I'd like to begin by saying that I did, quite possibly, everything that could be done wrong when piercing one's own ears. For this reason, if you chose to pierce your own ears, you should do none if the things I am about to describe, and do everything I didn't. In fact, don't pierce your own ears, get it professionally done, by a real piercer, not a piercing gun at Claire's. With that said, I shall continue.
At A Glance Author tiffany Contact tiffany@bme.anon When It just happened Artist me Studio my baithroom Location philly Well, it all started when I was on BME last night. I came across a couple DIY lobe piercing experiences and thought "well, I could do that!" I read a few more, and after being fairly convinced that it wouldn't hurt much, I decided to proceed with my ear piercing fun.
I have been stretching my first holes, which I've had since the tender age of seven, and I realized I wanted second holes in case I felt the need to wear regular earrings. I had planned to get it professionally done, but after reading about how others had did it themselves, I decided to just go ahead and do it, it couldn't be that bad right? I mean, if so many others had done it, so could I! So I gathered my materials, some straight pins, a safety pin and the only pair of studs I owned and head into my bathroom.
I then pushed one straight pin into my right ear. It hurt! So I went downstairs in search of a numbing agent, like the stuff you put on your gums when u have a toothache. After nearly falling off my kitchen counter looking for some in the cabinet, I gave up on that idea. And since we don't use ice in my house, numbing my ear was simply out of the question . I went back up to the bathroom and tried again. I'd count to ten while pushing the pin into my ear then breathe for a count of three and repeat. Finally, after what seemed like a million cycles of push/breathe . I reached the back layer of skin in my ear. Trust me, they are not kidding when they say that is the hardest part to get through. After much work with that, I got the pin through. I went back to my computer and just let the pin chill there for a little, ecstatic that I had done it, but unsure of what to do next. I consider just leaving the pin in there for a while, but I knew very well that it made a hole too sma ll for me to get a stud through. I had planned to stretch the hole out with the safety pin once I had gotten the straight pin through, but after the straight pin experience I was apprehensive to even touch my ear. Eventually I decided I had to continue, so I went back into the bathroom.
I picked up my safety pin, which was who knows how old and had previously held a patch to my backpack , and covered it in Neosporin to aid in getting it through my ear. I removed the straight pin and attempted to put the safety pin through the hole. I then realized my plan was a failure. There was no way I was getting that pin into the previous hole. I had to pierce an entirely new hole! So here I went again. By this time, it was about 4am, I was extremely tired, and pain was no longer an issue... I couldn't turn back now. So, I went through the whole push/breather system again and got the safety pin through. I closed it up and resolved to leave it there until the hole healed. I went back to my computer and searched for healing time on a lobe piercing. What I found was information on leaving a safety pin in there to heal, which is an utter no no. Why this bothered me, I'll never know, considering I had ignored every rule of piercing up till then, including sterilizing of any sort and piercing with an actual needle. Anyway, I realized I couldn't leave the pin in there and it was imperative to put a stud in. back to the bathroom I went.
I painfully removed the safety pin and put the stud up to the hole, and pushed with everything I had, I was getting rather annoyed with the whole procedure by this point. Let me tell you, that hurt more than anything, I could literally feel the stud ramming its way through my ear. It hit the back wall and I felt faint, so I sat down whispering "that hurt, that hurt, that hurt" to myself. I eventually stood back up and tried to get the stud through that back skin. It wasn't easy but I managed, then I put the backing on and went to sleep thinking "well, now see, that wasn't so bad" with plans of piercing the right ear the next morning.
The right ear piercing went much like the left, minus the straight pin which was pointless to begin with. The only thing was, it hurt about ten times more, couldn't tell you why, and the process included a futile attempt at numbing my ears with frozen raviolis. Once I finished though, I found myself extremely proud of my brand new, self done piercings, eager to show them to my friends and family, most of who responded with "didn't that hurt?!" to which I replied with a modest lie of "no, not really."
Now I've yet to have my piercing for 24 hours, and I must wait and see if they heal void of infection. I'm pretty sure I will be alright, considering I know my body and it tends to heal rather fine, regardless of what I do to it, but that's not to say I'm not a little worried.
The moral of the story is, don't pierce your own ears, or anything else for that matter. It does hurt, quite a bit, and there is no real way to sterilize your materials. And if you do plan on piercing anything yourself, put a little effort into it, i.e. don't use a safety pin, don't fail to at least TRY and sterilize your equipment and please be informed. Hope this dissuaded any of you self-proclaimed amateur pierces from practicing on yourselves!