So about a week ago my mom decides she wants to have her nostril repierced. I decided I'd go with her and get something pierced, too. But what..... What?? I decided on a snug orbital. I REALLY wanted a vertical labret but I can't because of my job. Too bad, but my right ear was a little unbalanced with only one hole in it as opposed to my left ear which has 3.
At A Glance Author *chineedred* Contact brian_fellow@hotmail.com IAM *chineedred* When A week ago Artist Dan Wyseman Studio Skintastic in H-fax Location ....in H-fax So a snug orbital it was. In the end my mom ditched me and went on her own to get pierced, but I decided to get the snug done anyway. I had heard through the grapevine that a friend of a friend (Dan Wyseman) was doing his piercing apprenticeship at Skintastic in Halifax (H-fax, baby) and he needed some ear cartilage experience to fill out his repertoire. Well, I certainly gave him an experience...
I went in, and he and a more experience piercer named Scott planned out the procedure. At first they suggested putting in two rings instead of one, because it was easier and would aid the healing process. Also it would be much more painful to get one ring in. I said "Why don't we try it anyway? I can take the pain. Plus it'll give Dan a better picture for his portfolio." They agreed and changed their procedure plans accordingly. They would pierce the top hole, slip the ring through and then measure and pierce the hole below. For those of you who can't picture this piercing.... Well go look at the pictures.
After a couple minutes and some manageable pain (I have a high pain tolerance) the ring was through both holes. Grand! Just what I had hoped. Unfortunately closing the ring slightly and getting the ball in was the most painful part of the whole procedure, possibly because my snug swelled up to 3 times the size as Dan went and got the forceps to close the ring.
So it was finished..... Or so I thought.
The first day I got it pierced, it looked beautiful. I was thrilled with how it had turned out. The ball was facing out, just resting in that little groove beside the snug, and the inner part of the ring poked out into my conch. By the second day however, I noticed the inner ring was no longer off the surface of my conch, but resting against it. My ear was still swelling more. The day after that I realised I could see less of the ring than I had seen the day before. I also realised I was in a great deal of pain. I started soaking it in warm salt water more, like 4 times a day. It kept swelling, so I called Dan back and told him I needed to change the ring to two rings.
I had called on my lunch break from work (I think I work too much....) as I had noticed the ring almost disappearing into my skin. I could see bloody tear lines in both directions from the ring ripping through my skin as it swelled more and more. Fun, huh? So I thought the best thing to do was get it fixed while I still could. All that afternoon I was quite worried about how much it was going to hurt. Considering even brushing it against my shirt made it hurt for an hour afterwards, I was fairly sure having the ring bent to fit over my now fat snug while it was still in my ear would make me cry. So I got off work early and took a taxi over to meet my mom so she could drive me to skintastic. Good ole mom wanted to watch, as she is in the medical field.
First Dan got his tools ready. He said he wanted to do it as fast as he could, because it was probably going to swell even more once we irritated it again, which would make it harder to deal with. Because he had to go faster, he didn't walk me through the procedure as much which was ok because I probably wouldn't have cared anyway. I was too busy steeling myself against the incoming pain. It wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be, however, and aside from my constant grimacing, clenching fists, breath-holding, and occasional grunting/panting noise, I pretty much took it like a man. Don't get me wrong, though, this procedure SUCKED. I wouldn't advise it to anyone who doesn't have an extremely high pain tolerance.
>From what I understand, first he pushed the back of the ring (the side sinking in) to fit forceps in behind the captive bead and pop it out. That part hurt. Then he had to bend the ring out so he could rotate it and fit it over the snug. That part hurt more. Then he rotated the ring and slid it out of the top hole and over my snug so that it was just going through the bottom hole. That part hurt the most. Then he said "Well, the hardest part's over." He slid a ring through the top hole and then popped the beads in. I finally exhaled. It was over! He cleaned up all the blood (I'm a bleeder and a sweller...... bah) and I was outta there! And that is why when your piercer suggests two pieces of jewellery instead of one, you LISTEN to them. They know best. PEACE