I've only been home almost a month now, and I'm still missing. We were there for 10 days and it already feels like a lifetime ago. It was amazing. That seems like an exaggeration, I guess, but I was transported. Walking around the city is like being surrounded by art. We would turn a corner and suddenly we'd be in front of a church with gargoyles and saints. We'd turn another corner and there would be an alleyway with teeny restaurants spilling onto the cobblestones, and fruit stores, and the most wonderful stinkiest cheese stores.. Well, if I go on the entire post will be about Paris, so I'll move on.
At A Glance Author Sanguine Contact Sanguine@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Unknown Studio Le Chat Perce Location Paris, France After 5 days there, I needed something to remember the experience by. I mean, sure, there were photos. And souvenirs. And memories that already seemed to be fading. So, my mind immediately jumped to a piercing. My beautifully-inked friends suggested a tattoo but after some thought on that, my mind jumped back to a piercing. And really, what image would I have chosen to symbolize France?
We were lucky enough to have rented an apartment for our time there which came furnished with a computer and a DSL connection free for our use. We found a couple of places. Actually, there were really few places considering it's a large city. And they all seemed to be located along the same little alley. A couple of days later, we set out. The place was closed for lunch which seems silly here but perfectly fitting there for some reason. We decided to get some lunch and wander about and return later.
A few hours later, we walked in. I believe the name translated to "The Pierced Cat." I had two ideas in mind for what I wanted. A helix or to repierce a pair of holes on my lobes that I had allowed to close. Standard earrings there had bored me so I stopped wearing them. Think about half an inch higher than the bottom of the lobes, that's the location.
The shop was fairly busy with only one woman helping the potential customers, and the piercing areas located downstairs. I spent the time waiting for her to finish with the other folks finally deciding that I wanted to repierce the lobes, and I wanted plugs. I had grown enamoured of plugs and eyelets a few months before, but had never taken the plunge.
Finally, my turn was up. Most people we spoke to in Paris knew quite a bit of English rendering my 5 years of high school French completely superfluous. This lovely woman knew about as much English as I knew French. So, it was not an ideal situation considering she was to be my piercer. Still, we communicated in the international language of pointing, broken fragments of mixed translations, and apologetic smiles. Somehow I managed to gather that the smallest plugs they had were 4mm in diameter, and that to stretch me to that would be much much too painful. Instead, she suggested I get pierced at 4mm. I have to tell you, had she said 6ga, I would have balked. 4mm for some odd reason sounded much more acceptable.
I agreed, and together we chose the pair of plugs she would use. I wanted a double flared plug to which she shook her head in dissent. She took the jewelry down to be autoclaved, and I waited my half hour nervously. My stomach got all shaky and I was really worried my knees would buckle as I walked around the shop. That adrenalin was filling me, and by the time she came to get me I was sure my voice would come out in a squeak. I was able to walk down the spiral staircase without tumbling, so I guess it wasn't as bad as it felt.
She brought me through an area, to her own room. I hadn't realized until then but there were other piercers there, and in fact some folks getting tattooed as well. It was reassuring to see that her room was like a doctor's office, which is what I'm used to here. She motioned for me to sit back into her chair, and got her materials together. In the middle of this, with my heart pounding in my ear drums, in walked my friend Brad. Apparently he had never watched someone getting pierced before so he came down to watch. The piercer smiled and waved at him so I guess it didn't bother her at all. It wasn't until my boy came down that she shook her head and shrugged her shoulders as she laughed at the situation. That's what I get for taking people with me to get pierced, though. I should mention that when I got my nipples done, my friends decided they wanted to watch as well and for some reason I let them. I should stop taking more than one person with me. But, I digress yet again..
So, my boy sits next to me, and watches her. I think when he saw the needle he was a little surprised since he took my hand. I didn't look. I just turned my head and gritted my teeth like a good girl. I have to say, it hurt like a @#%$. I wasn't expecting so much pain, and actually it hurt more when she brought the needle through and then inserted the jewelry. So much pain. Much more than any of the cartilage, or the nipples, or any of the others. So much more. Still, the moment I saw my ears I knew it was worth it. I know this probably isn't what most people are going for, but they were just so damn cute. Like I had buttons on my ears now. My red red throbbing ears, but still.
They've been healing, slowly but surely. At first, they just weren't healing well despite following the proper aftercare. So, I went to a piercer that I knew and respected and he told me the o-rings were on too tight. In fact, on the back of one of the ears, the o-ring was partially inside the still healing hole. That explained the pain. He switched out the plugs for some longer glass plugs, and that helped a lot. They look wonderful. The right one seems all healed at this point, and has dimpled prettily. The left one still has occasional crusties but it seems to be getting less and less. I can't wait for them to heal fully so I can stretch to a 4ga. Don't know where I'll stop but the location (higher up on the lobe) won't really allow for more than an 00, I think, so that's pretty much the definite. 2ga seems like a beautiful size for the location, but I know once I get there I'll be all excited for the stretch to 0. Who knows?