Although it had only been a month or so since I had my last piercing done (snug), I was already feeling the piercing itch. I wanted more metal and I wanted it now.... or whenever I could get in to get it done.
At A Glance Author Apples Contact Apples@bme.anon IAM Apples When A month ago Artist Lori Studio Vogue Body Piercing Location Darwin, Australia So once again I put my faith into BME and searched the image galleries in order to find something else to get pierced. I was thinking of getting my nose done, but soon changed my mind and decided on another ear cartilage piercing. I had previously seen pictures of conch piercings, but hadn't really put much thought into it, until now. I pottered back and forth through the galleries, but always returned to the conch images. So I decided that this would be my newest addition.
After exchanging some messages with Lori, I was booked in once again for that afternoon. I made the journey into town and headed for the studio. On approaching, my nose was filled with the all to familiar scent of disinfectant. It kind of acts as a trigger now, my body tends to go into a 'I know what your about to do' type of state that sends my adrenalin pumping. However I'm not nearly as nervous about the whole process as I used to be. I guess practice makes perfect, or least lessens the nerves.
I entered the shop and was greeted by a cheerful Lori, who was serving some other customers at the time. While I waited I checked out all of the new stuff she had in and drooled over some bling eyelets that I so desperately want. I would have brought them by now, except that better judgment has made me consider saving some money first.
Once the other customers had left, we went into detail about how we were going to do the piercing. For months Lori had been trying to convince me into dermal punching. It sounded way to scary for me. The idea of a cookie cutter type instrument being used on me some how seemed more painful than just using a needle. Then she uttered those magic words "if we use a dermal punch it will hurt less than your snug" I was sold. With that we trekked into the piercing room.
I sat in the chair that sits in the corner near a huge painting of a tribal man, with a cockatoo on his shoulder and a crab by his feet, all of which have a variety of piercings. Lori marked up my ear. The first attempt we decided to move a slight bit more towards the inside of my ear, to keep in line a bit with my snug on my other ear. The second time she marked me up the placement was perfect.
So up on the table I got, and watched Lori prepare the the jewelry, which is always autoclaved, and the dermal punch, which is single use only as with all the other piercing equipment that they use at the studio. Seeing the punch made me feel a little uneasy, but I sucked it up and decided to go through with it. I lay back on the table, and Lori got herself ready. She asked me to take a few deep breaths, which I did, then she asked me to take a really deep breath, and this is where I hesitated. The conversation went as follows: " You okay? Yep. Ready? Yes, I mean no, hang on. Sure your okay? Yep, just a bit nervous. Thats alright. Okay now I'm ready. You sure? Yep. Really? Yep." With that I took a really deep breath. I felt the dermal punch start to make its way through my ear, slight pain, then CRUNCH, the punch was through, now for the jewelry. Lori used a taper to slightly stretch the hole so that she could use a slightly larger barbell in the piercing in order to put a little bit of pressure on and lessen the amount of bleeding. That hurt and was fairly uncomfortable, but was over in minutes. The great thing about Lori is that she talks you through the piercing and what she is doing. It always makes me feel really comfortable and at ease. "Wow" I said after we were done. "You were right, dermal punching is awesome" Lori looked at me knowingly with a huge smile on her face and simply said" I told ya".
All that evening I hardly felt any pain, or any other day for that matter. I can sleep on it, which is nice. Cleaning is slightly painful, but other than that it seems to be healing really well and it looks awesome.
A bid thanks you to Lori. She always does such a fantastic job, and I really trust her. If anyone is ever in the area, go and check out Vogue Body Piercing. The best professional piercing studio in Darwin.