At A Glance
Author	Sarah-Mae
Contact	bassclefs@hotmail.com
IAM	mink
When	It just happened
Artist	Jesse Villemaire
Studio	Eternal Body Art
Location	Cambridge, Ontario

Sitting in the chair I felt a drop of blood hit my shoulder, my lobes were warm, and then suddenly they cooled down as the taper slid through and added a pressure that can only be from that of a large gauge piece of metal.

Let's step back four months to the beginning of this experience.

The beginning
It's December 22nd, and despite the bitter cold Ottawa weather I decide that my lobes can handle the stretch from 1 1/8th + bondage tape to 1 3/16". I go home directly after work, and add another layer of tape to my 1 1/8" plugs and slide them gently back into my lobes with vitamin E oil. I then line up the 1 3/16" tunnels with the plugs in my ear and push, forcing the taped plug out and the new tunnel in. No pain, only that 'tight' new size feeling.

Fast forward 3 or 4 days.
I wake up for work, and suddenly I'm struck with a strange sense of pain in my lobes. I force myself out of bed, and after waking up enough to focus on my ears I realize that a lip has formed on the back and my lobes are bright red. Stubbornly, I don't take them out, figuring it must just be the way I slept. Three days later, I give up my ego and remove the jewelery. Realizing upon removal that the inside of my lobes are raw, and in my left lobe there is a small open cut near the top. Worried about my lobes I leave all jewelery out until the wounds are healed and my lobes aren't as sore anymore, this is roughly a month later.

Injured lobes
It's been a month now since I've worn jewelery, and I'm worried about how much my lobes have shrunk. I try to insert 7/8" jewelery, and it fits in the right lobe but not the left. The left is down to ¾", but I figure "that's fine... it's always been my stubborn lobe." So I remove the jewelery again and begin vigorous massages daily. But to no avail, my lobes are still shrinking... my left lobe barely fits the ¾" jewelery and my right is tight on the 7/8". After several weeks of massages I give up, which may not have been the bright thing to do, but I did, I didn't have the time or patience to care for my lobes. Stupid Mae.

After attempting to stretch my lobes via taping and weighting, I realize that I let the wounds develop into thick scar tissue, mainly along the top of my left lobe, which is so thick it doesn't stretch at all. This is when scalpelling first came to mind as the cure.

Finding the right artist
After searching around locally for artists who could perform my lobe scalpelling there were only two, one of which is extremely sketchy, and the other didn't have very much time to book in a procedure such as mine. Therefore, I turned to the trusty IAM.Pro and searched for piercing artists in my area. After speaking to a few whom were located close to Ottawa, I remembered that a good friend of mine had her lobes scalpelled by Jesse Villemaire of Eternal Body Art in Cambridge, Ontario. Upon IAM'ing Jesse and looking through his portfolio I decided I was comfortable with him and his work was superbly done. [not to mention his excellent scarification work and participation in Scar Wars 05] It was time to figure out how I would get down to Cambridge for the procedure. Luckily, I had a University audition in London, Ontario and had to travel down for that, therefore, planned to have my lobes scalpelled after my audition when I was in the area [or at least travelling in that direction].

The big day
It's April 27th, and after my audition I meet with a fellow IAM member and she shows me around London, as I nervously check my watch every 30 minutes. My train leaves at 6:53pm and my heart feels like it's about to explode and my stomach is about to turn inside out. I get on the train and before I know it I'm in Kitchener, Ontario. I get off the train, and there is a mohawked man waiting for me with a big smile "You look like a Mae" he says as we walks over to me. After chit chat and laughing right from the start I realize I'm very comfortable with Jesse.

After the drive that didn't seem to take long enough, we arrived at Eternal Body. The shop was just closing as we walked in, and he took the 1" amber single flared pyrex plugs that I had custom ordered from Glasswear [to allow room for swelling] and sterilized them. That bought me another 30 minutes to freak out. As I had not been wearing jewelery for the past 4 months I was uncertain as to what size my lobes were at. He tried a few different tapers and we found out that my left lobe was at ½" and my right was at ¾", which was no surprise as my left lobe is always cranky. He put the tapers in and with his purple marker decided the direction and length of the cut. Since the left lobe healed together towards the top, he angled the cut further up. I didn't doubt his decisions for a moment.

All too soon the jewelery was ready and cooling off. Jesse walked me through what would happen and what it would feel like, but of course I didn't believe him, it had to be worse than it sounded... I mean, he was about to cut my lobes open. He clamped my lobes, and before I knew it he said "Are you ready?" I nervously said "sure", and he told me to breath in, and on the exhale he cut my left lobe. Unanticipatedly I was overcome by a strange calm, I let myself go on the exhale and accepted the fact that the scalpel would not feel good, but that it had to happen. As the scalpel cut my lobe it was a strange feeling, as I've been told it felt like a paper cut, only less painful. He released the clamps after the cut was made and there was a surge of warmth.

This is where we left off. I felt a drop of blood hit my shoulder, my lobes were warm, and then suddenly they cooled down as the taper slid through and added a pressure that can only be from that of a large gauge piece of metal. This was the worst part of the procedure, the tight, throbbing of my lobes as a new piece of glass was inserted. I was shocked that it didn't really hurt. "This is what I'd been so worked up about?" I thought. We then moved on to my right lobe, which was a shorter cut. As with all piercings, the second one hurts more, however, it wasn't more painful, I was just more acutely aware of the burning sensation and sudden numbness. The blood flowed and than the taper was pushed through to round out the hole.

Suddenly I was standing up and staring at myself. I am beautiful again! All night I kept glancing at myself in the mirror, it's strange how much lobes can change your self-confidence.

Aftercare
Immediately after the procedure my lobes throbbed, which wasn't a new pain to me, I had done some stupid dry stretches when I was younger and first beginning to stretch my lobes, the pain from my scalpelling was exactly like that. The next morning my lobes felt fine though, very minimal pain, however I am exceedingly aware that my lobes are healing slowly. p> Upon arriving home on the 28th I filled a small sterile cup with a mixture of hot water and sea salt. I soaked my lobes for roughly 10 minutes, and then ran a q-tip under hot water and gently removed the crusted blood from my lobe and the jewelery.

Currently [roughly 24 hours after the initial scalpelling] my lobes feel very tight, as though a scab is forming, and I will continue to soak them in the morning and afternoon to remove dried blood and any lymph that may occur.

I am extremely pleased with my lobes, and Jesse Villemaire work. I will definitely be returning to Eternal Body Art in the future and recommend him for his amazing work with the scalpel