At A Glance Author Michelle Contact Michelle@bme.anon IAM Flutterfly When A week ago Artist RJ Studio New Tribe Location Toronto, Ontario Introduction:
Today I am going to share my ear lobe piercing experience with you. That's right, I said ear lobe – not large gauge and no stretching or scapelling involved - simply another set of 16g earlobe piercings to add to my already existing 2 sets. The reason I got a 3rd set is because I can be picky. Last year I had my second set of ear lobes re-pierced and in order to avoid scar tissue the piercings were placed pretty close together. At first I was okay with the placement. Every once and a while I would look in the mirror at my lobe piercings (while cleaning my rook and tragus piercing) and think about what could be done to fully satisfy me in regards to my ear piercing dilemma. There was definitely enough room for a third set. It was like my piercer knew I would eventually want another set and left room intentionally. (Yes, that's what I tell myself *snicker*)I saw two options:
Option 1 - Take the second set of piercings out, allow them to heal, and go for another re-piercing attempt.
Option 2 - Get one more set of ear lobe piercings and have them placed so that all 3 sets look symmetrical.
I went with option number two. Getting re-pierced again just wasn't what I wanted to do.
Who Is Going to Pierce Me?:
I live in Toronto for school, but have gone back home to Real Tattoos by Zap in Owen Sound for all of my piercings. However this time I thought I'd be adventurous and get pierced here in Toronto. In addition, I wanted the piercings ASAP. A couple of my friends have been pierced while at school and each time we've gone to New Tribe located on Queen Street. I watched 7 of my friends' piercings be done there, by both Jon and RJ. New Tribe is very clean and reputable so I felt comfortable being pierced there. I chose to be pierced by RJ
Before I had formally decided to get pierced I talked to RJ about jewelry. I wanted to be pierced with 16g, 1/4'', straight jeweled barbells with 3mm beads. Why? With my second set of lobe piercings the CBRs seemed to have put tremendous pressure on my piercings and they got super irritated. One day it got to the point where I ran to my Residence Advisor, here at school, and used his needle nose pliers to get the rings out of my ears immediately. Not only were my ears sore, but my jewelry was scratched all to hell and is now useless. For the mean time I had to put some nasty studs in my ears and hope that my ears would hold out until I could get some proper SSS jewelry. I found myself back at New Tribe and Lizzie, the girl at the counter, knew exactly what I would need and placed the order for me. I love the barbells, and wanted my 3rd set to have the same jewelry.
One day when my friend was getting pierced I decided to talk to RJ about my plan to get pierced by him as well as my jewelry request. When RJ told me he was willing to pierce me with barbells I was thrilled and placed my order
The Day Approaches and Arrives:
On February 3rd I called New Tribe to see if my jewelry had arrived. I was told that it had and was in the autoclave as we spoke. I inquired as to when RJ was working and made an appointment for 2 days later, February 5th
On February 5th I slept in as late as possible, but got up early enough to force myself to eat breakfast. I don't usually eat when I first wake up but I knew it was important to make sure that my blood sugar wasn't low. To help with this I took along Nibs licorice with me to the studio. I always eat excessive amounts of candy before getting pierced, not only to make sure my blood sugar is at a decent level, but because it's a good excuse to eat candy.
When I arrived at the studio I had to fill out a consent form. The consent form was not like the one I fill out each time I'm at Real Tattoos by Zaps. At Zaps it is very detailed – asking when my last meal was, if I was allergic to shellfish, if I was infected with HIV/Hepatitis, had bleeding problems, made sure I wasn't under the influence of drugs or alcohol, etc. This form was not as detailed, but still ensured I was the proper age to be pierced, asked my address and so on.
Once the forms were filled out and I had paid, my friend and I sat on one of the leather couches and waited for RJ to be ready. Within 10 minutes it was my turn to follow RJ back into his piercing room.
Procedure:
When we got back to RJ's piercing room everything was already set up. I knew it had all been autoclaved not only because I had been to the studio before with my friends and knew RJ set up beforehand, but because all of the autoclaved packaging was visible.
I will say it now, and I will say it again – I can not stress how much I appreciate everything RJ did for me. He was very precise about what he was doing. RJ measured the distance between my first and second lobe piercings (4mm on my right and 5 on the left. Tsk, tsk) and understood when I told him how I wanted my third set to be placed. Without jewelry in, it would appear that the space between my second and third piercings was bigger than the distance between my first two piercings. This is because I didn't want the balls on the barbells to touch when they were in. Basically, I wanted the space between all of my jewelry (the skin showing) to be the same distance apart. RJ measured the bead size (3mm) and did the calculations as to how far apart we should place my piercings.
Once I was marked at the correct distance and slope we were ready to do the piercing. RJ did my right ear first. This is the ear I was hoping would be done first as it's the one with my tragus and rook piercing and if it was going to be further abused I wanted it to be over and done with. RJ got the needle in position, asked me to take a deep breath in and then exhale. As I exhaled he pushed the needle through. It was no big deal at all. What wasn't so fun was the jewelry insertion. He had to go extra slowly with the barbell to make sure that the needle wasn't out before the jewelry was in. Combined with the threading scratching through the new piercing it was fairly uncomfortable, but not unbearable. 3mm balls are a buggar to screw on, once my right ear was finished RJ repeated everything for my left ear. Before he did so I inquired about whether he was going to use the same needle and learned he was. He made it clear that lobe piercings are the only piercings he would u se the same needle for. I was fine with his judgment.
Once my lobes were done and cleaned up RJ gave me an aftercare card just as a reminder. I was told to do sea salt soaks as my form of aftercare as it would be difficult to ensure that all soap was removed since can't rotate my jewelry all the way though like you can with CBRs. When I was ready to leave I thanked RJ and gave him a $10 tip. I appreciate that he was willing to pierce me with special jewelry as well as the fact that he took much more time on lobe piercings than he generally would have. If I wasn't a poor student I would have tipped him even more.
No, this isn't a thank-you speech for an award, but I'd also like to thank Lizzie. She's been very nice and helpful when my friends and I are at New Tribe. I want to especially thank her for knowing exactly what jewlery I needed to order both times I've placed an order.
Afterwards:
It's been just over 2 weeks since I got pierced. (Despite the top saying 1 week... 2 weeks wasn't an option) Surprisingly, these piercings have been quite sore afterwards, compared to my other piercings which never hurt at all after the initial procedure. To combat this I wet Q-tips with water, put them in a Zip Lock baggie and stick them in my freezer. When I feel my ears need some relief I take out a Q-tip which now has a nice frozen tip and hold it against my ear. It works wonders.
I look at my 3rd set of lobe piercings kind of as tattoo cover-up. People get tattoos covered because they don't like them. I got a 3rd set of piercings because I wasn't happy with the way my previous ones looked and wanted to essentially hide the fact that they were uneven. I am now very happy with the way my ears look.
All in all this was a great experience. RJ is awesome and I plan on going to him again in the future. Yes that's right, I plan on getting a couple more piercings, much to my mom's disappointment. "Oh Michelle, don't you think you have enough piercings?" *Laughs* She doesn't hate them, just thinks that "Less is more".
Good luck to everyone with their piercings. My best advice is to do your research and go to a professional. If not, you'll most likely regret it.