At A Glance Author Aniorange Contact Aniorange@bme.anon IAM aniorange When Five years ago Artist Robert Studio Dogstar Tattoo Location Durham, N.C. One of the reasons I got pierced was because I liked the way they look on others. They are aesthetically pleasing to me. I also love an ear full of rings. Before I had heard of industrials, rooks, orbitals, snugs, and diaths, I loved the look of having rings just going up the edge of the cartilage. I wanted this for myself.
I was still feeling invincible. I had gotten a few facial piercings and wanted to start working on my ears. Now here is the strange thing. I told my mom once that I would never get my earlobes pierced. To this day I still haven't pierced my lobes. I found a way to convince myself that I would not break that promise to my mom. I was going to get the cartilage pierced and not my lobes. There is a huge difference you know. My day off came around and I was feeling that itch, yeah, you know the itch. If you haven't had that itch by now, you have likely read about it.
Of I go to my usual shop to see Robert. I went down to Ninth Street and found a parking spot. I strolled on into Dogstar and found Robert and told him what I wanted. I wanted to pierce my right ear about halfway up on the cartilage. If I remember correctly this time he had some jewelry ready to go and only took a minute or two to set up. Robert invited me back and put a dot on my ear to see if I liked the placement. I checked it out in the mirror and it looked fine to me. As far as the placement goes, I was basically thinking, sure why not, you have to start somewhere.
As always I went alone. Robert got his supplies ready. He got out a clean needle and jewelry. He was going to use just a plain captive bead ring. I was pretty confident at this point already having pierced my eyebrow, tongue, nose and septum. I wasn't feeling at all nervous about this piercing. I do remember thinking it's too bad that it cost forty bucks to get this piercing done the right way, with a needle, as opposed to going to some ear piercing booth that would do it for so much less. I knew that piercing guns where "bad" at this point. The price though might keep some people from choosing the "safer" alternative. Anyhow it's at this point my mind drifts back to the matter at hand, my new piercing.
The supplies where laid out, and the needle was ready. We where back to the same place I had been so many times before. Robert asked me if I was ready. As usual I replied, "Do it." Robert pushed the needle though my ear with his usual swiftness. I on the other hand received a new shock. This piercing was quite a bit different than any of my others. I hurt a bit more. The best part, and the part that was most amusing to me was the sound.
I watch too many things on the Discovery and The Learning Channel. I had seen this show about Alferd Hitchcock and the making of Psycho. They where talking about how Mr. Hitchcock stabbed different fruits and vegetables to try and get the sound of someone being stabbed. This comes to mind at this point in the piercing because I could clearly hear the crunch of the needle going though my ear. It was a very distinct sound. I had never heard it before with any other piercing. It's kind of hard to describe. It's sort of like pushing a knife slowly though lettuce. Of course in my mind it went slowly.
The procedure was over before I knew it. I was still shocked at the pain level. I though for sure it would be nothing compared to what I had already had pierced. Don't get me wrong. It was not all terrible. It just hurt more that I expected. That combined with the sound kept me puzzled, amazed and at that point, still seated. It took me a tiny bit longer to recover.
Robert got a mirror and asked if I liked the way it looked. I did. I wanted to just keep going and get more done. I wanted rings all up my ears. However not today, only one piercing for this day. One step at a time.
For me the cartilage piercing was quite a different experience than before. It was still definitely a good one. I paid up and left the shop as usual. I still had a bit of that high I always get when I get pierced. I was very excited to have a new hole and looking forward to many new additions.
I just could feel it tugging on my ear as the days went on. That made me smile for I was proud to have each and every piercing that, well, I had. Sleeping was tough. It almost goes without saying that the piercing was sore for a while. There was no comfortable way for it to fit between my head and my pillow. I had to sleep on one side for a while before I started to get used to it, before it was healed.
I was told to use antibacterial soap to keep it clean. Sounds easy. I was also warned that my then long hair might irritate it a bit. I did clean it as religiously as ever. I used antibacterial soap at least twice a day if not more. I probably over did it. I know more now about healing piercings than I did then. Things went fine. It healed well. It did take a couple of months to heal. It would also get irritated easily. I did have to repeat the care and cleaning off and on though it's two to three year life. I would think it was healed and stop the antibacterial cleanings. Things would be fine for weeks then it would get red again. I figure it was the long hair that caused that to happen over and over.
I had to take a couple of times for surgical procedures. I noticed that my ear closed up slower than almost any other piercing, at least on my face. I had no problem getting it back in after it being out for a few hours. My septum however would start to close up after one hour. It was interesting to me how different the two piercings where, how different every piercing was.
It was not a very noticeable piercing. My hair covered it most of the time. I did not try to hide it. I got it for me, not for everyone else. It certainly is not one of the more interesting or cool piercings but it was what I wanted and that's all that mattered. I loved it. I ascended to a higher level of my invincibility complex after this. One more down, plenty more to go.