Well Well Well, this is an interestingly, painful story.
At A Glance Author Amie Contact Piercingfreak32@hotmail.com When A year ago Artist Quentin Studio Kalima Location Worthing town, West Buildings I've been into piercing since I was about twelve and the whole body modification has increased its fun and grown on me faster than anything ever has and I mean anything. I love everything about it, from piercing play to scarification, branding to implants, permanent piercings to tattoos etc. It's the most interesting thing ever invented and it's what I want to do with my life. I also have performed piercings on myself, family and close friends. Yeah ok it's maybe not the most sensible thing to do, but how else should I learn?
Anyways, more to the point of this fun story. Around a year ago I decided to pass on to my mother the idea of my 14th piercing. (Little did she know by this age I would now own 22! Which consist of 18 ear piercings – stretched lobe x2, standard lobe x8, rook, scaffold, helix x3, tragus, snug, then my body piercings which are - labret, nostril x2 and navel.) I'd already spent a while contemplating whether it was worth it or not, and then I though, what do I have to lose... apart from my ear, but you'll hear about that later. So I go to ask her and without much persuasion she agrees, simple. Later that week I take one of my best friends Alex Beatty with me to KALIMA (the best piercing shop ever!) and tell them what I want done and to phone my mum. Of course they'd already known me a year from my previous every other day visits and piercing/jewellery purchases so again there wasn't any trouble with ID and such.
It was rather late in the working day and as my nerves were killing me, we decided to go and prepare myself for this wonderful experience by smoking and eating chocolate. When we came back it must have been 5.30 which was ok due to the fact the studio shuts at 6 and my nerves were eating me alive, I almost backed out, but Alex pushed me into it and I'm so glad she did.
There were still a few people waiting to be pierced so we just sat there and talked for half an hour. People came in and out with tongue piercings, nipple piercings and many others... I was so jealous.
When 6 O'clock came it was my turn to get stabbed up, they closed the shop and took me to the piercing room. They cleaned and marked my ear, then lined up the needle. Quentin was careful to explain the procedure as it progressed, he told me everything he was doing and what to expect. Linton came in to watch. He says he's about to do the piercing... Oh my god did it hurt! Not as much as my Scaffold, but close to. Ouch. It wasn't that bad, well the first half of the piercing, but the second half of the cartilage caned! I got it pierced with a 1.2 Black line CBR and it looked amazing! I took the aftercare, thanked them and left.
After a few weeks hell broke lose with it. It got really infected and yucky which was a shock because I cleaned it and really looked after it. I'm a really good healer and never usually have to clean my piercings they just look after themselves but because I knew the risks and difficulty of this particular piercing, I cleaned it all the time. But no, this time it decided to screw up. Typical. A perfectly unique piercing ruined. Or that's what I thought. Anyways, it got to the stage where I thought I'd literally have to have my ear amputated. I was told to see a doctor, but I refused as I'm rather stubborn and hate doctors and hospitals. This was indeed extremely upsetting for me, but I refused to give up. I went to KALIMA and explained the situation and they tried to sort it as best as they could, they gave me iodine which healed it in about 3 weeks! I was so relieved. All I kept thinking about was how all my amazing piercings could have been lost through carelessness.
The healing process of this piercing prolongs to about 6 months or more as it's a very thick piece of cartilage, yet mine took about a year due to the problems I suffered earlier on. It put me through a lot of pain and trouble. Which sucked.
Overall KALMIA is the best piercing studio ever opened, I love the place to bits and the people who work there (Carly, Linton and Quentin) are the raddest people alive. They've got the best reputation in Worthing, Brighton, Lancing... the list continues. They are amazingly helpful and are crazy mofos! Thanks for everything guys! X