I know most piercing experiences actually end up with a piece of metal in your ear, and those that don't are usually classified as play piercing, but my experience ends up somewhere between the two, a piercing with an extremely premature retirement perhaps? I suppose I felt that it might be beneficial for others to read an experience of a piercing that never even made it past day one, so that they might know what to expect were the same to happen to them one day.
At A Glance Author DaughterOfLillith Contact DaughterOfLillith@bme.anon IAM DaughterOfLillith When It just happened Artist My emotionally-blackmailed other half Studio Our bedroom So, the story begins at 1am in the morning a couple of days ago. In about 8 hours time I was to be picking up my exam results, which, as I am sure most people would understand, had me a bit nervous and twitchy. I made the suggestion to my boyfriend, Ed, that we do a new piercing to take my mind off things (after all, nothing is as good a distraction as bit of old fashioned pain). I had been pestering him for the past month or so for a new piercing to no avail, but I think he is feeling sorry for me and is suffering from the emotional blackmail available only to partners, and so reluctantly agrees
We decided on an ear piercing, specifically 3 BCRs (sized 1.2mm x 9mm for those interested in the specifics) going through the top fold of my cartilage horizontally, so as to create the effect of 3 metal semi-circles emerging from the top of my ear (the other half mostly hidden underneath the fold). Now obviously this would result in six new holes, so the idea was to do the first one, see how I'm feeling and then go from there on whether to do the second, so on and so forth with the third.
Ear projects haven't ever gone very well with me - my hair has a horrible habit of getting caught in anything that's not a loop and causing major irritation – so the first thing I did was ensure my hair was tied up nice and tight out the way.
Ed meanwhile sterilized all the jewellery and equipment he'd be using and gets everything ready. I lie down on the bed, ear in the air, and wait patiently, half watching TV while he prepares.
So, with the jewellery ready, me year sterilized and Ed gloved up, he dotted my ear – I don't bother checking because I trust him - lined everything up and on the count of three he put the needle through (16ga cannula, again for those who are interested). Now obviously being cartilage this was quite painful (more so than my labret, less so than my clit hood) but reasonably quick nonetheless. Ed asked me if I wanted to continue and go through with the second piercing, which I, of course, said yes to. Again, count to three, and the needle was through. This was reasonably painful too, but well within the bearable boundary and somewhat numbed by the first piercing.
So then Ed removed the needles, leaving the plastic tubing of the cannula in place, and threaded the loop through the first hole. Again, this wasn't a particularly pleasant experience, but more uncomfortable than painful. Ed then cut down the tubing to make threading the loop through the second hole easier. However, this was not proving to be easy, as the tubing was just too awkwardly, angled, even when cut down to the bare minimum, for the small loop to be threaded through. So we decided to remove the needle.
Immediately blood started pouring out the hole (I always have been a bit of a bleeder!) forcing me to try and re-angle myself in an attempt to stop the blood from pouring into my ear canal (which ultimately did not work) and obviously made it much more difficult and messy for Ed to work. Undeterred we continued in vain trying to get the loop through; it would get through the first part of the second hole but, perhaps because both the loop and the curve of my ear were quite tight, just couldn't break through to the other side, even when quite a strong amount of force was placed upon it (which was somewhat painful).
At this point Ed decided to try taking it out of the original hole and putting it through this second, more difficult one first, to see if threading it through from the other angle would be more successful. As one could imagine, this was getting quite painful, my ear was bleeding rather a lot, enough to coat my hair in blood, and was burning from the rush of blood to the area. But I gritted my teeth and we persevered. However it just wasn't happening, the exact same problem was occurring – it just wouldn't go through this second hole.
Ed asked me if I wanted to give up or if I wanted him to try re-piercing the second hole. I opted for the latter option, figuring at this point we might as well give it our best try, so told him to break out a new needle.
The third piercing was, again, done on the count of three and was slightly different pain from the first two, perhaps because it was virtually through the second hole, and so felt more of an irritated sore, like the kind you get threading jewellery through, combined with the sharpness of a fresh piercing. Again, Ed removed the needle, and cut the plastic tubing down. Cue a lot of rather painful fiddling as Ed struggled to get the loop through. This lasted about 3 minutes – doesn't sound long, but it wasn't at all pleasant, before Ed finally announced 'we're through'.
To say I was relieved would be somewhat of an understatement, though I knew the ball was still to be attached, which would no doubt be an equally fiddly process.
But Ed didn't sound pleased. He told me it looked like it was putting a lot of pressure on my ear, bending it just slightly. Certainly it felt tight, but at this point I wasn't sure whether the pain was just from that associated with two new piercings and the tightness from already drying blood (which was still flowing freely). He told me he wasn't happy with it - was worried about possible difficulty in healing and/or distortion to my ear in the process - and wanted to take it out. I agreed. I trust Ed's opinion. I suggested, after he took it out from the second/third hole, that he left the BCR in as just one piercing, which he said he would if I wanted to, but in his opinion, the placement was a bit odd because of the piercing it had been designed to be a part of, and probably wouldn't look very good on its own. Again, I went with his opinion, and told him to take it out.
After removing the jewellery, Ed gave me some tissue to start mopping up my ear while he went and disposed of the needles and sterilised the equipment/jewellery.
Whilst he did this I sat applying pressure to my ear, picking blood clots (ick!) out my hair and pondering this failed piercing. I thought I would feel extremely disappointed, but instead I felt strangely calm and relaxed. I'm not quite sure why. I could look to physiological causes and suggest it was due to the endorphins released in reaction to the pain, or possibly I was enjoying the small adrenalin rush. Maybe even I'm just a masochist. However I think it was because it had helped me put things in perspective. I had been irritating Ed to find me a new piercing for a while now and had been getting increasingly frustrated at the fact that for many of the ones I wanted we either didn't have the appropriate jewellery available for, were not suitable for my body (e.g. I have large veins in my tongue that would make well placed venoms an impossibility) or just wouldn't look right (and, as I have said before, no matter how hard I try, I am vain, and aesthetics are an important part of piercings to me). I think however, finally getting a piercing after this build up had made me realised that patience was not necessarily a bad thing, and had forced the issue upon me that, for the pain you will no doubt go through in both the piercing and healing process, it is ridiculous for anything less than a piercing that's right. This sounds obvious, and certainly it's an attitude that I apply to other mods, but sometimes, even if you can say it, it doesn't mean you feel it. But I did now, and it actually felt quite good.
When Ed came back, he got me to lie down again and used a mix of warm water and Dettol (an antibacterial cleaning solution) to clean the area and help get rid of all the dried blood. Normally I would have a shower or bath to do this more effectively, but since it was now about 2 in the morning and I was absolutely knackered, we decided as long as the area was clean and I had a shower tomorrow I should be ok. Ed finished off cleaning up the rest of the room, and, just before I went to bed, squirted an alcohol based cleaning solution through the holes (which stung unbelievably), just to ensure cleanliness before I went to sleep.
I got very little sleep that night. Not only was sleep awkward because I couldn't sleep on that ear (both for hygiene reasons – we hadn't any clean pillow cases – and reasons of pain) but I was fretting about my exam results and my ear was throbbing, both of which kept giving me stress dreams and would wake me up frequently. I think I probably got about 3 hours sleep that night.
When I got up the next morning my ear was still rather painful. It actually hurt to smile and the pain involved in moving my jaw made eating my breakfast a nightmare. However after doing a saltwater soak to get rid of the dried blood that had appeared during the course of the night I was feeling much better. I was amused to see bruises protruding from either side of the holes in thin lines, as if I'd had loops tattooed around the top of my ears. At least I had something to show for my efforts!
My ear was sore the rest of the day, but not distractingly so and that evening sleeping was much easier - still not able to sleep on that side (at least not without some careful hand/arm positioning to prevent my head from actually touching the pillow) but it didn't seem as disturbed.
I'm on my second day now and it's definitely gone down in terms of pain – only hurting really when I apply pressure to the area. Bruises have gone down a little bit too, though still visible.
Ultimately I think it is my fault the piercing didn't work, and not only because the sharp curve of my ear made the loop size I requested (in order to fit all three) extremely tight. Ed only attempted the piercing because I somewhat forced him to, and at every step of the way asked me if I was certain – in no way do I blame him for the fact it didn't work! The fact of the matter is I'm his girlfriend and were he doing this for anybody else (who is less likely to deprive him of sex) he probably would have left it. Certainly I might try this piercing again, only with bigger loops next time to compensate for the angles of my ear. I think the experience has taught me some patience, and I am now going to wait until we get the money together to buy a new lot of jewellery that has been chosen specifically for my teensy ears before I attempt another ear project. So ultimately the piercing experience led to nowhere but common-sense and a good few months of healing.
But on the plus side it did distract me from my exam result worries!