On a previous trip to London I'd been torn between getting an erl or an industrial. The erl won, but the desire for an industrial was still there; I mentioned that to Mike, (iam:scardeycat), a friend of mine who's a professional piercer but in between studios, and his response was that as long as I had a flat surface which he could rest his stuff on, he could pierce me whenever I wanted, with whatever I wanted.
At A Glance Author wolfbane Contact wolfbane@bme.anon IAM wolfbane When A month ago Artist Mike Studio My kitchen Location Bath Naturally I was excited about getting pierced again, even though the previous one had been done the week before, so sat down to work out what I wanted. I knew that I wanted an industrial done, but I also wanted something else; something that could be easily hidden for my new job or accepted by the people I was working with, and something that looked good. I can't remember who suggested it, or even if the thought just came to the top of my mind, but getting my nostril pierced seemed like a great idea. I'd always thought that it'd suit me, I'd just never got around to getting it done. I told Mike that I'd settled on an industrial and a nostril piercing, and we arranged to do it on Saturday, just before Entropy (a goth/industrial/indie night we go to in Bath).
Saturday rolled round and I drove to Laura's to pick up her and Mike. We piled all the stuff Mike would need to pierce me, as well as the clothes him and Laura were wearing out, into the car and headed back to mine. The only flat place I really have in the house is the top of the fridge so the first thing I did was to clean it using some disinfectant that Mike had brought up. Satisfactorily done Mike then laid out his stuff and pulled on some gloves. I grabbed a chair from the bedroom and sat myself down on it so I could watch while Mike got everything ready.
The first thing I was getting done was my nose (written about in another experience) That went well and we quickly moved on to the industrial. I sat in the chair again while he set up. He'd forgotten his autoclave so had to open up a new pair of clamps, rather than using the ones which he'd used on my nose, and again he put those into a stainless steel bowl with the goo designed to get rid of germs and make the things getting shoved through me a bit more slippery, apparently making it go through me easier.
We'd decided to pierce immediately with a bar, rather than two rings, and used PTFE instead of metal as it's more flexible and Mike's had some good experiences with it healing quicker. He changed gloves, cleaned the area and marked out the two placement points on my ear. When I gave him the all clear he measured between the dots and cut a length of PTFE, making sure there was enough so that if my ear started to swell there wouldn't be any problems. He dropped that into the bowl with the clamps and changed his gloves.
Warning me again that my ear would probably bleed, though perhaps not as much as usual, and telling me that this would hurt a bit he clamped the top of my ear and told me to breath. As before I took some deep breaths, this time trying to focus more on my breathing. The last time I'd had my cartilage pierced had been in a stall at Aberdare market, with a piercing gun, when I was 14. I knew that this would hurt more.
I was right. Mike pushed the needle through the cartilage and I could feel my ear getting hot straight away. He then got another needle and pierced the other hole. I was trying to remember to breath and ignore my flaming red ear while Mike put the PTFE bar through both holes and screwed the balls on the end. My ear had started to bleed a bit; I could feel the blood trickling down the side of my ear but Mike quickly cleaned it up and told me to take a look. Again I put my glasses on carefully as I really didn't want to knock the piercing and looked in the mirror. Though my ear was bright red the piercing looked really good. While Mike cleaned up in the kitchen I got changed, cautiously pulling my clothes over my head.
That was just over two weeks ago and things are going well. The industrial is the longest to heal, but I expected that anyway. For the first week or so I couldn't sleep on it so had to get used to lying on my other ear, but things are getting better now and I can put pressure on it. Now that I'm aware that it's there I'm starting to subconsciously work around it; when taking my glasses off I don't pull them to the left like I used to, instead I take them off straight; when I'm brushing my hair I make sure to check that it's not knotted around the piercing – the first couple of times that happened taught me to be careful. As far as aftercare goes I'm using a salt water solution and trying not to keep fiddling with it. There is a lot of crustiness, but soaking makes it go away.
I'm getting a bar but in in place of the PTFE in the next week or so but I know it'll be a while yet before this one heals up properly. The main problem is that I can't go swimming; one thing I'd love to do in this weather, but that's something I'm happy to sacrifice for a piercing I'm pleased with.