At A Glance
Author	Jessicka
Contact	WeBelong2074@aol.com
When	It just happened
Artist	Bo
Studio	Old Anchor Tattoo Shop
Location	Battle Creek, MI

So, here I sit, still beaming, a smile from ear to ear, and every time I go by a mirror I just have to look at my ears. Ok, so this is just a simple ear piercing story but I figured there may be some people out there that would be interested in reading it. Today at around 2PM I got 12g piercings in each earlobe. It is 10PM right now and I am happier than I have been in a very, very long time. I woke up today around 10AM today and was literally shaking with excitement. Alright, I'll admit, a lot of it was nerves too. You see, I am deathly afraid of needles. Last time I had blood drawn I nearly fainted. My stomach was in knots all day, the new, and also my very first piercing was all I could think about. I ate a good meal at around noon (teriyaki chicken and noodles, yum) and followed it with a couple cookies for some extra sugar. After that I got ready and waited for my mom to get home. Being that I'm only sixteen I needed her to come with me. I got my stuff together, some juice just in case I felt faint, my ID, and my camera. I had to get some pictures of my very first piercing experience.


On the car ride there I listened to some Nirvana to calm me down some. It helped ... kinda. When we got to Old Anchor Tattoo Shop, they were fairly busy, as they always are. We went up to the counter and told the guy there what we wanted. He asked for IDs, copied them, then gave us some forms to fill out, that all went fairly quickly. Other than the fact I had a hard time filling about the form because I was shaking so bad. My piercer, Bo I believe his name was, went back to set up his stuff, then called us back a couple minutes later. I sat down on the table, we talked a bit, I told him I eventually wanted to stretch them to 4g, he said that's what he liked to hear (he had 2g earlobes), then marked my left ear. I checked that in the mirror, said it was ok, then he marked the second ear, and I said that one was ok. He rechecked them multiple times then marked the back, also checking those multiple times. After he had them perfect he asked me to lay down on my back. By this point I was surprisingly relaxed, not shaking anymore, not even that tense. He had me turn my head to the left and put the clamp on my right ear. I felt the point of the needle resting against my ear and he told me to take a deep breath in and let it all the way out. As I was letting out the breath he pierced. Just a tiny pinch followed by a quick burn and that was it. I heard him take the CBR out if the package then I could feel him follow the jewelry through, didn't hurt though. There was no pinching or any discomfort at all as he closed the CBR. Then I turned my head to the right so he could do my left ear. Same thing, clamp, breath in, breath out, pierced. This one hurt a little more, not much, just a slightly bigger pinch. The worst part of the whole thing was the sort of meaty crunch when the needle went through. Again, no discomfort as he closed the CBR. He told me to sit up slowly, which I did, and took a couple drinks of my juice. My earlobes were starting to throb and sting a little bit by now, nothing too noticeable though. Appare "\Ãw€ë ntly my left ear was quite the bleeder, there was some time spent trying to stop that. When the blood flow finally ceased I got to check them out in the mirror. Excellent job I must say. He took another look at them, said they were perfect and he would love to get some pictures for his portfolio. He cleaned up my ears, took 3 photos and said we were all set. We gave him a ten dollar tip, thanked him for being such a kickass piercer and left.


I couldn't get the smile off of my face the entire ride home and I kept checking out my new earrings in the side mirror. So far they haven't been hurting much at all, I took an Ibuprofen to prevent swelling but pain wise its no worse than a little burn or throb sometimes. I can't wait to get these stretched and I can't wait to get all the other work I want done. Old Anchor is a fantastic place and every person there is so nice and friendly. Thanks guys.