At A Glance
Author	Kristine
Contact	Kristine@bme.anon
When	It just happened
Artist	A lady in the shop
Studio	Mr. Naturals
Location	MD

Dear BME Diary, (hehe)

This whole thing started when I went to CreationFest. It's a Christian Festival and it ROCKS! I love Jesus Christ with all of my heart. We'll just put that here FIRST, right now.

Anyways, while I was there I saw a plethora of people sporting piercings. The normal, guaged ear lobes, lip rings, la de da de da. Then I saw this girl with a piercing I'd never really seen before. I thought it was soooo precious! I found out later it was called an "Industrial." I think what I like about them more than anything else is that they have a tough look to them, and they aren't all that common. At least I don't see them as much as other stuff!

So what I REALLY wanted was an Industrial piercing going in, but I am actually a big chicken. Well, it's not that I am a chicken, it's just that the AFTER pain is a lot worse I think then actually getting the whole procedure done. So instead of traumatizing the ear with all that pain at once, I wanted to get it done halfway.

The guy that was working outside of the little area where people go back to get pierced said that he didn't think that getting an Industrial done half way was possible. That it was better to get it all over with at one time. He said it was something about that alignment of the ears had to be right, and that it was only like two piercing instead of one.

WRONG!

So the piercer reccomended that I work with her and get one piercing at a time and let each heal before putting the bar through. She measured my ear with the bar, and I decided that next time I would ask for her. (look up Industrial if you're confused.) FYI, she said it's actully BETTER this way for all you Industrial lovers. The bar through both holes is actually much more painful and will take a much longer time to heal. This is what she told me. She also said it's not natural to have a straight bar through a curved area while the ear is trying to heal.

(which brought me to this point...is ANY of this stuff natural??! haha.)

Anyways, so I ended up getting a regular cartilage piercing, 14 guage. I think the reason it hurt so bad is because I'm not used to being guaged at first...all I have are regular earrings.

So you guys know the drill. You have the marking first, then you have the gel. If you're anything like me, you have the fast heartbeat, and you tell your piercer "jeesh, i can't wait until i'm in the car riding AWAY from this place."

Then of course it came time for the actual bar to go through. I believe her last words were "ok girly, i need you to take 2 deep breaths for me."

Yeah no wonder...The funny thing about cartilage is, it's not as smooth as ear lobes. At least I thought not. Instead of "pop" it was more like "pop, pop." Like, you could tell the needle was going through some layers.

Soft bone...I guess when you think about it, it is kind of gross.

I'm not going to lie...it was a buttmunch getting done, and it's a BIG butthole right now. I can't barely even twist it because it hurts so bad. I took it kind of tough, and kind of like a chicken, too. the look on my face...goodness you would have thought that i was going to have a baby or something. But I guess that if was a REAL chicken then i wouldn't have even been in there at all...

I'm just hoping that in the end this whole mess will be worth it...

I guess I'm glad I got it, but right now I am worried about infection. If it gets infected i'll have to take it out. And if I get a CARTILAGE infection (which i've read about on bmezine)then it's possible my WHOLE EAR will collapse. Gosh, i don't even like writing about it.

Another bad part about it is the money. i mean, one cartilage piercing is 30 bucks. And they barely tell you what to do when you're done. They're just like, ok! 2, 3 times a day. Clean, and twist. Well, I know that's pretty explicable, but to a newbie there's a thousand other questions. Believe me, I thought of a couple.

I still don't completely understand the definition of a "sea-salt" soak. Oh well...something said on the paper about how I don't even need one unless it gets red or something.

So right now I am using Saline Solution. I have a bunch of it left over from my nose piercing which i am getting ready to tell you about.

I guess the reason i am so worked up about it is because i did have a nose ring, and that got infected and i had to see a specialist. And i had to take it out. I have a reason to be wary!!