Despite what anyone says, getting pierced is addictive. I've always had problems with my parents (well, mostly my dad) accepting new piercings, but I always manage to convince them. I obviously started off with my earlobes, twice each side. My latest is my lip piercing. I told myself I'd stop, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about new possible piercings. I'm 18 and have seven piercings, and I'm not planning on stopping any time soon.
At A Glance Author rottenxdoll When It just happened Artist Jen Studio Arkel Piercing and Body Art Gallery Location Belgium I've been thinking about getting my conch pierced for a while now. I've had so many possibilities of getting it done, but I always felt sorry for my boyfriend who has wanted an eyebrow piercing for two years, but his parents wouldn't allow him to. So I decided to wait until he was allowed to get it done. He recently turned 18, and decided that today is the day.
I got up around 10, had a good breakfast and a shower. I washed my ears thoroughly and after getting dressed, cleaned the tunnels with a q-tip. Well it wasn't necessary to do that, but I just feel better knowing that my piercing area is clean. Am I weird?
Anyway, my boyfriend had a few problems waking up, so we ended up at getting to the piercing studio at around 4PM. My usual piercer, Jen, was on duty, so we went straight to her. We spoke a bit, filled out our forms, and went to eat, drink a lot of coke (for our sugar levels to increase) and smoked to calm our nerves.
We went back to the studio after 30 minutes to choose our barbells. Jen first explained the cleaning process and told us when we can change our jewellery and what to clean the new piercing with. I was hesitating between 6g or the standard 14g (1.6mm), and ended up choosing the 14g. We paid for our piercings (it's a new rule there to pay before getting pierced); mine was $40. Jen then put the barbell in a cup of alcohol to sterilise it and told us to wait for five minutes. We spent the time looking at pictures of other piercings done at that studio. The piercers are really professional, and have done some amazing work. Jen came up to us and told us to follow her upstairs.
We walked into a really clean room, with that sort of dentist bench in it. I chose to get it over with first, and immediately went to sit on the bench. Jen put on some music, gave me a hair band to tie my hair up with, washed her hands, put on some rubber gloves, and disinfected my ear twice. She asked me which ear I wanted to get pierced, and I said the left. She then took a purple marker, marked where she thought the piercing would look good, and told me to look in the mirror to see if I was in agreement with the placement. It was perfect. So I went back to the bench, she took out a brand new needle, disinfected that, disinfected my ear again, and asked me to lie down. While she was doing all of this, she was talking all the time. I find this a really good quality in a piercer, because it calms you down and makes you realise that they know what they're doing. Having a piercer who doesn't talk at all would be so worrying... It just makes me think that they don't know what they're doing and that they're not talking because they're concentrating too hard so that they don't mess up.
She put a clamp on my ear, and told me to breathe deeply. I thought it would hurt, but the needle went through so quickly and easily and I didn't feel a thing. Literally. Jen then told me that it might hurt when she put the barbell in, so I had to breathe deeply again, but that didn't hurt either. She cleaned my ear again and put some cream on it and told me it was done: I could take a look. I was amazed at how good it looked. I'm so, so happy with it!
It was my boyfriend's turn to get pierced next. I held his hand while it was being done, but apparently it didn't hurt. He asked if it had bled a lot, and it occurred to me that I had forgotten to ask the same question. So I asked, and apparently I didn't bleed at all. My boyfriend didn't bleed either, just in case you wanted to know.
After my lip, it's the best piercing ever. It looks so amazing. If you have been thinking about getting your conch pierced, do it. It didn't hurt me, but you'll never know until you do it, I guess.
It's been three and a half hours since I've had it, and it still doesn't hurt. Hopefully it will be okay when I sleep. Jen advised me not to hold the phone against my left ear, and gave me some tips on how to sleep so that I can minimise the pain.
It's really beautiful *squeal*