At A Glance
Author	pynxxx
Contact	pynxxx@bme.anon
When	Three months ago
Artist	Me
Studio	My bathroom
Location	Houston, Texas

Among my friends, I am the only one with excessive knowledge and crazy infatuation of body modification. I strive to be different through piercings and tend to be the first to do anything. So far (even though none were performed under good conditions) all of my piercings are wonderful. However, at the time of this piercing, I only had my lobes done, 3 times each. I had the first 3 done at Claire's (cringe with me) and after that my mom told me anymore would be fine, but none off the ears (I'd do those later ;)) and I'd have to pay myself.

I tried to save some money, and TOLD my mom that once the school basketball season was over (I was on the team) she would be taking me to Claire's to get my 4th holes. (I tried getting her to take me to a professional studio, even explaining to her the risks of getting gunned and the unsterile workspace at Claire's but there was no sign of her ever agreeing. She argued that they were for freaks. We'll see about that..)

Ugh.. I don't have any type of income so how was I supposed to pay for them? I wanted, neigh, I NEEDED more holes! So I did the next reasonable (or not so) thing. I got a safety pin (even though I'm very informed on piercings, sometimes my desire for more gets the best of my sense of caution) and some rubbing alcohol and got to poking at my ear. Starting with the left, I eased the safety pin through the first layer of skin and heard a quiet, somehow calming, pop. "Hmm.. it's not so bad, no pain yet, right?" I thought to myself, and nudged the safety pin in a little farther.

Another pop, w00t. I'm getting there! A little farther, and by now I'm breaking out into waves of sweat, I'm so nervous, my hands are shaking. Not sure if I want to go through with it, I remove the safety pin and get a glass of water. Bad move, after I had decided to go on with the piercing, I was unable to find the original beginning of the hole and had to start over. Only this time with slight pain, from already penetrating that area. But, luckily for me, I have an extremely high pain tolerance, and I continue forcing the pin through my hot, red ear. After what seemed like hours, I could finally feel the blunt tip of the safety pin sticking out of the back of my ear! I felt great, I let go of the pin and danced around for a little while before getting back to business.

I began to pull the pin out of my ear and after some struggle, it came out. I quickly reached over for the studs I had picked out for it and began to poke it through the hole, worried that it would be too big. Beh, I was right. But I was determined, I wasn't going to let something silly like that get in my way. I pushed and prodded and coaxed it for ages, taking a break now and then to pull myself together and dab the stream of blood dripping from my ear. Finally, after much conflict, I got the thing through and snapped the back onto it. I stood back and admired my newest piercing in the mirror before kneeling back over the bathroom sink to begin my right ear. I won't go into detail on the right ear because, other than having little more experience, it was virtually the same thing.

Two days after finishing them both, I was talking to my mom in the kitchen when I noticed her staring at my ears. I was mortified.. what if she made me take them out? I looked away and put my hair over my ears, as if not to notice her looking. She tilted her head and kind of whispered, "You.. you already have your fourth holes..?" And I did a sheepish smile and turned away. Curious as to where they came from, she asked, "You do 'em yourself?" Another smile. "Hmm..", she said, "..do the dishes." And that was that! I was so ecstatic, I finally had my fourth holes and my mom didn't even care, she even seemed to like them, which wasn't expected at all.

Despite the poor conditions and lack of experience, the things healed perfectly with little to no aftercare and following minimal guidelines for safe, clean piercings.

But some people might not be so lucky, if you're tempted to pierce yourself without proper equipment and/or training, level your head out a little bit and rethink it! If you're still entertaining the idea, make sure you do it with the right tools in sterilized facilities.