I was out with one of my friends who I don't see very often, as usual we were bored and decided to head downtown to find something to do. While we were down there we noticed Adrenaline (although I knew that it had just opened, I had never been in it), and so we decided to get pierced. My friend decided to get her lobes done for the second time, and I went for an industrial. I really hadn't heard much about Adrenaline, but my friend had her belly button pierced at their studio in Montreal and she was very impressed so I decided to give them a try.
At A Glance Author Joei Contact Joei@bme.anon When Three months ago Studio Adrenaline Location Vancouver, BC. Canada They pulled out some paperwork and asked us for ID, then the counterguy asked me to sign a waiver and told my friend that she didn't have to because she was just getting a gun piercing! --a reputable piercing studio using guns to pierce ears!?!?! but that is another story. The whole gun piercing thing should have made me leery, and I should have left, but I was set on getting my industrial (if I was intelligent I would have walked the half a block to Sacred Heart to get it done, but I'm not, so I didn't.).
Anyways, once my friend had her ears done (with needles as she requested, there would be no gun piercing on either one of us!), I sat down ready to get some new holes poked through me, I was a little nervous about this one because I am a firm believer of getting only one piercing at a time in order to minimize the pain. The piercing itself wasn't so bad, a little bit of a burning sensation, and my ear felt heavy. And at first the aftercare wasn't so bad, it appeared that it was healing very nicely, boy was I ever wrong.
Now, three months later, I have scarring around both holes; especially the lower one, because it is a very shallow piercing. It turns out that the piercer should have told me that my ears just weren't right for an industrial - my ears are freakishly flat! He had to kind of fold my ear over in order to pierce the second hole, this caused a lot for unnecessary pressure on the piercing. What really bothers me about this is that I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get it done (due to my flat ears), so I asked the piercer about this, and he told me that it would be no problem. I found that very unprofessional, in hindsight it seems that they just wanted my money, because a good piercer would have told me all of the reasons why I shouldn't get it done – but there is nothing that I can do about it now, except hope that eventually the scarring goes down and it heals, besides I am sure that even if the piercer had told me that it wasn't a good idea to get an industrial I probably would have done it anyways – like I said I really am not intelligent that way.
A few days after I had this "wonderful" industrial experience, I went back to Sacred Heart – which I highly recommend – to get my other conch pierced; while there, the piercer noticed my new industrial and made a few comments. 1) he said that my ears were too flat and that I really shouldn't have gotten it done, 2) that he recommends two rings before a barbell (I got pierced with a barbell right away), and 3) that while I shouldn't have gotten an industrial, the piercer did a pretty good job considering the flatness of my ears.
*A little side note for all of you out there that, like me, think that all piercing jewellery (not CBRs) should be internally threaded – Adrenalines jewellery is expensive but it is externally threaded. This makes putting the barbell back in extremely difficult given the threads pull at the scar tissue. I know that I really shouldn't be taking the barbell out but I just get the urge too. Anyways, I digress...
I have to say, that I would not recommend Adrenaline to someone who does not know a lot about piercing, if you know what you want and you know that you have the right anatomy for it then Adrenaline is not such a bad place – it is clean, albeit a little bit expensive, especially for the quality of jewellery that you get.
Now I don't know how much longer my beloved industrial is going to last because baseball is going to start in five months and I don't think the pressure from my batting helmet is going to feel good on an unhealed piercing... so I might have to take it out, which is a shame but it may solve some of my problems.