Ok, first of all, don't ever get your piercing done in some lady's basement! It's very scary. I was living in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't afford to drive the 3 hours to get to a good piercing place and for some reason I was dying to get a piercing done. I had heard stories from people in town saying that the piercing lady wasn't very clean and the piercings from her got infected often.
At A Glance Author Danielle Contact Danielle@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Don't know her name Studio Ummm.....her basement Location Slave Lake, Alberta I threw my common sense out the window! Who needs it anyways? So my friend Mary came with me and we went to the lady's house. She had the nicest house I had seen in Slave Lake so far. She had her studio in the basement; she explained to us that she moved her studio to her basement because rent at the other building was too expensive. I told her I was looking at getting an industrial, "Little balls or big balls? Hahaha, I ask everybody that, they always say big balls." So big balls it was, I didn't like the little ones anyways, they didn't suit me as well.
She had all her jewelry and equipment in a big toolbox behind a chair...you know like those ones at the dentist's office. It freaked me out that she keeps everything in a toolbox. Plus, I didn't like the fact that she did everything behind me so I couldn't see if she was cleaning everything properly or not. She got me to sit down and I got to choose where I wanted the industrial to go through.
Now at that point I thought that I was pretty tolerant of pain and that I wouldn't be too bothered by it. Ouch! It hurt sooooo bad. I tried hard to stay still during the entire process but I couldn't help but squirm a little bit. She asked me if I wanted her to stop for a second so I could gather myself but I told her to just get it done and over with. It bled a bit so I was kindof worried about that because my piercings don't usually bleed but it stopped shortly after. So off I went with my extremely painful piercing.
She had told me to make sure I turn it once everyday so the skin doesn't heal onto the barbell so that first night I got Mary to turn it for me. Ouch! That hurt worse than getting the piercing done! Plus it started to bleed like crazy and it wouldn't stop. I was living away from home so I called my mom (who happens to be a nurse) and I asked her what to do. She said she had no idea what to do about it so she told me I should just hold a paper towel or something on it to make it clot. I held that paper towel there for what seemed like forever and it finally stopped.
At that point I thought about taking it out. I had heard from other people that there's supposed to be rings there first instead of a barbell and that the barbell is supposed to go in after the rings heal so that worried me too but I don't know if that's true or not. After awhile I decided against taking it out considering I had spent a bunch of money on it. Plus I figured that I just had to bear through it for a while and it would heal up nicely. After a few weeks pus started coming out of it but I kept on with cleaning it like the lady had told me and it eventually stopped.
I moved back home after a few months and got a job at a fish plant. They said I had to take it out but that I could put it back in during breaks. To my disappointment, when I got on my first break, the hole had healed shut enough that I couldn't get anything into it. I plan on getting another industrial put in but my mom says that I should wait until I get another job where I make sure they won't make me take it out and that I should feel confident that the job will last long enough to let it heal properly so that way it won't heal over if I have to take it out.
I'm on maternity leave right now so it'll still be a long time before I'll be able to get it. I already have a new place lined up to get it done at. They did my 3rd holes on my lobes and the guy there did an awesome job and they're healing perfectly. So my advice would be, even if you can't afford to go to a nice place.... take the extra time to save your money and go to the nice place!!! Don't get your piercings done in some basement that freaks you out and has a reputation for being unsanitary.