Since I was a child, I have been extremely shy. Crowds and strangers terrified me. I never liked being singled out or the center of attention. Now that I am almost 30, however, I think I am finally growing out of my shyness and becoming a different person, and I want to be noticed! I want people to look and really see me. So begins my entry into the world of modification (though still on the relatively conservative side).
At A Glance Author blueangel Contact angiemichele@hotmail.com IAM blueangel76 When A month ago Artist Chris Hemingway Studio Knight Times Tattoo & Body Piercing Location Rogers, AR A few months ago while on vacation with my sisters and mom, we decided to get tattooed together. I thought it was a great idea as did my mom, but fortunately for us, the local artist talked us out of a spur-of-the-moment tattoo session. He encouraged us to really think about it and make an informed decision before going through with it. Boy am I glad he did. I will be forever grateful and I hope to have work done by him someday. When we got home I began researching tattoos and of course I also found a lot of information on piercings as well. At first, many of the piercings that I saw did not appeal to me, but the one that did the most was a vertical clitoris hood piercing. In my research on the VCH, I realized that I only wanted one person to pierce me down under, and because she is in New Orleans and I am in Arkansas, I decided to put that off until my next visit to NOLA (which now looks like it will be longer than previously anticipated). In the meantime I stumbled upon pictures of inner conch piercings! I fell in love instantly and knew that it would be my next piercing.
I researched the inner conch piercing for a few weeks. One week (about six weeks ago), my husband confessed to me that he had taken out $100 from a credit card in order to add $$ to his online poker account and that I could have $50 of that. He thought I would be angry, but all I thought about for 3 days was "I am finally getting my conch pierced on Saturday!" I had decided that I would have my left ear pierced – no particular reason. On Saturday, I drove to my sisters' apartment to pick them up so they could accompany me as I knew they wanted to! We have always done these things together. It was noon and time for the shop to open so we headed to my first choice of piercers. I had printed a picture of the piercing to take with me because I'm still a little uncertain as to how to pronounce "conch" (and still a little shy!) I asked Adam (owner of the shop) if I could get this piercing. He looked at my picture and said, "Maybe."
"Maybe!" I said. I thought he was just giving me s**t the way he always does when I come in.
"The regular piercer is out today and I will have to check with the guy who is here to see if he is comfortable doing that piercing. That is a lot of cartilage to go through and he is not that experienced."
"When does the regular piercer get back," I asked.
"Wednesday"
"I'll come back then, thank you!"
Well, I couldn't wait, so we decided to go down the street to a new shop that had opened up. I looked through the piercer's portfolio and saw that he had performed this piercing on previous occasions and his work looked great so I told Chris what I wanted. He said he could do it. I asked if he would do it at 12g but he informed me that 14g was the largest he had. WTF I thought! What kind of piercing studio carries 14g as their largest needle! I didn't think much more about it because I really wanted this piercing that day! I filled out the paperwork, paid and Chris went to set the room up. While we were waiting, my sisters asked if I was nervous. I said "No, I've had my cartilage pierced before and it didn't hurt. This won't be bad." In a couple of minutes, Chris told me he was ready for me and called me into a private room. My youngest sister decided she would accompany me. Chris told her that I was the only one allowed in the piercing room. She was a little upset by that, but I was okay as I think I prefer to be alone. All of his instruments were laid out on a tray in their sterile packages. Chris had gloves on the whole time, though I can't remember how many times he changed as I was starting to get a little nervous by this time. He asked where I wanted it placed and I told him that I wanted it to look just like the picture I brought him. He said most people place it a little lower than that, but he would give me what I wanted. He marked a spot and asked me if I liked the placement. I got up out of the chair and went to look at it in the full-length mirror across the room. It was then that Chris told me that he had a hand-held mirror for me and that I didn't need to get up! I was a little embarrassed, but it was nothing extreme! I told him the placement was good after I sat down and he proceeded to prepare the needle and ring. He let me choose between a silver or black-colored ball for my cbr. I chose the silver. It was about this time that the door to the room flew open. It was ano "\Ãw€ë ther person who worked at the shop telling Chris about a phone call. Chris told him that he would have to call back. Couldn't the guy see he was in the middle of something? Chris got back to me and I then told him that I did not want him to tell me when he was going to pierce me. I prefer for him to just do it! He was a little surprised by that, but did what I asked. I felt him cleaning my ear for a few seconds, then I felt the needle touch my skin. The next few seconds felt like hours and they were excruciating! It felt like that needle was never going to get through my skin! (I also kept hoping that guy wouldn't throw that door open again and cause the needle to go through my head!) When Chris first started pushing the needle through, it wasn't bad, but the further it went, the worse it got. I can honestly say that I have never, in my life felt pain like that before. I guess that means I am lucky and I have never had anything major happen to me (knocking on wood now!) He put the ring through, then the bead seemed to give him a little trouble, but as soon as his hand was away, the pain was gone. He cleaned me up and gave me the mirror again. I was in love! I didn't see any blood at all! He gave me his suggested aftercare instructions (which I did not follow – he told me to use Neosporin twice a day for 14 days!) and I tipped him. He wanted to get a picture before I left so I waited for him to get the camera while I showed of my new hole to my sisters! They loved it and one of my sisters said it made her want to get something pierced! After the picture was taken we left and then my ear started to burn! That only lasted for a couple of hours and since then, the only time I have pain is when the ring is knocked around.
It has been six weeks tomorrow (Sept 10) since I had my piercing done. I still love it as much as I did the day it was done. Of course, I think he is getting lonely so I feel another trip to the piercer will be in order soon! The only problem I have encountered is that I think I have irritated it a little with sleeping on it and hair products and now I have a little red bump around the inner hole. I have been babying it again and doing sea salt soaks and it is getting a little better.
I haven't gotten the attention that I desired from it which makes me a little sad. I have yet to have someone come up to me and ask me "What the **** did you do to your ear!" I'm pretty sure that people notice it! I have this huge ring in my ear where most people around here would never consider having one. In fact I have never seen anyone with this piercing in person around here. Maybe everyone else is just as shy as me and don't want to say anything. I've had people tell me after I pointed it out that they did notice it but they didn't know if it was real. I assure them that it is! I felt every bit of that needle go through to make it real! Well, maybe more additions will get me some attention! We'll just have to wait and see!