So, I had wanted some more piercings but my dilema was that my parents "wouldn't have anything to do with my body 'mutilations'." At the time of this particular piercing I was only 17 so I couldn't get anything done with out their consent. A friend told me about this studio in seattle, which is an hour away from where I live, that didn't ID and the guy there had pierced her tongue and her nose. So I started doing a little research on this guy before I decided to go up there. I first looked for stories on BME which I was able to find, then I checked out his web site. The stories on BME said he was a great, clean piercer and they would recommend him to any one. So I decided this guy was probably reputable and professional not to mention he claims to have been trained by Fakir Musafar.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Kurtis Kirk Studio Golden Body Rings Location Greenlake(Seattle), Washington A couple weeks later a friend of mine who is heavily into piercings as well was in town from Missouri, so we decided to go up to Golden Body Rings and get some piercings to celebrate. We called and made an appointment for a couple of hours from then. I had decided to get both tragus piercings and my right rook and she was going to get her tongue web pierced.
We took the long drive up to Greenlake and finally got to the shop around 2:00. We almost didn't see the shop. It's along the street next to a bunch of little random shops, nothing about it stands out. We had a little time to spare before our appointment so we went to the natural health food store around the corner to get a protein boost. I got some soy beef jerky, which if you've never had it's practically impossible to tell that it's not actually meat, I recommend it to any one. So after we ate we walked to the shop. The front door was locked and I was told that he got pissed if you knocked, so we waited there patiently for him to unlock the door, which only was a few minutes. He greeted us and we walked into the shop.
This guy really didn't talk much at first and I was almost having second thoughts because he seemed really creepy. But I convinced my self that not much could go wrong and I wasn't going to waste that much gas for nothing so we proceeded into the back room.
When we got to the room he began prepping everything to pierce me first. And I didn't realize this until we left but I'm 98% sure that he doesn't have an autoclave. And he didn't have us fill out any paper work at all, so...hmmm...
He pierced my rook first which went perfectly and turned out even more incredible than I imagined, but that's not what this story is about.
Okay, so here's when things weren't looking right. When he went to pierce my tragus he rubbed lavender oil under my nose with out asking me if that was okay or with out telling me at all. Then he marked them, which took all of one minute, and he never even let me look at the jewelry. At no point in either procedure did he let me look at the placement or did he tell me anything about the procedure. He was making funny dirty jokes the whole time which took my mind off of things for the moment.
He pierced the left side first which the piercing itself really didn't hurt too bad, it was the clamps that hurt. He had a grip on those clamps like he was trying to squeeze a lump of coal into a diamond, I couldn't believe how hard he was squeezing them. He was not gentle in any way either, I'm pretty sure this guy is highly sadistic. Now, when he pierced the right side he obviously was struggling, it took longer, he grunted a little and this side hurt so incredibly bad I was almost in tears. I don't know what the hell he did but I don't think it should have hurt that bad.
When we were done he gave us our aftercare sheets and sent us on our way. He didn't tell us anything about our new piercings or even tell us to call him if we had questions. He simply took our money gave us the after care sheets and sent us away.
I didn't notice until a couple of hours later when I could really examine my new piercings but the left side is much lower than the right. And it wasn't until the next day that I realized the left side was much closer to the edge on the inside(the exit hole). I discovered this because I have one of those little tiny mirrors with a long handle that dentists use, so I could see behind it. These two piercings are horribly lined. I have decided to keep them because you can't really tell unless you study them scrupulously or unless I point it out, which I don't.
Also a few weeks into healing I began forming some hypertrophic scarring on the right ear, which got pretty bad. Eventually I decided to combat it with tea tree oil. It took about a month for that to work, but it did make the huge beast go away. It's three months later now and the huge lump does come back if I don't put tea tree oil on it religiously every single day twice a day. But if that happens it's gone in two days if I keep up with it.
To say the least Kurtis Kirk is really sketchy. I went to him because I was desperate and thought these were simple procedures that he could handle. Unfortunately in the case of my tragus, I was wrong. I personally do not recommend him to others simply because it doesn't seem like he has the slightest clue of what he is doing. But if you're under age and desperate and are willing to take a chance, then that's your choice, but I won't be going back there.