I had been working on my ears for a while by the time I decided I wanted a "bigger" piece of work on my ear. I had the standard cartilage, lobe and tregus piercings, but I wanted something not everybody else had. I had recently discovered BME so I decided to have a look around and see if there was anything I wanted. I quite fancied the rook piercing, but my best friend Hannah had gotten hers done, and it had just rejected, so I discarded that choice. Besides, if I wanted to get something a bit different, getting the same piercing as my best friend wasn't a good way to go.
At A Glance Author nyo_iforani Contact nyo_iforani@bme.anon When A year ago Studio Otherside Location Belfast While looking around BME I saw a picture of an ear adorned with a silver bar through two areas of cartilage, one at the top of the ear, another further down. Although my previous cartilage piercing had hurt A LOT, it had been done with a gun *the shame* and besides, this beautiful bar was just the thing I wanted to decorate my ear with!
I decided to get it done when I had a bit of money, so I decided on my birthday. I was going to an Anthrax concert later on that day, but I figured if I stayed to the side and watched the band instead of going nuts, I'd manage to keep from getting my ear banged against too much.
So off I went in search of a studio. I finally decided on Otherside, in the centre of Belfast. It was the only place I could find which was exceptionally clean and would pierce it with a bar all at once, and not with two BCRs. I wanted to get it done at that time, not wait for two to heal before getting the bar inserted.
I went in and filled out all the forms. I'm terrible with names, so I'm not going to give any in fear of getting them wrong! The piercer came out and brought me into a very clean room. I sat down and he put on a pair of disposable gloves to mark my ear with. First he asked me to put my finger in my ear to stop any disinfectant from getting sprayed too far into my ear canal. After we agreed on a placement, he started talking to me to distract me. I always get a really tense look on my face before a piercing, I guess I'm preparing myself for the pain! He must have picked up on this, because he started talking to me about the different clubs around town. He also warned me to take it easy with this piercing. Since my ear was so small, it wouldn't take a lot of force for someone to rip it out with say, a zip or a studded wristband. While he was talking, he changed his gloves again and showed me the needle was clean and unused. On one ... breathe in ... on two ... breathe OUT. That was it, it was done. Unfortunately, it burned and stung quite considerably! I wasn't too worried, since the cartilage that had just been pierced was thicker than my other cartilage piercing, so I figured it would hurt a lot more – especially since it had just been pierced twice. He showed me that he was disposing of the needle he had used on me, and handed me a clean tissue for my ear. Unfortunately it was bleeding.
I proudly showed off to my friends my new addition to my ear. I'm not considered a "girlie" type of girl, but some of them were surprised that I had gotten a piercing that looked so painful. Granted, the blood didn't really feminise it too much.
I cleaned it about twice daily with sea salt soaks. I admit I don't take care of my piercings as well as I should, but I have never regretted not taking care of a piercing more than I have with my industrial. Any time I washed or brushed my hair, or put a top on over my head, it got pulled or touched, no matter how careful I was. Even to be slightly touched or moved hurt a lot. I got crusties on the inner part of the lower entry which I continually picked at. Until one day, when I realised that if I didn't take care of this properly, I was going to lose it. Due to all the pain it had given me, this was NOT an option. I was going to keep this piercing, I would not lose! I was almost fanatical about cleaning it, but not cleaning it too much. If I brushed or washed my hair I always tilted my head away from my industrial and any hair caught was slowly and patiently unwound from the piercing. I also wore shirts as much as possible to stop anything from touching it, even briefly.
One year later I am very thankful to say that I still have it. It's completely healed and I'm very proud I stuck with it through that one year of continuous pain. It wasn't bad all the time, but it would flare up unexpectedly and be painful for days on end.
When I think back on it, I don't know if I should have gotten the two BCRs and just waited for them to heal first before having the bar inserted. My ear is actually quite minute and the bar could have weighed down on it slightly, prolonging the healing process. The bar easily covered about half of my ear, reaching to the top of my fourth lobe piercing. Nevertheless, if you are prepared to care for it properly, I would definitely recommend it!!