Part 1: My Personal Ramblings
At A Glance Author Nicole Contact Nicole@bme.anon IAM The Stolen Child When It just happened Artist Meg Studio Intricate Decor Location Mt. Pleasant, MI Well, I wish I had some sort of interesting story to tell behind all this, but I don't. I have an experience, yes, but not a story. You aren't going to walk away feeling like this piece changed your life and that because of it, you should go out and defeat evil forces or something like that. Perhaps you will, if you're the kind of person that finds good in everything (and hey, more power to you if you do!), or if you have some sort of power that allows you to get rid of all the world's demons. But to be perfectly honest, this is just a plain lobe story. If you don't mind that, you may read on.
Part 2: Begging, Begging, and More Begging (oh wait, there wasn't any!)
Believe it or not, my lobes weren't my first piercings. Before this I had gotten a slew of other piercings (tongue, lip, septum, and navel, just to name a few). The lobes were my 7th and 8th piercings. Why I never bothered to get my lobes pierced before, I don't know. I guess they just weren't on my list of priorities before now. To be perfectly honest they still aren't. But I have them done now and that's what matters.
But I digress.
The decision to get my lobes pierced was quite spur of the moment. I had planned earlier that week to go and get a vertical hood piercing, but that didn't happen. To make a long story short, the piercer that usually works on Saturdays won't do genital work, so the other piercer that will do it was going to come in early on Saturday (the 3rd of April) to do it. Unfortunately, his band had a show to do that night and had an unexpected lineup change, so he had to be out of town earlier than expected. I was bummed, yes, but I knew I could reschedule and wasn't going to let it ruin my day.
My friend Addy picked me up at around 11, and after stopping to get gas and food we headed up to Mount Pleasant. By the time we got up there it was only 11:30 or so, and they didn't open until noon so we decided to go to a CD place in town to kill some time. After finally getting out of there and going to Meijers to pick some stuff up for my mom, we headed over to Intricate Décor. I had intended on getting my tongue piercing stretched, but like the hood piercing, that didn't happen either because they didn't have the jewelry.
By this time I was really itching to get something done. When I had gotten my last batch of piercings and came home with something my mom didn't like (my septum), she had told me I wouldn't be able to get any more modifications until I moved out of the house (even though I am 18). After thinking about it for a few minutes, I decided to at least try to ask to get my lobes done. I was, understandably, nervous to hear what she had to say considering what had happened before. But I figured I had nothing to lose so I called her. She wasn't home so I waited a few minutes and she called me back. I asked her, she asked if I had money (duh!) and after a few seconds she agreed with not much hesitation at all. Wow! I didn't even have to beg.
Part 3: Time to get stabbed!
After I hung up the phone and waited around a little bit for Meg to finish what she was doing, I filled out my forms and handed over my ID. Filling out the forms was nothing for me, and only took me a minute or two since I've filled them out so many times before. Then I followed her into the piercing room, where she was preparing everything. Lucky for me I didn't have to hoist myself up on to the massage table; I could just sit in my chair. There was some confusion on my part as to where I was supposed to sit, but that was soon resolved and we carried on.
We decided to pierce them at a 12 gauge because I wanted something bigger than the standard 14 or 16 gauge. I wanted to do them at an 8 gauge but we would have to pierce and stretch them, which, according to Meg, would not only hurt like a mother fucker but it would probably blow out my ears as well and I didn't want to risk that. Plus I didn't want to scare my mom too badly.
She began by cleaning and marking my ears. I told her to get them as even as possible so it took quite a bit of marking and remarking before they were straight. I honestly don't remember which ear she pierced first, (I think it was the right but I'm not entirely sure.) but since it was the same procedure for both ears I don't think it matters much for the experience. She clamped it, and to be perfectly honest I could barely even feel it. I could feel the needle up against my skin and mentally prepared myself.
Take a deep breath in...
::pierce::
All done!
Okay, that wasn't so bad really...just a sharp little pinch. But I flinched, and I hate that because I always feel like I've screwed something up. She got the jewelry in without too much trouble, and got the ball in my right ear fine, but she had quite a bit of trouble getting the left ball in. After a little bit of fiddling, it was finally in and I was able to admire my new holes.
Part 4: Hmm...how am I going to sleep?
Since I just got them done I can't really vouch for how things have been going in the long run. However, I can say that so far healing has been pretty uneventful. I clean them twice a day with antibacterial soap on a cotton swab and rinse them with another cotton swab that has just water on it. Sometimes it stings but it goes away after a few seconds.
Sleeping has been a bit of a challenge. The first night, I tried to sleep on my side and it didn't work very well. While it didn't hurt to sleep on them, I woke up with a bunch of dried blood on my ear. It wasn't all that pleasant as far as cleaning it up goes.
Last night I thought about sleeping on my back (or trying to) all night. I quickly found out that that wouldn't work either. I just couldn't get comfortable. Finally I turned over on my left side, put the pillow up toward the top of my head (so the top of my head was touching it, but my ear wasn't) and relaxed. That way, my head was elevated to some extent so there was no pressure on the jewelry. I was pleased to wake up to a very minimal amount of dried blood and crusties. It seems to only bleed a little bit at night when I'm sleeping and nothing else. I imagine it will get better over the next few days.
Part 5: Nicole has left the building – almost!
I am really pleased with how these turned out. If you are planning to get your lobes pierced I would definitely go for it! Even though my lobes weren't my first piercing, they would be a great starter piercing for those who are complete piercing virgins. And even if you're not a piercing virgin, like myself, the lobes are still great piercings to get because the pain is so minimal and they are easy to take care of.
The only bad thing is that my mom was expecting them to be done with a gun, so she was a little dismayed when I came home with 12 gauge CBR's in my ears (she called them "short and fat" rings). She was a little upset that I can't wear regular stud earrings in them. But I don't care, because it's my body. Besides, I think she's gotten over it anyway.