About one month ago I was sitting in my room watching Viva La Bam and for some weird reason I decided that I would pierce my cartilage. I already have an industrial and 9 other normal ear piercings. I was sick of all the piercings on my right ear all being on the bottom part of my ear, unlike the left side. All the ear piercings I have, with the exception of 3, I did by myself. I know there is a big risk of infection when doing that, but I made sure I cleaned the needles really well and used good earrings. (It's not a good idea to do piercings yourself, if you can, I think you should go to a professional who knows exactly what they are doing.)
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A month ago Artist me Studio my room Location nowhere Anyways, before I got ready to do the piercing, I went and got a lighter and ice. I always use ice when I pierce my ears so it doesn't hurt as bad. I got a needle out of the case of needles I have. Whenever I pierce my ears, no matter what, I always make sure that I use a needle that has never been used by anyone else. I got a permanent marker and made a tiny dot where I wanted the earring to be. I put the needle above the lighter and in the flame for only a few seconds. I think I read somewhere that doing that gets rid of some germs if there is any. After that I put one ice cube on the front of my ear and held it where the little black dot is. I held it there for about thirty seconds and then I put it on the back of my ear. I left that on for just about the same amount of time. Then I wiped off all the water that came off the ice cube so the needle wouldn't slip.
After all the preparing was done, it was time do stick the needle through. I hate that part. I stuck the needle in the middle of the black dot and pushed with my pointer finger. It didn't hurt that bad at first. It wasn't going in very well so I pushed harder. It started so go through the skin and I could feel the skin break. I kept pushing until I could feel it starting to puncture the cartilage. Then with one last really hard push, and with a big popping noise, it was through. The whole thing took about three minutes. It hurt bad at the end. It started stinging, getting hot and turning red.
It wasn't over yet. I still hadn't put the earring in. This was the most painful and hard part, in my opinion. I got the earring out of my little box of earrings. It was a brand new sterling silver star. I think that's my favorite earring. Anyways, I slowing inched the needle out of the new hole in my ear. It hurt really bad. Finally it came out. After that I quickly put the earrings end up to the hole and started pushing it in. It wasn't going in easily, just like the needle didn't. I push harder and finally is slid through and I put the back on. I think I should have put some ice on there before that, maybe it wouldn't have hurt so bad.
I looked in the mirror and it was perfectly straight and I loved it. I called my friend and told her about it. I normally wouldn't call anyone about doing piercing myself, but she had bought me the earring so I needed to tell her I guess. I liked that piercing over all the other ones. I don't know why though. I think it just looks better.
It hurt to sleep on it for about two weeks. Hitting it was torture. People actually came up to me and told me how much the liked it. Almost all of them think I got it done by a professional, but I didn't. This is one of the only self-done piercings that I truely proud of. I love it. I think that may be the last one I do myself though. It may also be the last thing I get done to my ear.
Even though I like it a lot, I know that doing this is a bad idea. So, I think I should tell anyone who is thinking of doing it, don't. It's so much easier, clean, and less painful to get it done by a professional. I've done it so many times that I don't bother. For many of my ear piercings, with the exception of this one, I would have rather paid a professional to do it. In many cases they do a much better job on most piercings.