My journey to 0 gauge was laden with mischance. I hope no one ever has to endure half the problems I did to get to 0 gauge, but I did finally get there successfully.
At A Glance Author LoveIsUnity Contact love_is_unity@yahoo.com IAM LoveIsUnity When A month ago Artist Has Desired to Remain Nameless I had my ears pierced when I was 7 years old in the same fashion many people did when they were children; with a gun at some place in the mall. I didn't realize it at the time but the placement was much too low to do any sort of stretching and this became apparent 11 years later when I wanted to stretch them. Since the holes were too low to stretch I removed the jewelry and started fresh with 8 gauge needle piercings and a better placement. I then added a second hole at 6 gauge which I had for a grand total of three weeks before my journey to 0 gauge was hindered once again. While attending a concert I had both the 8 gauge and the 6 gauge plug ripped out of my left ear when a crowd surfer fell on me. Needless to say there was blood caked all over my ear and neck when I surveyed the damage after the show but fortunately the jewelry didn't rip through my earlobe. That night I removed the plugs from my right ear as well and let my new holes close up.
The plan now was to repierce yet again but that wouldn't be able to happen for a while due to both the amount of scar tissue in my left ear and how tender they were. In addition to patiently waiting for the amount of scar tissue to reduce, I massaged my lobes with olive oil which seemed to expedite the process. It would be nine months before I felt my lobes were finally ready to be pierced again. The plan, however, had changed from repiercing my ears to scalpelling them.
I'd been reading many experiences about scalpelling and the choice seemed far superior as I could achieve the results I wanted instantaneously and healing times seemed substantially quicker. I found someone I trusted to do the procedure and after talking with them it calmed my nerves insomuch as one's nerves can be calmed before having someone slice through their lobes with a scalpel. The date was set and it would give me enough time to find jewelry that I found both aesthetically pleasing and bio-compatible. My body doesn't take well to Surgical Stainless Steel (even 316LVM implant grade) so I decided on titanium. I found a pair of "blurple" 6AL4V ELI F-136 implant grade single-flared eyelets and fell in love with them. Another positive aspect to the jewelry is that titanium's naturally lightweight anyway and titanium eyelets (as opposed to plugs) are even lighter.
So I got my jewelry, got it autoclaved, and prepared for the procedure. The person who performed the procedure desires to remain anonymous so for story purposes they'll be referred to as Lestat. Once I reached Lestat's shop we conversed for a bit about music, television, and other equally mindless dribble. At this point in time I was basically postponing the inevitable and at that moment I realized I'd become nervous. I'd had numerous piercings and tattoos but this would be the first time someone had ever cut in to my flesh with a scalpel. Despite being assured that the pain was, "similar to a paper cut" I was still less than enthused about enduring it. The moment of truth, however, had arrived.
Before I laid down and submitted myself to the scalpel I checked all the tools out and kept an eye out for any suspicious behavior. Lestat was more than capable though and didn't cross-contaminate anything. Now that my fears of sterility were assuaged I had to deal with my fears of having someone cut my ear open. All the marks were made with a sterile felt tip pen and after checking the line out in a mirror I realized how large the incision would really be. Now, the rule for scalpelling is to make an incision that's exactly one half the circumference of the jewelry. With 0 gauge plugs this turned out to be about 15 millimeters which doesn't sound like much but is rather daunting when you have to look at it. I had postponed the inevitable long enough and got in to a comfortable position laying down with my head tilted to the side (and my shirt off in case I bled all over it). We decided to do the left ear first because it had the most scar tissue and I thought it woul d be best to get it out of the way (as the second always has a tendency to be more problematic than the first).
Lestat asked me if I was ready to begin and I said that I was. After getting the clamps just the way they needed to be I was informed everything was ready. Lestat told me after I took a few deep breaths the procedure would begin. I began breathing and expecting to feel something akin to a butcher knife working its way through my flesh. This wasn't the case at all and I could hardly feel the scalpel for the first few cuts. Due to the proximity to my inner ear I could hear the cuts being made but the pain was minimal. After a while I felt the scalpel go through my ear which stung a bit but it still wasn't anything near unbearable. At this point in time the clamps loosened and the floodgates were open with blood seeping out of my wounded ear on to my neck as well as in to my ear. At this point in time my hearing was drastically impaired and my motivation to finish the procedure wasn't the slight stinging of the scalpel cuts but the blood pouring in to my ear canal. Th e plug was finally in but a very unpleasant surprise awaited us as Lestat tried to put the O-ring on; it was too small to fit the 0 gauge plug. This would require fitting the flared part of the jewelry through the cut but at this point in time I was up for anything. My motivation was still taking a break so I could get some of the blood out of my ear. The plug went in with virtually no resistance and I almost immediately felt Lestat put pressure on my ear with sterile gauze pads. I was informed there were Q-tips I could use to clean out my ear in a few minutes when the blood subsides. Lestat attributed some extra bleeding to a slightly larger incision than what was originally intended. Half a millimeter it seems can make a world of difference. Time was very relative at this point in time but after what I'd estimate was two minutes the bleeding seemed to be under control. I slowly sat up and immediately was hungry and thirsty. We managed to wrangle up an apple and s ome water which I voraciously consumed.
Getting the blood out of my ear was the primary concern now that I'd gotten my hunger out of the way. I took several Q-tips and soaked up blood from my ear but as hard as I tried I couldn't get it all out. The hearing impairment hadn't been fixed but at this point in time I resigned myself to feeling "under water" for a little bit and decided to do the second ear before my adrenaline wore off.
The right ear went much smoother than the left and I attribute that to Lestat's excellent ability to learn from prior mistakes. Instead of cutting too much this time Lestat cut slightly less than the necessary amount and tried the jewelry. After seeing a larger incision needed to be made I felt the scalpel and then the jewelry again. It didn't work this time either so after one more miniscule incision I knew in my heart the jewelry would go in this time; I was right. I should also note that less blood flowed in to my ear this time which was definitely another plus.
The right ear clotted much quicker than the left and after I sat up I ate yet another apple. I was allowed to keep the scalpel Lestat had used on me and I display it proudly much like someone would a football trophy. After saying thank you and chatting for a while I decided it would be in my best interests to go home. Along the way I started bleeding from my left ear again and although it wasn't enough to be concerned about medically it was definitely enough to be concerned about as it was dripping all over my mother's seatbelt. I took the seatbelt off and just let the blood drip down my chest on to my pants. When I returned home my girlfriend pointed out how big of a mess I was. Since it was fairly late at night my parents had gone to sleep (which I'm eternally grateful for) she was the only one up and she took me in to the bathroom to wash my chest up and help me find some appropriate clothing to sleep in. I decided on a shirt from my old job and red jogging pants. Mark my words right now if you're planning on getting your lobes scalpelled: you can never have enough paper towels, long hair is both a blessing and a burden, and red clothing is your best friend for the first few days. The first night was hellish and something I don't want to relive any time soon. I decided it would be best to sleep in a recliner so my girlfriend and I covered it in dark colored towels (much like the scene from Pulp Fiction where they disguise the car Marvin got shot in). I got as comfortable as one can be sitting up and eventually fell asleep. My ears slowly dripped blood throughout the night and I awoke early the next morning to my left lobe slowly dripping blood on the paper towels I'd covered my clothing in. I went to the bathroom and exchanged my paper towels for fresh ones. At this point in time I couldn't even see my earlobes because my hair was stuck to my ears as all the blood was acting as an adhesive. There was also dried blood encrus ted in my hair but I wasn't horribly concerned with it at the time. E ventually the left ear stopped bleeding and I could walk around somewhat normally around my parents. They weren't thrilled about the idea but surprisingly enough they didn't reprimand me for mutilating my body or anything like that.
That night I sat in a bath and pulled all my hair off of my ear. This was one of the more disgusting things I think I've ever experienced. First of all when I said blood acted as an adhesive I should have specified that by adhesive I meant super glue. I had to wet the hair, pull some off, wet the hair again, pull some off, and repeat this process until it was finally all off. The left ear had the most hair stuck to it and while the right ear was relatively easy to get the hair unstuck the left ear took a while longer. I eventually got all the hair off my ear but that didn't solve the problem of having blood caked to my hair. I don't mean a little bit of blood either; I'm talking about a lot of blood caked to my hair. After taking a bath I walked naked through my living room (the human body is beautiful, at least I think that's what my parents were thinking) to my room where I got in the shower and shampooed my hair clean. I had to almost pull the blood out of my hai r but it eventually all got pulled out and dissolved which was a very good thing. As I'm sure you've already realized all that pulling on my ears caused them to bleed again. I wasn't doomed unto a vicious cycle of bloody hair forever though because I pulled my hair back and used clips to keep it off my ears. After applying a bit of no bleed I was doing alright again. The smell of blood was starting to get to me at this point in time though. I like blood, I like blood a lot, but smelling it for 24 hours is very nauseating and this may very well have been the worst aspect of the entire ordeal. I was pretty tired though and went to sleep (this time in a bed) with paper towels spread out to catch the blood I was sure would drip.
When I awoke the amount of blood on the paper towels wasn't too bad. It wasn't enough to soak through to the bed or anything and was easily disposed of. My ears didn't bleed this entire day although it was very apparent I had used "No Bleed" the night before because my jaw line and neck were tinged yellow. Great, now I have bloody ears and people are going to think I have jaundice too.
The next day I had to return home to Tampa and bid my parents a fond farewell, (although at this point in time I think they wanted to get me out of their house and bleeding all over someone else's stuff). I did bleed a bit on this day which I attribute to the large amount of garlic I ate for dinner which I later discovered is an anticoagulant. I clotted the blood with paper towels and put on a red shirt for good measure. It seems I liked to start bleeding at night so after I clotted with the paper towels and some more "No Bleed" I went to sleep on the floor.
The next morning the amount of blood on the paper towels was almost nonexistent. There was a small spot under my left ear about the size of a dime but that was the only blood to be found. Since my left ear hadn't bled in a couple days I also decided to do a salt soak on it and clean the blood off of it. A lot of dried blood had accumulated all over both my ears and I took this opportunity to remove it from my right ear. Fortunately there weren't any problems and I cleaned it up rather nicely. I also cleaned up the inside of my ear with the aid of hydrogen peroxide which works well but you have to make sure you don't get it near your lobes. My right ear was doing very well but my left ear decided to have some serious problems and the ear canal was very swollen. In retrospect I probably should have purchased some earplugs that would completely conceal my ear canal to prevent blood from entering, but I didn't consider blood pooling up in my ear and seeping in to my inne r ear. So hopefully if you're planning on having this procedure done you'll learn from my mistake and buy some earplugs that will conceal your ear canal from any blood that may attempt to seep in.
After speaking with Lestat on the telephone about what we should have done to prevent this we decided rinsing the canal out with hydrogen peroxide would be the best course of action. This wasn't merely cleaning blood out of your ear like I'd experienced with the right ear though, this was pouring hydrogen peroxide in your ear canal. This was very uncomfortable but with the help of my girlfriend we managed to get a lot of blood out of my ear canal. When I woke up the next day I didn't feel much better though.
I spent this entire day worried I had an ear infection and I decided that if it wasn't getting better I'd go to the doctor the next day. That day I basically left my ears alone aside from salt soaks on the right ear and waited to see how I felt the next day. Fortunately the swelling went down and that day I was also able to remove all the crusted blood from my left ear as well. For the past few days I had been attending classes and I don't think this would have been possible if it wasn't for my hair. I have long hair which didn't work out so well when it was stuck to my ears but now that I wanted to conceal blood caked to my ear it was like a best friend. I was also back to sleeping in bed with my girlfriend because the nightly bleeding had stopped. I've been told that I didn't bleed nearly as much as other people have and I should consider myself lucky I didn't drip for a week or two afterwards. Eventually the swelling subsided completely and I was cleaning my ears daily in the shower with Provon soap as well as doing salt soaks.
It's been 13 days and my lobes look gorgeous aside from a thin layer of crusty blood around the tunnels that isn't even visible. This modification is healing much quicker and smoother than anything I've experienced with a needle and I attribute that to both the scalpel and the jewelry.