I'm unsure of how or indeed why my love for modification grew, but all I know is that it's here to stay. Around autumn 2004 I decided to get my helix pierced on each side. Ever since then my interest in modification became more advanced and after trawling BME continuously, I got the piercing itch that most people will recognise.
At A Glance Author Amy Contact pheonix_star@hotmail.co.uk When N/A Artist unknown Studio House of David Location Leicester, England Skip forward a few months and enter 4 more helix and my mother enforcing a 'No more piercings' ban. More of an 'I will be disappointed in you' rather than a strict ban but she was hoping morals would win over. Everybody in the world knows that the more you're advised against something, the more you're going to want to do it, right? This was exactly the same in my case and I began looking on the ear piercing pages of the site for something small and un-suspicious. I didn't want a regular helix but neither did I want something more prominent. The idea of a nice and simple forward helix seemed like a good piercing and one that wouldn't be that obvious to see.
After discussing with various people and constantly looking at the site for more updates, I decided that that Saturday I would go and get my forward helix.
The usual butterflies of a new piercing anticipation came upon me in the morning but it was more overpowered with excitement. Raising the money for the piercing wasn't a problem so a friend (IAM: Momentary_Seizure) and I caught the bus and made our way to House Of David.
The familiar piercing studio smell caught me and the butterflies continued until I had to speak to the woman behind the desk and mumble about a forward helix whilst pointing at the place in my ear. She nodded and said they could do that so I paid and went into the small corridor with the mirrors and wrote my name and address on the pad in front of me.
The nerves had started to kick in again as I watched her set up the equipment and then clean my ear down with a sterile solution. She then marked my ear up with a purple exit hole and asked me to check the placement. My friend and I agreed it looked good and she got to work on my ear. She opened up the sterile needle packet and held my ear in her hand and the needle in the other. The usual breathing techniques occurred and before I knew it there was a needle being taken out my ear and the outer casing trimmed down. To say it didn't hurt would be a lie but it was nothing that I hadn't felt before – the other 6 helix had been getting progressively less painful each time so it was nothing new.
The end of the barbell was threaded into the casing and then pulled through my ear with slight discomfort and the ball screwed onto the end.
I admired my new jewellery in the mirror and smiled at the sight of the small barbell in my ear. I thanked my piercer greatly and wandered out of the shop into town with my friend, a warm feeling at the top of my ear and a smile on my face.
A few months later I changed the barbell to another, but to my horror, the ball came off and was lost. I decided to take it into town to get a replacement ball, but as I'd forgotten the barbell, when I bought a replacement ball that looked about right, when I got home, it didn't fit. After wearing boring jewellery in it for a few weeks to find the money, I then changed it again to a beautiful 16ga blackline barbell – the start of changing all my jewellery to blackline when I have enough money.
The aftercare was pretty straight forward, uneventful and well learnt now as this was the 7th piercing I had to nurse. I remembered to not touch it with dirty hands and move the barbell too much in fear of causing rather than reducing infection. I cleaned it twice a day with tea tree oil – which I used for all my helix – and it was all fine.
I would advise this piercing to everyone considering it, as the placement of the piercing is discreet but also different to standard helix piercings, which is one of the good things about it – it's more unique than all the girls who get a helix piercing as a fashion statement.
The only things I wouldn't recommend is sneaking around – if something had gone wrong with my piercing, it would have been my mother who would have had to pay for the 'damage' and this isn't exactly fair on her. So wherever you can, try and inform and involve your parents/guardians, for your own good. Also, I think that I must have moved the barbell around somewhat as it now sits at about a 45 degree angle, rather than it being perfectly straight upwards. Although this still does look good, if you want your piercing to be vertical, try not to mess around much with it when healing.
Good luck and happy piercing =)