This is the story of my three-point ear spiral. It was three points when it was pierced but two of the holes migrated into one, which Sean expected, and it didn't surprise me. I decided I wanted something to fill that void of my ear. Since my ears not fit for a snug piercing, I decided I wanted a spiral going down that way. Sean said he'd make me the jewellery. Then the inevitable happened: Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital called and Sean wouldn't pierce me the day before I had to go. (They only give you 24 hours notice.)
At A Glance Author San Contact San@bme.anon IAM BlueStar When N/A Artist Sean Studio Artistic Impressions Location Niagara Falls, Canada
After a couple of weeks I had a lot of priviliges and was allowed home on weekends. Friday night to Sunday night. Sweet. I had a tattoo appointment with Remi for a couple of hours on Saturday. It was supposed to be five hours but the shop was closing early that night so he had to squish his appointments together, so we only got two hours work done. I must say, we did get a lot accomplished. (We're working on a backpiece.)
The second I walked out of Remi's booth Sean grabbed me and took me to his room. I sat down in the piercing chair, still a bit tired from getting tattooed and wanting to chill for a few minutes. Sean set everything up, so I used that as my chill time. Then he gave me the good news: I would be lying down while he pierced me. Then he gave me the bad news: It was going to suck and I was going to hate him afterwards. However, he says this all the time and I still don't hate him.
I lay down with my face facing the wall and my right ear up. Sean changed his gloves after setting up and I'll say this now, rather than repeating it, he changed his gloves at least ten times, I am not exaggerating. (I bled, a LOT) He took the jewellery, which looked very different from any jewellery I had seen in an ear spiral before. The spirals were much bigger. As my friend put it, "Your ear looks like a fucking rollercoaster".
Sean carefully marked using his super-cool electronic callipers and rather than getting up and disturbing everything (he had a paper towel around my ear) I trusted him on the placement, since I trust him as a piercer, and I had a good image in my head of what this was going to look like. Sean was going to freehand the piercings, he didn't tell me this, there were just no clamps on the table of equiptment. I didn't mind, Sean's a fast, smooth piercer and I've been pierced more times than I can count.
Usually Sean starts by going "Big breath in.. Hold it.. Big breath out", and pierces on the big breath out. He just asked "Ready?" and I concentrated on how I was breathing and I felt the needle pierce through the top of my ear cartilage. Not bad. I felt him thread the jewellery through. Not fun. Now, its time for the second piercing. This one hurt more, it was furthur down on my ear and more sensitive. It still wasn't bad. The jewellery insertion was though. I was feeling pretty haggard by this point. The third hole, he kind of mumbled "big breath in" (he was concentrating pretty hard) and pierced it. That one hurt the most, because it was so close to the middle hole.
He struggled with the jewellery and said that he could sew (which I, of course, had to tease him about) so it wouldn't be a problem. It felt like he was ripping at my ear, and I knew he was trying to be as gentle as possible, he was constantly asking if I was okay. Finally, he got the jewellery inserted and I was covered in blood. I couldn't get the blood off my (light gray) hoody, and the funny part is that it's on the left side, not the right side, which was pierced. Phil, a tattoo artist, walked in and said "holy shit", asked if it hurt, and left. Sean used warm water to clean off the amounts of blood and let me go when it stopped bleeding. My ear was throbbing.
I went to Remi's booth and he said "holy shit.. did that hurt?" to my ear, and responded with his trademark "cool". I walked past Phil's booth and he wanted to see it finished, and the person he was tattooing asked if it hurt and Phil said "You should have seen the blood in the piercing room".
Sean asked me if I was all right, and I was. By then I was flying off endorphins and could have gotten tattooed for hours and many piercings. The more I 'abuse' my body in a day, the more I can handle later. Eventually the adrenaline and endorphins wore off and I just wanted to sleep. I hung out at the shop for a bit while Sean played guitar and I read Maxim. Eventually I just wanted to go home and crash, so I went to say goodbye to Remi, who made me show him, and the person he was working on, my backpiece in progress (for the 20th time that day, it's a really nice piece!) and I hugged and thanked Sean.
The next few days SUCKED. I soaked my ear in hot saltwater (1/4tsp per glass). The two bottom holes, placed close together were migrating and I couldn't even touch my ear. I couldn't wear a touque (my trademark), hell, I could hardly wear a hood. Any slight touch to my ear was torture. The two holes eventually found their places and my ear felt better. I asked Sean about the migration, he said he'd been expecting it. It still looks really neat. Sean kicks ass.
A few notes. Don't get ear piercings in the middle of winter if you live in Canada and have no hair. Getting tattooed and pierced immediately following each other takes a lot out of you. Cartilage can be a bitch to heal. Use salt water soaks! Be safe, find a good piercer, and happy piercings.