I have been in love with piercings ever since my dad picked up a hitch-hiker one day when I was young. A girl got into the car when I was about 4 or 5 with a ton of piercings on her face. My dad said it looked scary and stupid, I thought it was beautiful.
At A Glance Author alex Contact unimportant_xx@hotmail.com When It just happened Artist didn't catch her name. Studio Utility. Location Blowers St. Halifax, N.S. The summer when I was 14 (which wasn't too long ago) I came across BME when I was wanting a REAL and PROFESSIONAL piercing this time. (since myself and one of my friends had tried once before to pierce our noses with sewing needles and an earring. Oh yeah, idiots.) I looked through some of the different piercings and really wanted my lip done. But that was out of the question with the parents. After a time of more browsing I found the Industrial, and I was in love. I figured my mom would never go for it, so I told her I was just going to get a little stud in my ear. My grandmother had just given me 50 dollars to go school clothes shopping. I decided instead that I would use it to get my Industrial. I called around to check out some prices and most places wanted like 75 to 80 dollars. Wow. Then I found Utility. I had heard really good things about there, so I called them. 69 bucks, tax and jewelry included. Sweet, cheapest yet. I'd just borrow 20 from my mom. So I made the appointment. Saturday at 2:00. I couldn't wait.
On Saturday morning I had to help my cousin move, but that was fine with me as long as we were back in time to go to my appointment. When we got to Utility I pretty much ran out of the car and into the door. My grandmother and my cousin had come with me, because I was under 18 and had to have consent of an adult guardian. I went to the counter and the girl said her piercer was sick. Well, I almost died right there. She said though to come back on Tuesday (since Monday was a holiday) and everything should be fine. She said that I could fill out my form though, now that I was here so I wouldn't have to do it next time. So I filled 'er out and left.
The rest of the weekend I looked at pictures and tried to find one of my friends who weren't busy to come downtown with me, since I had to take the bus and didn't want to go on my own. Finally Tuesday had come! I was so excited I practically jumped out bed in the morning to get ready. It takes about 2 hours to get downtown on the bus, because of transfers and waiting so I wanted to leave early.
We set out around 12 and got downtown at around 2. We had a little while to wait so we just walked around and went into random stores. I must have bummed about 20 smokes I was so nervous. Finally it was 3:00. We walked back up to Utility so fast we were pretty well running. When we got there, the girl asked me if she could help and I told her that I had an appointment. The piercer (who's name I can't remember, I'm not sure if she even told me) came out and asked what I was getting done. I told her "An Industrial!" with the biggest smile ever on my face. She came around the counter and measured my ear to see which piece of jewelry would fit my ear best. An inch and ¾'s I think it was. She sterilized it because the barbell was in a container and not a package. She told me to come into the back room with her. It was very clean and smelled like disinfectant or hospital. My friend came with me too.
She got me to sit up on a table/chair thing like on of the ones they have in a doctors office with the paper over it. She got out big tweezer-like things and put gloves on. She took out a brand new needle and a bag of sea salt from 2 separate containers with the tweezer things. Then she told me what was going to happen, and about other peoples experiences; some one squealing like a pig, someone passing out, other random funny things. She had me laughing which was good I thought. The she marked it with some kind of hospital ink and a toothpick. She asked if I liked the placement and I said yes. I was just so excited to be getting it done. She told me to lay back and then told me she would count to three and then I should breathe in and out and she would push the needle through the first hole. I said ok. My friend was holding my hand, so I would be ok. She counted, I breathed in and she pushed the top hole through first. It hurt, not too much, but it definitely hurt. I think it was worse because she had to stop and get a better grip on my ear so It wiggled a bit. Then it was time for the second. She asked me if I was ok, and I said yes. Then she counted, I breathed in and she pushed it through. That one felt like a pinch and not like the other one, which crunched. She pushed the barbell through, screwed on the ball and I was done. I couldn't believe it. I had a real piercing!
I stood up and looked in the mirror. I was obsessed the moment I saw it. The girl was talking to me about after care when I started to feel dizzy. I had so many things going through my head I didn't know what was going on. I remember the girl and my friend telling me to sit down cause I didn't look ok. I sat down on the floor because I couldn't even move with fear of falling over. A few minutes later I was lying on the floor with my sweater under my head for a pillow. I sat straight up and asked what happened. I didn't remember at all. I remembered my ear, cause I could feel a burning pain in it. But I couldn't remember why I was lying on the floor. They said I had fainted and had been out for only in minute. The girl gave me some really cold water (which really woke me up and make me feel better) and said I could stay and rest for as long as I wanted. I decided to stay sitting down for at least 5 minutes to just get my thoughts sorted. I just laughed practically the whole time. I thought it was hilarious. Which I kind of still do, haha.
I got up after a little while and started walking, I felt a little wobbly but I was ok. I walked back out front, thanked them for putting up with me, and we left. Out to bum some more smokes before I croaked. I had my hair up in a ponytail the whole time. Showing off my piercing to anyone who looked at me. We went home after that and everything was fine.
My ear hurt the first day (which was yesterday) but today it feels fine. It just feels like there's something on my ear. It does hurt A LOT when someone knocks into it. That happened a lot today, since it was the first day of school and a big hug fest. "HEY ALEX!" *hug* *smack* "OH SHIT MY EAR" haha, a lot of that today. I cleaned it as soon as I got home though, because there was just so much touching. Not direct touch, but close enough for me to be paranoid.
My aftercare instructions are pretty simple:
- Wash once a day with Teraseptic anti-bacterial soap cleaner and rinse well.
- Soak once a day with warm salt water.
- DO NOT touch it, unless cleaning.
- And keep hair out of it as much as possible.
Usually I wash it more than once a day, today is the second day of having it and it doesn't hurt to much, but a bit. I definitely recommend Utility to anyone in the Halifax area. They're really nice and very clean. They know how to treat people. As for the piercing itself, if you can take pain, then hey, go for it. But it all depends on different people. Some people don't even feel cartilage piercings. But overall, it was a wicked experience. Next piercings, snakebites and both sides of my nose !!