I am 25 years old, but up until about two months ago, I had never been pierced before in my whole life. I can't really give a specific reason why, I suppose it was just something I had never really considered doing, or only had a passing interest in. My friend Lori, who is a professional body piercer, had been teasing me about my virgin flesh for as long as she'd known me (some time now). We'd been hanging out a lot together, she kept pushing the issue and after much consideration and non-committal, I decided to take the plunge. I would get my earlobes pierced, as it seemed like a pretty safe piercing to begin with. That being said, for a first piercing I didn't want something that was merely "standard", so Lori explained all the different options to me. I've always liked the look of stretched lobes, so Lori and I decided to perform the procedure using a 5mm dermal biopsy punch, and then immediately stretch them up to 8mms.
At A Glance Author Fletcher Bowman Contact Fletcher Bowman@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Lori St.Leone Studio Vogue Body Piercing Location Darwin, NT Australia As it turned out, earlier on the day I had been to the dentist and endured a lot of discomfort, so I figured I might as well make it a day to remember, and made my way down to Vogue Body Piercing, the shop that Lori owns. We picked out some jewellery (a pair of Industrial Strength steel single-flared eyelets), and I filled out the disclaimer form while Lori set up her tools in the studio. I do not recall feeling particularly nervous or apprehensive, as Lori had assured me that it wouldn't be overly painful...and even if it was, I have always believed pain is merely temporary.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. She called me into the studio, sat me down and marked up my earlobes, all the while jokingly giving me the flight attendant/aircraft safety-style spiel about how she was going to be my piercer today, and how we would be performing the piercing (it was funny because we've known each other for years). When we were both pleased with the marks, I climbed up onto the bench and lay down, making myself comfortable. She opened the tools in front of me, showed me what she would be using, cleaned my earlobes again, and encouraged me to start taking long, slow, deep breaths. She then told me to take an exceptionally deep breath and exhale slowly, and as I exhaled, she pushed the dermal punch through my ear with a firm twisting motion, then followed it with a taper to get it up to 8mms and quickly inserted the jewellery into the freshly punched hole. I won't lie, so I can admit that I did cry out in discomfort at first because it was pressure and a sensation that I had never experienced before. Really, I wasn't sure what to expect. It wasn't an intense pain though, and afterwards I felt fine when I was up and walking around.
So once the jewellery was in on my left ear, Lori applied sterile gauze soaked in cold saline to the piercing to alleviate the discomfort and keep swelling down to a minimum. It made it feel somewhat better, and took some of the sting off it. After cleaning me up, she repeated the procedure around the other side. All the while, Jim (the other piercer at Vogue) was taking photographs and documenting the whole procedure for posterity... including the very end, where I was presented with the two bloody lumps of skin tissue that had just been cut from my ears. Apparently it's a tradition for Jim & Lori to give piercees the option to keep their bits of flesh. I opted to eat mine, and the repulsion I felt was beyond belief. I still couldn't stop grinning though... this, too, was also preserved for all time in a photograph.
Since then the ears have mostly healed – frankly, I've not been completely mindful or consistent with my aftercare procedures. There was some definite swelling and discomfort in the first few days, and I tried my best to avoid sleeping on it directly. I avoided any chemical products for cleaning, and things like ointments and creams were frowned upon. Some of the things I used included Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap in the shower (on Lori's recommendation), anti-bacterial soap to clean my hands with before washing my piercings and plain old saltwater soaks. After a few weeks I realized the piercings weren't healing as well as they should've been, so we took the decision to switch from surgical steel single-flared eyelets to Kaos black silicon eyelets. So far these have worked out remarkably well, my skin isn't reacting to them at all and they're not draining half as much lymph as they were with the steel jewellery - thankfully, the jewellery change has made them far less grumpy. They're almost completely healed now and I'm keen for them to strengthen up a bit so I can stretch them further!
Overall, I was thrilled with my first piercing and the overall experience. In fact, it was something I almost immediately felt keen to revisit, and to that end I returned to Vogue three days ago to get my tongue pierced...but that's another story for another time.