I decided that for my 20th birthday, I wanted to get something special. I wanted to get an Aries tattoo but I was unsure of the design and placement so I decided to go for a piercing instead since it's not a permanent commitment. I didn't have that many option since I had just found a new job. I already had a labret piercing and I didn't want my new boss to be unhappy about me arriving on my first day with a new facial piercing. I had already tried a navel and a surface piercing without success so I decided to go for an ear piercing. I thought that an industrial would be perfect. I thought it looked great and it wasn't that common here.
At A Glance Author Shakah Contact Shakah@bme.anon IAM Shakah When A year ago Location Quebec City So I called the studio I always went to back then to make an appointment. The piercer didn't work on tuesday so I set up an appointed for monday instead. I was a bit bummed that couldn't get the piercing done on the day of my birthday but there wasn't much I could do about it. I could have gone somewhere else but I trusted my piercer and my lovely co-workers had given a 30$ gift certificate to this studio.
So on monday I went to the studio. I filled out all of the paperwork and then the piercer came. The piercer chose a 1" 1/4 14G bar. Then I went with him in the piercing room and sat on the chair. He cleaned my ear and asked me how angled I wanted my industrial and then marked my ear. My piercer said I had the softest cartilage he ever pierced so it probably wouldn't hurt much. The marks were right where I wanted them so he went ahead and pierced.
Yes, of course it hurt but the pain wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The second whole didn't hurt more or less than the first one. The insertion of the jewelry didn't hurt much either. My piercer told me to use Spectro Gel to clean it but I already had my Crazy Chameleon soap.
For the first few weeks my ear was very swollen and I had the bump. A month after getting it done, something was wrong. My ear was so swollen that the balls were kind of sinking in. I made some research on the internet and found out that my bar should have been much longer. I went back to my piercer asking him if my bar was too short and he said no. I also talked to him about the possibility of putting two CBRs instead and we agreed that we'd wait a few weeks so it how things would go.
Almost 2 months after getting my piercing, I KNEW my bar was too short so I decided to go to another piercer. She agreed that my bar was way too short so she changed it to a longer curved bar. When she changed my bar she noticed there was blood around one whole which isn't very normal for a 2 month-old (or so) piercing.She also suggested to use Baxedin to clean my piercing. I kept the bar for two weeks and the swelling went down. I didn't like the look of a curved bar very much so I decided to change it to a straight bar. I went to see Efix. He measured my ear and said I needed a 1" 3/8 bar. I asked him if he could change the bar for me which he did. I asked him about the aftercare and he also recommended Baxedin and sea salt soaks. I also asked him about curved bars in an industrial and he said it wasn't a bad choice, but I was better on healing my piercing with the kind of jewelry I intended to ear.
I used the Baxedin for a while (and did sea salt soaks all along) and finally switched back to the Crazy Chameleon soap bar and then to the liquid soap. I kept this bar until the beginning of december when I decided to switch to a PTFE bar. I still had the bump and my piercing would get angry whenever I slept on it. A month after switching to PTFE, the bump is almost completely gone. I try not to sleep on it but if I do, it doesn't seem to bother my industrial much. I knew it could take up to a year to heal and with all the trauma it went through I'm not surprised that it isn't completely healed yet. It seems to be doing fine though. I thought a few times about retiring it but I decided not to do anything before 21st birthday. It was worth it anyway. I got lots of problem with it but also learned a whole lot about piercings in general.