In the icy depths of winter (ok, February), what is one to do with their days? One typical, cookie-cutter afternoon when I was bored as usual, I decided to add another hole to my ears. I only had one hole in each, stretched to 8g from the original gunned *flinch* size. In 2 months, it will be the one-year anniversary of my nipple ring!! But that's another story. I have my tongue web pierced, so I couldn't pierce that again. My parents are fairly anti-piercing (when I say parents I really mean my mother, my dad could care less as long as I don't... well... there's not much that he wouldn't let me do), so I figured what could one more little hole hurt? I had asked my mom a few times about going to a proper studio and getting it done, and every time her answer had leaned a little more towards 'maybe', but it was still no. I figured what the hell, it's my ears, it's not that hard. The tongue web was awkward and took forever to do, but ears would be nice and easy.
At A Glance Author hannah Contact hannah@bme.anon When A month ago Artist me I had some needles lying around (nice, sterile catheter needles, still in the packages). Catheter needles, if fiddled around with, make excellent piercing needles because you can slide the needle out and leave the plastic sheath thing in the hole until you put the jewelry through. So I got out a 16g needle and two 16g CBRs, and some sterile gloves. My dad's a dentist, so I can get lots of stuff from him, and he'll autoclave whatever I want. I was just getting ready to go to my studio, I mean, the bathroom of my dorm, when my friend Chelsea showed up. She had asked my boyfriend where I was, and he told her I was up in my room piercing something. So she decided to tag along, and pierce her ears too. I gave her a 16g needle and some gloves so she could do hers. We trekked down the hall to the bathroom, and played a Nirvana CD so we could sing along and be nicely distracted while brandishing needles. I coated the sinks in yards of paper towels, got a bowl full of warm salt water and some cups, and put some gloves on and took the needle out of its package. Chelsea did the same, I assume, but I wasn't paying much attention to her at the time. Oh yes, I made sure to wear an old undershirt just in case I happened to bleed. I'm not much of a bleeder when it comes to piercings, so I didn't worry too much about it.
On to the actual piercing. I've never pierced my ears myself, and the first piercings were gunned *twitch*, and to say the least I've never been fully aware of what piercing myself feels like. My tongue web didn't have much feeling, and with my nipple I was far too nervous and jumpy to feel anything but the pain. Not that pain is a bad thing, by any means, but I wasn't fully aware of the piercing itself. With my ear, however, this was completely different. I started with my left ear (it just felt right, I get a sense of where my body wants things), and from the moment the needle pierced my skin to the moment it exited the back I felt every millimeter of it. It hurt a little, not enough to make me stop singing, but the sensation was a very unique one. There was almost no blood, maybe a tiny bit of redness, and it wasn't until I slid the needle out of the plastic sheath that I realized there might be a teeny problem. There was a nice big green plastic hub attached to the sheath, sticking out of the front of my ear where I was going to put the jewelry in. I didn't think it would be the greatest idea to put it in from the back (not sure why, it just didn't feel right), so I took a deep breath, slid the sheath out, and quickly replaced it with the CBR. Wait, it worked. I popped the ball in with some difficulty, did a brief soak in warm salt water (aaaaah), changed my gloves, and moved on to the next ear.
This one was a little more difficult. It went mostly the same as the other, but there was a very, very loud, distinct POP when it went out the back. Chelsea looked over at me with a needle half in her ear and we both laughed hysterically. This one was bleeding a bit. Actually, a bit more than a bit. I tried to repeat the take-out-the-sheath-and-put-the-CBR-in routine, but I lost the back of the hole. There was quite a bit of poking around and trying to find it before Chelsea decided to come over and help me. I made her change her gloves first, though. After about 20 minutes of pure frustration, we realized that there was no way we were going to find the hole, partly because I couldn't feel it, and we couldn't see it (a bit because of the blood covering my earlobe. It wasn't too bad at this point, though). I decided oh, what the hell, and finally pushed the earring through the back of my ear. Another big POP. I tried to put the ball on, but realized there was no way. I felt like I had sliced my ear off, due to the amount of blood that was welling out and around the earring. It gushed out and ran down my neck and collarbone like a waterfall. I love blood. I thought it was beautiful and wanted to take pictures, but realized my camera was broken, and neither of us were in any position to go get a camera. It was about this point that my friend Althea came in, and giggled a little. I soaked through a few paper towels with blood, and when the bleeding had subsided a bit, popped the ball in. I filled up a glass with warm salt water, and held it to my ear. The blood was still coming out of the hole, and it looked beautiful, slowly coming out and swirling in the water. I stood there for a few minutes watching it, and when the blood finally stopped completely, I put the glass down and dried my ear (and the side of my head) off. I wiped up the blood that had dripped all over me, and put all the bloody paper towels and such into a pl astic bag that I tied and put in the big garbage can. Not like I have any diseases that I could spread, but I figured that nobody wanted to deal with my bloody mess.
Later I saw my boyfriend, who asked what took so long. Chelsea and I looked at each other, and she said "well, Hannah was bleeding a little." Understatement of the year. While I certainly don't thing it's a horrendous idea to pierce yourself, I would not recommend doing it with anything but proper, beveled, STERILIZED needles, and gloves, and items you've only used on yourself, or never before. Do not go out and pierce your ears four times with a safety pin. I'm taking good care of my ears, soaking them occasionally and mostly leaving them alone, and they've healed nicely. Chelsea, however, never did salt soaks, played with them, and tried to heal them with bad earrings which resulted in her and her mother flipping out and going to the doctor when infection set in. He gave her antibiotics and she took them out. I got mad at her for that, but it's her own fault. All I can say is BE CAREFUL... and have fun!