We have an understanding, my boss and I. I don't get any facial piercings, and he lets me keep my job. My ears, however, are fair game. I don't think he realized, when he agreed that I could pierce my ears however I like, exactly what I was planning. I'm now pierced in eleven places, and other than my single center tongue piercing, they're all in my ears. This is the story of my daith.
At A Glance Author Gwenn Contact Gwenn@bme.anon IAM mythernal When A month ago Artist Rich Fisher Studio Division Tattoo Location Madison Heights, MI Once I discovered BME, I was hooked. I had never quite realized the variety of options available to me in my modification journey until I stumbled in here. Perusing the ear piercing pictures, I stumbled upon the daith and decided that it was for me. After doing a little more research (You say that "doth"??) I was ready to go. I called my friend Tara and asked if she wanted to go get pierced today. She was up for it, of course. I knew I love this girl for a reason. My ultimate favorite piercer lives in Canada, but we didn't want to deal with the border crossing that day, so I decided we'd go see Rich, a very close second, who had done my double cartilage piercings six months ago.
We walked into the shop and a guy behind the counter said "How can I help you, ladies?" I told him we were thinking about getting piercings. So he brought forms out for us, scanned our IDs, and all that good stuff. Tara still couldn't decide what she wanted at that point, although she eventually got an industrial. One of the other tattoo artists had just finished working on someone and came up to the counter to talk to us. I showed him a picture of what I was planning on getting, and his reaction was "Damn, that's gonna hurt!"
Well that wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear! I told him, "Man, you work in a tattoo shop! It's in your job description to act tough and say nothing hurts even if it's obvious it must. Why do you wanna trip me out like that?" He apologized and said that really, how would he know, he has hardly any piercings himself. But I was a little shaken and started having second thoughts.
Too late! Rich had set up and walked out to greet us. "We have a daith piercing today? Great, can I see your ear? Oh, you have a perfect ear for this. This way!" I told him, "Rich, your guy out there just told me it's gonna kill ... I'm worried!" His response? "Yeh well, we like to be honest." Please, lie to me! Tara was worrying too now and said "Ohhh, Gwenn, you're gonna scream." Rich says, "Who cares what she does, come on now." in a joking way. But by this time I was seriously scared.
I sat in the chair and looked at everything he had set out. I asked him if he could pierce it at 16 gauge because I thought it looked prettier. He agreed to do that and got out the right equipment for that. I told him to just mark it wherever he thought it would look best since there's not REALLY that much variation on a daith. I was bouncing with nervousness in the chair as he cleaned my ear and suddenly I felt something cold press against me.
"No jumping now, you only want one hole," says Rich.
"We're doing it NOW?"
"Yep, now. Breathe for me."
So I sat still and did my even deep breathing, knowing that this would make it easier on both of us. I felt the needle poke into my ear, and I thought it was done. I looked at Tara just at the moment she got a horrified look on her face, said "Oh God" and looked away. When Rich started leaning in to get more leverage to push the needle all the way through, I realized we weren't done and braced myself for the horrible pain to come.
It never did.
He managed to get the needle all the way through and slid the ring in with no difficulty. I looked in the mirror and immediately fell in love with it. Tara, Rich, his apprentice, and the other tattoo artist all said it looked really good too. Just then my phone rang. It was my mom. I told her that I had just gotten a piercing. This is the third time she's called within two minutes of me getting a new hole, even when I don't tell her beforehand. Somehow, she knows! Rich wanted to take a picture for his portfolio and commented "It can't hurt that much, she's already got the phone up to her ear!"
It was true. Unlike a lot of other ear piercings, the daith is kind of "protected" by the rest of your outer ear. Therefore, it doesn't get bumped much, and I could even sleep on that side without bothering it at all. It's healing really well and it's become my favorite piercing (winning over my tongue!). Not a lot of people notice it, but it's one of the ones that ALWAYS elicits a "Did that hurt" comment when it is noticed. At first I told the truth, but too many people were fascinated and I've started fudging a little bit on the pain factor to discourage it from getting too popular. ;)