I never really know where to start with these things but here I go. It basically started with me searching BME looking for more piercings to put on my lists of wants when I stumbled upon the vertical industrial. I automatically needed it. Fortunately my ears are the one place my father will let me pierce so, it was decided, I was to get my vertical industrial done.
At A Glance Author eligh When It just happened Artist ..? Studio strange city Location alberta It was to be done at 3 pm on Saturday, so I began to prepare myself for the event on several weeks before. I trained myself to sleep on my right side so that I would be used to it by the time I got it done and wouldn't end up hurting myself when I attempted to sleep.
I tried to eat before the appointment but I had just gotten too anxious and nervous to eat anything. Little did I know this would be the least of my worries. When I got to the shop I was greeted by my piercer and given a couple sheets to fill out before we could begin. As soon as my father had signed what he had to he was out of there, he didn't want anything to do with it. Luckily my friend was there for support. I asked if she could come and take pictures and he had no problem with that, or so he said.
When we got into the room where the actual piercing was to take place I was told to sit on the chair while he marked the proper spots on my ear. After a couple minuets of him fiddling around in my ear he informed me that I should lie down and that he was going to begin. My first surprise was that he didn't even offer to show me the placement, so I asked and he seemed somewhat taken a back. After a couple of seconds of staring to find the dots I faintly saw them and decided that they looked good. This is when I began to get extremely nervous, I hadn't gotten this nervous for my other piercings so this was a bit of a surprise.
I asked him if he was going to warn me before he did it and we decided on one I would breath in, on two I would breath out, on three I would breath in, and on four I would breath out and he would pierce my top hole first. I lied down on my side and he put the needle and receiving tube against my ear. One... two...three...fo—holy shit! I had never experienced pain like that ever, and I've done my share of stupid, painful things. As a reflex I jerked me head. BAD IDEA. I though that I was half done, but no... the immense pain began again as he pushed the needle the rest of the way through. As soon as it was fully through he informed me that he was only halfway through when I jerked away and as a result the hole was crooked. This is when he got really angry and told me that I jerked and that my "breathing was sh!t." he wanted to re-pierce it and at first I was hesitant but then told him I would rather it actually work out and have him re-pierce it, but he had changed his mind and decided he was going to try to "accommodate" it. This is when the blood flooded my ear canal and I lost all hearing in that ear.
It was now time fore the second hole. He lined it up and one...two...three...fou—oh dear lord! This one was extremely painful as well but at least I was slightly prepared for what it was going to feel like. He asked how I was feeling and when I told him I was slightly light headed he told my friend to fetch me a juice. At this point I was covered in blood, it was all over my face, my neck, and in my hair. This was what had really wanted a picture of, so my friend asked if she could take one and he snapped at her. While I drank my juice he ran the extremely long barbell through the second hole and began to clean up my face. The cleaning process took about 30 minuets. When he was finished cleaning I still couldn't hear anything, I told him and he said it was just from all the blood and I would be able to hear soon. When he raised the bed into a sitting position, more blood appeared from my ear canal, which he cleaned up, but I still couldn't hear.
He sent me on my way with his card and told me to e mail him if I had any "directional" pain, and he suggested that I may have to take it out the next night if there was. For the rest of the day my ear hurt constantly, but I tried not to pay too much attention to it and went on with my day. I have since cleaned it three times and had one shower.
It is now the day after and I still have no hearing in my ear and am in immense pain. I can feel the pressure on my upper hole and any facial movement causes more pain. So I wrote to my piercer about how it felt and asked what I should do, he told me to have another warm shower and to remove the whole barbell, and wait a couple weeks and he would redo it.
I can promise you that in a couple of weeks I will be back in that same room and have my wonderful vertical industrial once again.
NOTE: I DO NOT recommend moving, jerking, twitching or anything of the sort when getting any piercing done. What I do recommend is that you stay still and breath properly.