The first Saturday in December I began my true piercing addiction, but this story isn't about that experience. This is about the one I had today.
At A Glance Author GumonyerShoe Contact GumonyerShoe@bme.anon When It just happened Artist David Studio Tye Dye Tattoo Location Jefferson City, TN I had been considering getting another piercing for a while. Spending hours drooling over pictures on BME and had finally narrowed it down to about 3 or 4 piercings I wanted. I decided I was going to go talk to the folks at Tye Dye and get a price estimate as well as find out whether it'd be doable on me.
I had a midterm this morning and I could not concentrate on it at all. I just kept thinking about what it'd be like to have another piercing and how much I wanted it and if I would be able to go through with it.
I was pretty sure I wanted a transverse lobe piercing, but wasn't sure it'd work with my existing traditional [gunned :( ] lobe piercings that were done when I was 13. So I was thinking about an anti-tragus or maybe doing orbitals using my existing lobe holes. But I also desperately wanted a labret. My boyfriend didn't like labrets but he also didn't like eyebrows originally but has grown to like my eyebrow piercing so I was sure I could convince him that labret looked good too.
Anyway, immediately after my midterm I went to Taco Bell and got a little something for lunch 'cause I was really hungry and also knew I needed to eat before getting pierced, and was hoping that food would help settle my stomach.
I took it and ate in my car in the parking lot of Tye Dye and then finally got up the nerve to go in.
Dave, the piercer, was sitting outside the door and I walked up and said I had some questions. He said to ask away so I asked him about bioplast (what I wanted to use) and transverse lobes and he took a look at my ear and said that he thought he could do a transverse (he did not have bioplast or Teflon and would have to special order it). So we went in and he asked me if I wanted hoops or what. I said probably hoops but then he took another look at what I was wearing at the time and said he thought horse-shoes would look cool and give it a claw effect. So he looked through his jewelry to see if he had some horse-shoes (circular barbells) that'd be the right size.
Well I filled out the paperwork and we chit-chatted about other projects he's done and whatnot and I finally sat down in the chair and took out my regular earlobe jewelry and he began to look again and see what adjustments he might have to make to the jewelry to make it fit right.
That's when he discovered that my original holes aren't even. Now, I already knew this because when I was 13 and got them pierced the girl told me that she'd have to make them uneven to make them look even across my face. Stupid gun piercer.
Anyway, I told him to go ahead and do the left one 'cause that one could be done. It ends up working out well because I have my right helix done (gunned. :-p) so it kind of balances things (though my eyebrow was originally to "balance" my helix).
I won't lie. It hurt. But it hurt more afterwards than during. But after just a few hours, I didn't feel a thing.
It was a weird feeling kind of. I mean I knew he was there and doing something and he apologized for taking so long and explained that with that kind of piercing he has to constantly readjust the needle in order to make sure it's straight. After he got the needle through and put the ring in he was kind of massaging my lobe and explained that with the way that one's done the skin can bunch up inside the hole so he was just making the skin lie flat again.
The really cool part (besides looking awesome) is that he called "the big boss" in to look at it and another employee and took pictures of it for his portfolio (even though he might have already had one). So he took pictures of just the new piercing itself and also with my other jewelry in to show the full effect.
Everyone who sees it is either like "Ouch" or "Wow, that's different." or something like that. I really wanted something different and unusual, so it's absolutely wonderful for me.
I highly recommend Tye Dye Tattoo. They're affordable (all piercings are only $25) and really are good people. I gave David a fairly big tip (apparently. He looked really surprised) because he'd been so friendly and talked me through things and in general helped a lot. Also, different/unusual piercings are well worth the little extra to thank the artist.