on his tray without touching them and changed his gloves. I knew that the actual procedure would soon begin.
He banded the clamps and placed it on my earlobe. It wasn't too bad, though slightly uncomfortable because I have never really had my earlobes clamped like that. He reminded me to breathe in and out and to keep breathing after the needle went through, and on the third exhale, he pushed the needle through. My ear started burning, but the actual pain was quite minimal. Geoff followed through with the jewelry and connected the two holes with the jewelry. The other ear was the same. I thought that the other ear would hurt a fair deal because of my experience with my nipples, but it didn't hurt at all. My ear burned up like the other, but no actual pain.
I sat in the chair for a while as Geoff went through aftercare with me. I couldn't stand it anymore, I had to get up and take a look for myself. I loved how the stainless steel glistened in the light. I had this remarkable smile on my face. Yes, I was indeed happy with both the results and the procedure itself. I paid Geoff and left him his well deserved tip and left the shop happy.
I spent the next few weeks following aftercare instructions almost religiously, but the back of the earlobes were feeling funny at the site of the new holes. I chalked it up to pressure being put on the tissue and removed the jewelry. I cleaned up the jewelry and put them back in the new holes so they could finish their healing. I cleaned up another pair of CBBs and put them in the already healed lobes. After a few more weeks, they seemed fine and I connected the two holes with the CBBs that Geoff used for the initial piercing.
Now, a little more than four months later, I'm more than happy with my earlobes. My mom thinks that they're cute and not too extreme (anything that isn't a small gauge standard lobe piercing is fairly extreme for her, even my now-retired navel piercing). She told me that it reminds her that I'm her first little girl and the memories we made when it was just her and me travelling around the world when I was about four years old.
The more I think about it, the more she's right. I didn't think that this piercing would have any meaning to me other than to be aesthetically pleasing to me, but I draw so much more meaning from my new piercings now. My pierced ears will always remind me that no matter how old I get, I'll always be mommy's little girl.