At A Glance
Author	Ice_Pick_Abortions
Contact	Ice_Pick_Abortions@bme.anon
IAM	Ice_Pick_Abortions
When	Three months ago
Artist	Stuart
Studio	Otherside
Location	In-Shops, Belfast

Background

Horizontal industrials have never interested me but I liked the idea of having a bar going through my ear. It never occurred to me that you could have a bar going down through your ear instead of across. I saw pictures of vertical industrials while surfing BME, probably at some ungodly hour of morning and I loved it instantly. Maybe I'm just attracted to vertical mods ha ha. I saw the pictures not long after I'd got my vertical labrets done and I wanted to concentrate on getting them healed properly so the idea of the vertical industrial was stored away in the back of my mind..

The end of the summer crept in like it tends to do and I started my first year at university. I planned to get the industrial done after Uni started as a bit of a pick me up but I kept finding reasons to put it off. I started Tae Kwan Do and decided getting something done in my ear would be awkward in case I got kicked in the head or even competing you have to wear protective head gear which would put stress on the piercing. I was due to get an eye test and I didn't want to irritate a new piercing by having the optician putting glasses on and off. My hair would keep getting caught in it. I didn't have any money, blah, blah, blah. The list was endless. I've no idea why I kept putting it off but I did. Then I started to hate Uni because the English Literature module I was doing bored me to tears and I couldn't change modules. I desperately needed a pick me up so in between lectures on Thursday 14th October I decided to go get my ear pierced. So a group of nervous piercing virgin friends and I headed down into the city centre to go to Otherside. Before actually going to the studio I got the necessary supplies for the aftermath of the piercing. I bought some Ibuprofen, sea salt and some cotton buds. I didn't need any saline as my mum wears contact lenses so there was plenty of that already in the house. Once the supplies were all bought we headed to the studio.

Procedure

I always get butterflies walking up to the door of Otherside. Even if I'm in the mall for something else I still feel like I'm about to get poked. Well I walked into the studio and announced that I would like a vertical industrial and Stuart's face lit up, "I like you better already. Vertical industrials are so much more interesting than horizontal". Well I guess it'll be no trouble to get it done then ha ha. Stuart went and got some callipers to measure what size of bar he'd be using. I can't quite remember the length it was, I think it was 40mm and it was a 14 gauge. While Stuart got everything ready in the piercing room I signed the necessary forms and gave my bag to one of my friends and waited to be called in.

I went into the room and sat on the bed that no one knows what to call and made a bit of small talk with Stuart while he marked me up. I decided that I wanted it done on my right ear. This was because my left ear had three piercings and my right ear only had two. I felt unbalanced. I'm weird like that. Next he showed me that everything was in it's own individual and sealed autoclave bag and then he pulled out the needle. Of course his hands were gloved through the whole procedure. Everyone who has an industrial seems to go on about how painful it is but I can honestly say this was on of the least painful piercings I have ever had the pleasure of getting. The bottom part of the procedure hurt slightly more that the top part but all in all I barely felt it. The jewellery was inserted with minimal pain and I was done! It only cost me a measly £30. I hopped off the bed/chair thing and had a wee look in the mirror. It looked class. Stuart seemed pretty please with his work saying, "If there was a catalogue of perfectly suited piercings, there would be a picture of your ear". Apparently my ear is perfectly shaped for a vertical industrial. Even when I lie down my helix simply folds over the top of the bar, which means there's no extra pressure put on it. I certainly sleep ok.

Now that it was done my ear began that familiar throb that comes only with having a sharp object stuck through a body part. Ibuprofen was taken post haste and my group and I made or way back up to Uni so I could sit through a lecture constantly thinking of my aching ear. By the end of the lecture my ear had certainly lost some of the bright red colour and the Ibuprofen must have started taking affect as the dull pain had gone away by that stage. I made my merry way home and the aftercare started.

Aftercare

Week one – two

My ear continued to have a dull ache to it for the first few days but taking the Ibuprofen as directed helped with that immensely. The crusties had yet to make an appearance. I did two salt soaks a day, followed by cleaning with a cotton bud and saline for the first week. There was no other mishaps or huge amounts of pain, which was vaguely disappointing. I made sure I pinned my hair up out of the way for the first week, just in case my hair wrapped itself round the piercing in my sleep

Week two – three

I stopped doing salt soaks and cleaned the piercing once every few days with saline and whenever I was in the shower. I've learned through a trial and a lot of error that I heal piercings best with minimal interference on my part. I don't suggest everyone does this. You disregard your piercers advice at your own risk. My ear was still very tender and sore to the touch which was irritating for sleeping, putting on clothes, hugging etc. I just had to be careful putting on clothes and sleeping with my hand under my head so that my ear was elevated slightly off the pillow to minimise the weight on it. I also stopped pinning my hair up, mainly because I'm lazy J The crusties began to come out in full force.

Week three – four

There was a small amount of hyper-trophic scarring beginning to form on the bottom hole. I decided this was because the titanium tunnels in my stretched lobe piercings were hitting off the bar and causing irritation when I was sleeping. To combat this I promptly ordered some Kaos silicone eyelets. I stopped cleaning with saline and now just cleaned it whenever I was in the shower, which was at least every other day I swear..

Week four – five

My Kaos eyelets arrived and I popped them into my lobes. The scarring started to go away almost instantly. My ear suffered a bit of trauma with my mum discovering that I'd got it done. I had neglected to tell her (again) that I was getting it done so while she was admiring my new eyelets she caught a glimpse of the bar through my lobe. This resulted in the pulling and poking of my ear and that made my ear quite angry and it began to swell and flare up again. I just went back to taking Ibuprofen and the situation was soon under control.

Conclusion

I've had the industrial done for about 2 months now. I just wash it in the shower and it seems to be doing really well. It would probably do even better if I could just quit picking at crusties and fiddling with the bar! I'm really pleased with it and it's pretty cool that you can see part of the bar through my lobe tunnels. Apparently it's distracting for whoever happens to be sitting on my right hand side. I've yet to get kicked in the head in Tae Kwan Do but you never know what could happen but here's hoping it won't!

After a few more months I might see about getting the bar shortened or maybe some spikes so it looks like I have a big spear through my ear. Overall it was a pretty pain free experience. Maybe it's because it was vertical and they're just less painful than horizontal industrials, or maybe everyone else are just big wusses lol. Only kidding. Just go for it. You definitely won't regret it!