(Technically, this is supposed to be about one experience, but as I had both my snug and my tragus done in a single go, it's sort of hard to separate the two.)
At A Glance Author Allie Contact Allie@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Joanne Studio Passage Location Toronto, Ontario, Canada For months I had been contemplating my next piercing. The only thing that I couldn't get around was that I really, really wanted two cartilage piercings and there was no way I could make myself place one above the other. The thing is, I can only get pierced when we visit my cousins due to laws of the only shops I've found in Michigan worth trusting, which state that, even with parental permission, you must be sixteen for anything other than lobe piercings. I have the parental permission, and do know how to take care of my piercings, but there you are. I respect the shops for holding to this even though I am personally disadvantaged, as I know that many, not just young, people can be irresponsible with their piercings.
Finally, I decided that if my piercer said it that it was okay to get two piercings at once, I would. If they were on the same ear (easier to clean and no sleeping on one of the piercings), I didn't think it would be too risky. I was all set to add them to the same ear as my helix and then start building on my right, then-bare, ear on the next trip. In June, after school was let out, we went up on the 17th to Toronto. The next morning, I woke up, got dressed, and was prepared to be pierced.
Around one, my dad, cousin, and I arrived at Passage. Joanne (the same lady who pierced my helix) took a long look at my ear and said that she didn't think the left one was quite defined enough for the snug piercing, but my right might do, so I decided to get the snug and tragus both on the right. My dad said we could come back some time after the summer if I wanted to get just one at a time so that the tragus could still be on the left ear, but I was dead set. Plus, we were planning on coming back in the fall, so I could attend to my abandoned left ear then.
Joanne cleaned her tools and had me sit down on the table thing, kind of like the cushy doctor's counter. Then she tested the 16g CBRs on my ears and got them positioned and made sure that I liked the markings. Turns out, my tragus is so tiny that I had to have the next-size down ring diameter. She went to get the new CBR while I waited in anticipation. She came back and I laid down on the counter. She had me face toward the wall so that she could reach my ear and put a clamp on my tragus. Then my stomach growled. She asked if it had, and I hadn't noticed, so I said no. Then it did it again and there was no missing the sound. She laughed and said not to worry, because being in this close proximity with customers, she got used to hearing the bodily functions of them. Apparently, most people are too scared to eat beforehand, so she hears the growl a lot. I had only gotten up an hour or so earlier, and hadn't been that hungry. My stomach, I guess, was telling me otherwise.
Getting back to business, she prepared to pierce my ear. I asked for no warning, so she started me on taking deep breaths and exhaling, then stuck the needle through. It's like this push...you feel it go through, but the pain is far away. I just gritted my teeth and looked intently on the wall.
She slid the needle out and CBR in, at some point removing the clamp, and then cleaned up my ear and took out the second needle from its sterilized package. I think she put another clamp on my snug. I don't have a whole lot of detail here, as I was still facing toward the wall, but I trust her. At this point, my body had sort of made my ear numb naturally. Before she did the snug, she asked me if I still wanted no warning, which I did. That one, I wasn't even sure if she had started to pierce it. I could barely sense it moving through my ear, and it took such a long time. Finally, I felt it exit with this great feeling of it coming out the other side. My ear was all burning hot, bleeding a little and numb, but otherwise okay. She put in the jewelry, again cleaned my ear, and let me get up to look at my new piercings.
Although swollen with the look of the freshly pierced, I loved both of them. Afterwards, I got a few remarks about them looking "crowded", but I don't think they do in the least, especially when the swelling had gone.
Joanne changed her gloves several times through the entire process, and the shop pierces with a gauge higher than your jewelry will be. I've heard debate about whether or not that helps, and asked piercers who stand on both sides of the issue, and I'm still not sure if it's better to do that or not. I will be going back to Passage, and hopefully Joanne, for comfort's sake, for all of my ear cartilage piercings, if not nearly everything else, even after I turn 16. I love the shop and I trust them. They have statues of Hindu gods all over the place and my dad and I both are into that. He has at least five huge Buddhas in our garden and around the house.
Anyway, I walked out of the piercing room (taking note of the various pierced vaginas displayed above the door, which I only noticed as I left the first time I came here) and into the lobbyish reception room. I tipped Joanne and bought my glycerin soap as my dad talked with Blair and bought this dragon earring/pendant thing. Blair is the head piercer, or so I believe. When I first entered the shop, he was on the phone with someone discussing a dermal punch for their septum. I've also come across his name online as highly recommended for surface piercings.
That's pretty much my entire experience. My piercings are doing great, and although I had some trouble with the bump, it's nearly completely gone. I can sleep on my ear without pain or irritation. All in all, I'm very happy with the way things went. I am considering a conch on my left ear for next time, and then an industrial on the right.