The truth is I never expect to tell this story to anyone. The very thought of that evening still causes me to grind my teeth and shiver with agonizing fear. I am not exaggerating, although I really wish I was.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Six months ago Studio My apartment Location Florida Let me start with a small, yes I promise not to ramble, bit of background. I never desired to stretch my lobes, hell I rarely wore standard ears in them as it is. I went through a very short phase where I got to a 6 gauge then just gave the idea up as it did not appeal to me. It became more and more obvious over my short lived years that what I truly loved where cartilage piercings. I saw them as a challenge. As they were said to be more painful and more difficult to heal. If anything, I love a challenge. Yet I was also draw to the sheer beauty of having something adorning the tops of my ears. It was easy to stick a small earing in my lobe and be satisfied, however small ears never seemed right for my tops.
I often thought of piercings like rooks, snugs, and tragi. Truth me told I always thought of them as small cute piercings. I wanted something more extreme. Something more expressive of who I really was. It took debating on my part, but I seemed fond of large gauge inner conches. So I was settled, I wanted both my inner conches dermal punched at a 0 gauge.
So happens at that time in my life that I was dating a man who wanted to try new things in his quest for learning to pierce. It also happens that I, for some reason, trusted this man with sharp objects and my body. Some call me a guinea pig, I call myself one who loves adventures. So it was decided that he would in fact dermal punch both my conches. I will only in detail tell you about one, as they happened on different nights some distance apart. This is, in fact, the story of my left conch.
On the night of the procedure, which will take place in our apartment, we discovered that my inner conch was a little small to handle a 0 gauge. Instead of going smaller, I chose to dermal my outer conch instead. In fact, the more I thought the more I liked the idea of my outer conch as opposed to my inner. So with that settled we set up for what we knew to be a very bloody experience.
Many have said that with a procedure such as this you should pierce and taper. For reason unknown, we decided against this. Meaning we punched at a 0 and put in 0 gauge eyelets.
So I was seated comfortably and we set up towels around, hoping to keep the blood off me and the floor as much as possible. He cleaned my ear well and marked off where he would center the dermal. To me, it looked perfect. So he placed the cork behind my ear and asked me to take a big breath in. He informed me that as I exhaled he would punch. He told me to let it out, and then it crunched. I felt warm blood pooling inside of my ear. The feel of my blood pouring out of me started making me queasy. I was so concentrated on the gross feeling of wetness on the inside of my ear that I barely noticed the throbbing pain that was soon to become all to noticeable.
With ease he slit the single flare tunnel into my ear and put the o ring on. I didn't even feel it. The blood was, unfortunately still coming. I held a small towel to my ear as I walked into the bathroom to wash up a bit. After a short while the blood seemed to stop, and I started to notice the most horrible pain on the side of my head. I knew I couldn't take Advil because of the bleeding, so I was searching for something else. He recommended that I take something he had, I wish I could remember the name, but at times like that who remembers such things.
Half an hour or so later I was watching TV and the pain was almost non existent as long as I didn't try and touch it. One second I was smiling and happy and the next I felt the unmistakable feel of blood pooling inside my ear once again. I almost started to cry thinking this was the most horrible nightmare I could possibly live.
He told me to get into the shower and stand beneath the cold water for a bit. The blood seemed never ending. As I stood in the shower, cold and naked, I felt my neck begin to hurt from keeping it at an angle. Still the blood flowed from my ear. It seemed to ease up a bit, so I dried off and got out. I held a paper towel to my ear to stop any of it from getting inside my ear again.
He then realized that we had not found the chunk of my ear. The thought of a chunk of me floating around the house grossed us both out and we both frantically became to search the house for it. Then, what should have been a first place to check, we checked my hair. It was during this search that we realized the chunk was still attached to my ear by a very small piece of skin.
If you thought the bleeding was the worst, you have heard nothing yet. What I am about to tell will probably make you shudder. This should go without saying, but I feel it must be said. If you are ever in my situation, do not do as I did.
He got out a small pair of scissors, which were not razor sharp. Told me to hold still and he would just snip it, as it was a very small piece of skin. So I stood there and he took the first snip. The pain I felt almost made tears well in my eyes. I had never experienced such a horrible pain in my life. There is nothing I could compare it to. I thought it was over, but he informed me there was still a tiny bit left. He gave it a tug, thinking maybe to just rip it from my already sore and bleeding ear. No luck. So again he took the scissors and sniped. Finally the chunk was free, but not before causing me another shot of the most horrible pain I have experienced. The second snip was by far the worse. It felt as though it had cut through more skin then the first, and caused me a great deal of pain.
My ear, through all of this, had never once stopped bleeding. In fact it had began to bleed even more, and the flow was just pouring out. I went back into the shower, for an hour this time. I came out, only because my hands were prunes and I was freezing and exhausted. That night I bled almost all night. I bled through 3 large towels, several hand towels, and almost an entire roll of paper towels.
I was thankful by morning all the blood had stopped. I had the most disgusting clot on my ear though, it was sickening to look at the very large maroon chunk. I had to work that morning, and not wanting to scare away customers I decided to try and clean the clot off. Carefully I removed the outer parts of the clot, leaving the parts directly attached to my ear, so as not to cause anymore bleeding.
That day it didn't cause me a whole lot of pain. By day two I was experience quite a bit of pain. A few days after it was done I began soaking my ear in sea salt. I soaked it once a day for the next 2 weeks, which is the length of time I had a decent amount of discomfort from it. After that I just soaked it when it seemed to need a little extra care. As my body heals amazing on its own I didn't feel the need to do rigorous salt soaks multiple times a day. What works for me, I am sure does not work for others. To each their own.
Some may say that with what I went through healing would be a bitch. I can't say that I was. Except for that night I never once had a single day a real trouble with it. It has been several months since it was done. Though there are still occasional days where there will be crusties, there is never any pain. It still itches a bit, as it is still healing, but otherwise causes me no problems. I haven't, so far, developed any scarring at all. All in all the final results have made me very happy. Happy enough that I can forgive the night of horror and live in the present. Which is a very happy healthy beautiful ear.