At A Glance Author Rebecca Contact Rebecca@bme.anon IAM immolate When It just happened Artist Kerri Studio Zebra Location Berkeley, CA I have a really bad tendency to come home and write up my experiences right after I get a piercing. This is most likely a result of my thinking I'm incredibly cool, and the excitement hasn't worn off yet. Unfortunately, whenever I write about my experiences right after they happen, I can't go back and write about what happened AFTER it (healing process, etc). So, bless my little heart, I waited a few days to do this one.
I am not a fan of extreme body modification. In a lot of cases, I think it looks rather silly and unattractive. This is not a prejudice, but rather more a bias and a preference. If you like great big holes with dinner plates protruding from your ear lobes and a pancake platter in your lip, then by all means, good for you. It's just not my thing.
Hence why I liked the rook piercing. It is small, and sits ever so quietly and subtly in that inner fold of your ear. I didn't always like it, to be quite honest: the first couple times it was more so of an "eh" reaction. It was ok, not my thing. Then I started to really like it. I guess it goes with the saying once you start seeing something a lot, it grows on you. This is no different: the rook piercing grew on me, until there was this point of an absolute need for it. My ear wanted a cute little barbell perched on its rook. In order for it to pursue its existence as a fully functioning ear, it had to have that damn piece of jewelry.
So I tried. My best friend and I made a plan in January to get pierced. I ended up getting my tragus first, after a long debate of tragus versus rook. I swore to get the rook later.
We made plans again in early March to get it done. No such luck. Early April arrived, and another day was supposedly a go, but in the end didn't happen. Spring Break came, as did our next supposed piercing date. But due to my friend's new job and it's forbidding her to get any more piercings, we didn't go. Of course I could have gone up by myself and gotten it, but we all know it is far more enjoyable to have company while enduring those moments. And also because I am extremely directionally challenged and would get ridiculously lost if I tried going up to the studio by myself (for anyone wondering, it's not exactly near where I live...about an hour or so drive away with lots of scary freeway changes).
Eventually my friend said screw her work and its two holes per ear policy; she was getting her other ear done anyway. We decided to get it done the day after her high school graduation: a graduation present to her, and to me, just because I made it through another year of high school with only one left, and because I wanted this stupid hole and nothing was going to stop me.
The following Friday, I picked her and her boyfriend up and we drove up to Mr. Zebra's on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Let me just say that the name of this place is arguable...quite technically, it is called Mr. Zebra (as the web site blatantly reads) but it has been shortened many a time to Zebra or Zebra's, which would explain my listing it without the Mr. I figured it would get more reads and more recognition without it.
After the (hot as hell) hour drive, we parked in some grocery store parking lot and walked down to the shop. It was much busier than the last time we had been there, but nevertheless we were helped immediately. I chose my jewelery (18g barbell) and paid. I was given a number and told to wait. I knew the routine; I'd been here before when I got my tragus done. We waited some more; one of the staff members asks if we'd like to anything to drink, a soda or a snack. We politely decline. The nervousness went away a bit - I'm not really concerned about the pain, I know what cartilage piercings are like, so I had an idea of how it would feel.
Eventually my number was called and all three of us trooped to the very back, where we were greeted by Kerri, the (adorable) piercer. She and my best friend are buddies on SuicideGirls, so she remembered us from both the site and the last time we were here, and decided to skip number 5 and just do us all at the same time. I announced in the car that I was going first, so I sat down, and asked Kerri if we could take pictures. She said it was cool, so I gave my digital camera to my friend, who happily began snapping away.
Kerri cleaned the area of my rook with a cotton swab, then marked my ear with the white ink on a toothpick. After the first placement was marked, I asked her if she could move it in a little bit more. She remarked it, and I gave her the okay. She picked up the fresh needle and the receiving tube and brought it to my ear. She put the needle in, which really wasn't all that bad. The only way I can think to describe it is a heavy, somewhat uncomfortable pressure on one side of your head. My ear got very red and very hot as she slid the jewelery in and smoothly screwed on the other ball. It bled a little bit, but she quickly cleaned it up with a cotton swab.
My friend's boyfriend was impressed, and he said "WHOA, YOU DIDN'T EVEN FLINCH OR MOVE OR ANYTHING!" Heh. Funny non-pierced boys.
I looked in the mirror that Kerri handed me and smiled like a moron. I loved it. The barbell was a bit long, but I knew it would be, and it was alright because it would acommodate any swelling that took place afterwards. I tipped Kerri, then got up so she could pierce my friends.
It's been three days so far, and it's been quite low maintenance. I don't know it's there unless I bump it. It does get a bit itchy at times, and then when I go to itch that part of my ear I am reminded why it itches in the first place - because there's new jewelry there. I could sleep on my left side the first night without any discomfort, mostly because it's on the inner part of your ear and really doesn't stick out at all. Plus the barbell doesn't stick out the way a CBR would, another reason why I went with my choice of jewlery. I clean it twice a day with Dial soap and Bactine (Bactine is apparently quite controversial, I know, but I love it - I've healed about six piercings with it and it has been a life saver at times, so I'm sticking with it). Sea salt soaks were recommended but not mandatory nor a neccessity.
It took awhile for me to get this done, but I did get it eventually. I have become quite fond of this shop, its staff and "my" newly appointed piercer. Yes, I would recommend the shop to anyone considering them.
Thanks for reading.