When I went on vacation in Salem, MA, I saw a woman with an industrial piercing. It was love at first sight! I wanted one immediately. The problem: I was not enough 13 yet. This was a big factor in whether my mom would let me get it done or not. In the end, we denied my wish for the piercing.
At A Glance Author Brittany Contact Brittany@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Matthew Studio Matthew's Party and Tattoo Location Altoona, PA I wouldn't give up though. For the next year and a half I begged and begged my mother to take me to get my ear pierced. Finally, this summer I got my wish.
When I finally picked out a date, my best friend figured that while I was going she was going to get someone on her ear pierced as well. My mother and I went to her house to get her and her mother. We looked everywhere in the phonebook and found 4 tattoo and piercing parlors. I was chosen to call them. One of the places wouldn't pierce you unless you were 18, one was immediately out due to sanitary purposes, and one didn't do industrials. The last place was in Johnstown and nobody wanted to drive us to Johnstown because it was about an hour and a half to two hours away.
Hearts broken and dreams crushed we returned home. I was devastated. My mother promised me that she would take me to Johnstown to get it done one day.
I couldn't wait until that day. When it finally came I was perfectly fine – not nervous at all. I brought my friend with me because my mother didn't want to come back into the room with me. Then, after the two-hour drive crammed in the back of my grandparent's car, we arrived.
By then I was a nervous wreck but I tried not to show it. We told the receptionist want I wanted and the pierced measured my ear to see how long of a bar he need. Then I waited and went back to the room. My friend came with my because my mom didn't want to go back with me, but it turned out that my mom had to go back with me and my friend couldn't go back with me. But as I walked back she spoke words of encouragement to me. Although that was very nice and kind and compassionate of her, it didn't help with my nerves at all. When I finally got back into the room I took notice to a try with needles and cleaners and prepackaged Q-Tips. I sat down on a bed type of thing that have in a doctor's office.
The piercer gripped my ear gently and marked it with a marked, which at the time I thought was the needle. I was thinking to myself, "Wow, that wasn't that bad." Then he told me to check and make sure the angle was fine. It was, but I was upset that he didn't even pierce me yet and just wanted the experience to be over.
That's when he said to take a deep breath and breathe out slowly through my nose. Then he pierced the first hole, the top part of my cartilage. It was immediately like my ear had burst into flames. Then he pierced the bottom hole, which did not hurt as bad as the first one. Next, he slowly removed the bar and put in the bar, which he seemed to have trouble with. That part of the piercing hurt the most. He gave me cleaning instructions and I was on my way.
As I was leaving the parlor, a woman told me that my piercing was the coolest thing she had ever seen and that it was completely rad. That made me feel so much better.
It was hard to sleep the first night, but I knew it would be. In the morning there was some dried blood but that cleaned right off. My ear was sore for about a month but after that I was fine. It's been almost three months since I got pierced and I love it now as much as I had when I first go it done.
My advice to anyone who wants to get an industrial piecing is to know what your ear will be sore for awhile after you get it done, but as long at you clean it every day and don't touch it unless your hands are washed you will be fine. Also, don't plan on doing any physical extra curricular activites for 6 months. Trust me, I know this now. Don't plan on taking it out for an hour or two because that doesn't work either. I took my earring out for an hour and had an extremely hard thing getting it back in. In the end it bled a lot and was really sore.
Enjoy!