As many of you know, once a specific piercing catches your eye on BME... you always end up going back to it.
At A Glance Author Helen Contact Helen@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Emma Studio Indigo Location Norwich, UK Well this is what I did with the vertical transverse lobe. It was 6 months ago I was looking for interesting ear piercings and came across it. At the time I dismissed it as being a bit too drastic (as I still went to a pretty strict college) and went for an inner conch instead, but I would always go back and check for updates.
So... I sat my A-levels and finished college in June, started full time summer work and decided it was time to get my final ear piercing (I had 7 from July 2004, and always planned to have 8). However, I was still undecided about the vertical lobe. The main drawback being preventing me from wearing earphones for a few months! I debated over it for a week... and eventually decided I would not be happy with anything else!
It was a normal Saturday morning. My sister and I headed off into Norwich for the weekly shop/wonder. I hadn't told my mum about my piercing plans, I know she would moan about it! being over 18 I can do what I want, so it didn't matter anyway.
I had planned my day to get pierced right at the end of the trip... as I once ended up walking round Norwich for hours with blood trickling down my ear! So after spending too much on CDs and food, I headed up to Indigo. I could feel my heart beating faster as I climbed the narrow staircase up to the studio! The studio is great... painted purple with huge flash designs on the walls! Emma, who had pierced my conch, knew exactly what I wanted from the BME pics I showed her, and after I paid (£25 – about $40 for all you Americans) and filled in a form, I had a browse of their jewellery while she checked it was all clean (they have a very nice 6mm wooden spiral for my lobe!) then she led me in to the little side room. I lay on the hospital style bed... shaking at this point! The piercing room is tiny but spotless. The bed sheets had obviously just been replaced, there was that 'clean' smell of disinfectant, and she had just put on a new pair of gloves. She cleaned my ear, marked the entry and exit points, and handed me a pocket mirror. I'm very fussy about placement so I asked her to draw the line down my ear. After redrawing a few times, moving the bottom hole down and the top one across a bit, I was happy.
My ear was then measured, and Emma decided on a 16mm x 1.6mm titanium barbell, with 5mm balls to avoid indentation. Everyone says the procedure itself is slow, so I knew what to expect... it must have been about 10 seconds but it felt so much longer! She started at the bottom... I could feel the needle pass through, and the pain gradually got worse as the 1.6mm needle went up and through the cartilage of the anti-tragus. Definitely the most painful of my ear piercings! Though once the needle was through, the 16mm titanium barbell was no problem. I was surprised when she said it was all done and jumped up to admire it in the mirror. And admire is the right word. It looked amazing!
The placement is perfect, at an exact right angle to my ear, and forms a neat little triangle with my standard lobe. The 16mm barbell is only a millimetre or so longer than the swollen lobe and the 5mm balls make it stand out against my other 4mm balls in helix and lobe.
So she gave me the aftercare details- the usual sea salt soaks twice a day, realised from my two other cartilage piercings that I didn't need warning about hypertrophic scarring, and said I must return whenever the barbell is 3mm too long to get it changed. I thanked her (its uncommon to give tips in the UK) and I left for the bus home, I couldn't stop smiling! I recommend Emma at Indigo to anyone in the Norwich area, she was great. Really helpful and relaxed!
8 hours later and my lobe is twice the thickness it normally is! It feels like I've been punched in the ear... and there are pains whenever I smile or frown drastically. Nothing too bad though, No worse than any other cartilage! It took my mum 4 hours to notice it was there... and there hasn't been a drop of blood!
If anyone is interested in getting it id certainly say go for it! It is painful though... and make sure the piercer knows what they're doing! It is an awesome piercing, got to be the ultimate lobe piercing I think!
There's only one down side... I cant wear earphones!