After overcoming my fainting fears when having my vertical clit hood pierced, the piercing bug got me. A week after my clit hood experience, I wanted more. I settled for a new ear piercing. I browsed the ear piercing galleries here on BME, and found the rook. I loved it and hadn't seen it on people before. Discreet but stunning once spotted. And besides it wouldn't interfere with ear buds or ear protection. Perfect. I had to be in Maastricht anyway the next day, so it was the perfect opportunity. First I fixed some stuff at the University, and then I had lunch with a friend. I asked her if she'd like to come with me and see how I got pierced. She is not modded, I don't think she even has her ear lobes pierced, but she was curious enough to come with me. So off we were to Lifestyle.
At A Glance Author psychonautje Contact psychonautje@bme.anon IAM psychonautje When A year ago Artist Jimmy Studio Lifestyle Location Maastricht, The Netherlands I went up to the counter and asked to have my rook pierced. I had to show the counter girl which cartilage rim I wanted exactly, and then she phoned Jimmy, my piercer, if he could pierce "that rim that I have pierced too". I suppose you can't expect everybody to know what precisely is a rook here in The Netherlands. I filled out all the necessary paperwork. Then I could go up to the piercing rooms. Luckily my friend could come along.
Upstairs I met Jimmy, who had been watching my crotch a week ago to see how Sandra (the owner of the shop) pierced my clit hood. He asked which part of my cartilage I wanted pierced, so I pointed out the rook of my right ear. He reassured me that this would be way less painful than a clit hood. I sat down in the piercing chair, while my friend – looking very pale – sat down in a chair in a corner of the room. Jimmy asked me to move my head a bit away from him. He cleaned up the area and marked a spot were he thought it would look good. He asked me to OK the positioning, so I got up and looked in the mirror. I didn't like it so I asked him to move it closer to my head. The second time the marks were perfect.
Now, the real procedure could begin. First, Jimmy held a straight barbell next to my ear, then decided that a curved one would be better, and jumped up to grab one. It was pretty long but Jimmy told me that rooks could swell enormously, and that I could switch it after 3 months. Jimmy got the clamps out of a sealed package, and tried to clamp my ear. This wasn't easy, he readjusted the clamp a bunch of times until I suggested that he should freehand it. He removed the clamp, looked at my ear and said he preferred doing it with a clamp, as he would have more control. He put on the clamp again, this time in the right spot. It wasn't too bad, I just felt a lot of pressure. He got out the needle as well, making my friend look in awe and giggle. He told me he was going to do it relatively slow to make sure he would not shoot through another part of my ear. I smiled and said we would make an industrial out of it, if that would happen.
Now, show time! He lined up the needle, asked me to take a deep breath, and pierced when I let it out. It hurt. It was a sharp burning pain. It hurt way more than my clit hood had done (so far for the promises of hurting less). I moaned and made a funny face, making my friend burst out in laughter. The piercing took like 5 seconds and after that the pain quickly subsided. Now, the jewelry had to be inserted. Luckily, this went smoothly and there was hardly any pain. It took Jimmy a while to fiddle the ball on but after some tries it was screwed on. He cleaned up the area, there was some blood but only a very little bit. My ear was throbbing and felt extremely hot. I got up and looked in the mirror, and I loved it instantly, even though my ear was bright red. We discussed aftercare: "don't touch, 2 sea salt soaks a day, and be careful with your hair", I paid, and I was on my merry way.
Outside, the cold was very pleasant on my poor hot red ear. I could feel my rook swelling up. Back home, I did a sea salt soak and left it alone for the rest of the day. My rook swelled to about 4 times its normal size, and stayed like this for about a month. It went down a bit after that period, but stayed swollen to about twice its size for about another 3 months. At a certain point in time I didn't even know for sure whether my rook had been this big forever or that it was still swollen from the piercing. I did at least one sea salt soak a day during the first month, and then opted for the LITHA method because I got bored with doing the soaks. My rook oozed and crusted on and off, but never really got infected. Finally after about 5 months, it went down to its regular size. It took about 10 months to heal completely, and can still get angry with me when trauma is done to my ear.
Now, it is a happy little rook. I still wear the long curved barbell. My boyfriend thinks it looks funky this way, and besides I can flip the barbell so that the balls hide exactly behind my forward helix, making the piercing almost invisible, which perfect for job interviews. I got a lot of positive comments on it, except for my mum who thinks it is scary, heh.
