Isn't it a little terrifying how a certain mod will show up on your radar and occupy your mind for weeks on end?
At A Glance Author Waiting4Arson Contact Waiting4Arson@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Chad Studio Final Sin Location Pleasant Hill, California I had been poking around on BME and found pictures of vertical transverse piercings through gauged earlobes and it just latched onto me. I told friends about it to see if they all thought it was as damn cool as I did. When they responded with healthy awe, I decided it needed to happen.
I went to Final Sin, where I had my tattoo done just a month or so before and spoke with their resident piercer (and shop owner), Chad, about it. When I did ask him, he said he had never done anything like it before, but that he felt he had done some things which required greater skill. When I asked him what, he had one of the shop workers lift up his shirt in the back and show me the two surface piercings in the small of his back. They were both healed and not rejecting at all. I was satisfied he could hack it.
We decide to stretch me up to a ½" from a 00g and then order the custom jewelry and wait for it to be made and arrive while my lobes healed. All of the events between here and those arriving is documented in my experience "oooo...shiny."
My new ½" double flair eyelets came in about a month after we stretched my ears, giving them ample time to heal. We decided on a Monday night after the shop closed, because I didn't have to work for about four days after. I showed up, bringing my Nalgene bottle full of cranberry juice like I did when I got the tattoo and a plate full of (store bought) cookies for the shop employees, as many were hanging out to see Chad do my ears and another girl's nape that night. A guy from my bible study, Josh, decided he wanted to come see the festivities.
I watched this nice brunette girl get her nape pierced and sipped cranberry juice, feeling glad I ate a solid dinner a few hours before. I was a bit nervous, but having a full stomach and a good nights rest under my belt really, truly helped. I was actually relatively chilled out all the way through the process. Then Chad banished me from the piercing room while Adam (shop guy/apprentice) and he prepped up and autoclaved all tools and jewelry.
I put some old school AFI on the turn-table and waited to be let back in. Chad hollered at me over the sound of bay area hardcore that my time was up. So I hopped up on the table and Chad pulled out the behemoth metal plugs from my ears and popped in the double flair eyelets with holes drilled on either side. Once he had them nice and lined up he marked everything with a disposable surgical marker.
Having me lay back, he explained that he would pierce with a 16g initially up from the bottom and out through the flat of my conch because of the intricacy of going through so much tissue at the top of the eyelet. Then he would pull a 14g taper down through the piercing with a 14g barbell attached to the back of it. He warned that the stretching would be the worse part. I believed him.
I barely felt the pinch of the first piercing in my lobe, but I didn't miss the needle pushing through my conch. It certainly was nothing like I had ever experienced before. Josh later told me he knew it must have hurt a hell of a lot because I exhaled hard and let my eyes roll back into my head. I wasn't really paying attention to my eyes at th moment, to be honest. Then it came time to pull the taper and jewelry through.
This was by far the worst part. All the pain of stretching my lobes, but much more focused and sharp. Still, it wasn't as shocking as the piercing. Once the jewelry was in place, they let me sit up slowly and drink a little juice. They took a couple of pictures and then handed me a mirror. I'll be damned if it wasn't dead on straight. Well, as Cub's fan's say, there was still time to screw this up.
I rolled over onto my other side and we started all over. Piercing hurt less, but I did experience the joy of the cartilage pop I had read about so many times. Then it came time for the stretching. For some reason, this one hurt a whole lot more. I soon found out that one of the shop helpers had mis-labeled a 12g taper a 14g. After Chad berated the kid, he slid it out and tried again this time with the right size and got all the jewelry in.
Sat up slow, drank more juice, and took more pictures...then the mirror. Dead on straight AGAIN! I barely need to tell you how excited I was.
But I was also exhausted and space-y, so Josh drove me home. When he dropped me off, he told me that he thought I was pretty freaking tough. A pretty big compliment from a guy about to go train for the U.S. Army Special Forces.
I had to be rather creative in sleeping the next few nights. Every movement or little bump to any part of my ear was immediately felt in the conch. It was quite intense, but also rather intriguing to be so aware of that part of my body all the time. The ultimate solution was making a donut out of two pillows and placing my ear in the space between, so my head was still supported.
So, lots of salt soaking and q-tips later, I am still probably a 6 months away from them being totally healed, though the right one seems pretty close. The biggest problem is drainage because they go through so much tissue. I developed abscesses on the backs of both ears as a result of a week long camping trip that took about 3 months to be rid of.
Those were dealt with using hot compresses and salt water soaks twice a day and taking my vitamins.
Though they are quite a bit of work to keep clean, because you can't just pull the eyelets out, they are very worth it and get great reactions. Certainly not something people see everyday.