The time, October 12th, 2005... it was a wednesday night. I had went and picked up my friend Tim to go with me. I knew I should not go do it on an empty stomach so I went to the chinese buffet, okay so none of that matters.
At A Glance Author Kyo the Skunk When It just happened Artist Unsure Studio Tattoo's Unlimited Location Goshen, IN I wanted to get my helix's pierced, but there were reasons, and I'm kind of glad that I didn't. I arrived at Tattoo's unlimited only to find out that there was no piercer available. One of them had walked out on them I guess, that's too bad(believe me if I had experience I would apply for that job.)
Well, that was the total suck, wasted a lot of gas. But hey, it's no big deal. The lady said someone would be in saturday. So finally, I will get to the point of the needle!(no pun intended)
Well, I got off work on saturday and called up my mom, and said I would be running late I was going to go get my piercings. I still had my helix's in mind, but I knew it's not what I really wanted, what I really wanted was my conches. But being the over-compensating homosexual that I am, deep down I am a pussy to pain, or so I thought.
Walking into the tattoo shop, I filled out the paperwork and writing down helix's,
I told the lady behind the desk, "I really wanna get my conch's done but, I just heard it hurts really bad... well, not that I expect any piercing to feel good." Rambling on like I usually do, she said "Well tonight's the night if you're going to do it." conversed for awhile as I awaited the piercer to finish her current clients.
- Finally I broke down and said "Can you change that I want to get my conch's pierced instead?" to the lady behind the desk, she said sure.
A few minutes later I found myself in the room, with the female piercer(I wish I could remember her name), and her apprentice named Maggie. I was a bit nervous, she told me to take some deep breaths so I don't pass out.
Marked both of my ears. Everything checked out find. I closed my eyes and she pressed the needle through my right ear, the pain was not as bad as I had expected, in fact it really didn't hurt all that bad. Perhaps I'm a bit more tolerable to pain than I thought? Next thing I knew the ring was through. My right ear seemed to bleed a bit... but it was nothing serious.
We talked for awhile as I awaited the next hole in my body, the left ear hurt a tad bit more, but they always say the second hurts more than the first. But still I didn't flinch, but you could hear the cartilage popping, and cracking. So after we talked a bit, I thanked them, checked out my new conch piercings, I was overjoyed that I sucked it up and just did what I really wanted.
I made my way home with a quick stop the gas station...
At home I cleaned them and turning them was a real pain, the weird numb sensation it did creeps you out and makes you cringe. It's not like a flesh piercing, cause theres really not floppiness to cartilage I noticed. Well, the left ears ball came out of the hoop, thats when I was sort of angry at myself for moving it. I drove back out to the parlor, she tried to put it back in but suggested to just leave the ball out since we noticed that my left ear is a bit larger than the other, and come back in a few weeks to get a larger diameter hoop put in.
So everything was fine, the pain for the first few days has been horrid, but today they aren't sore... but today my right conch started bleeding. Not gushing just an annoying slow seep that would not seem to stop, it's finally calmed down now, but I think I may have did something while turning it cause thats when it started up. I'm really going to have to go easy on that one.
Nevertheless, today they don't really hurt, without placing pressure upon them. Getting my conch's done has been a insightful, and enlightening experience to realize that like I said above, I'm a bit more tolerant to pain than I've always believed myself to be. While I won't say it didn't hurt, I think people over exaggerate by saying "Getting your conch's pierced, the pain kills!" And yes it did hurt the first night, but I've had no problems sleeping on my back, but I'm used to sleeping on my ears... could be awhile before I see a comfortable nights sleep again.
So the moral of the story is, get the piercing you really want done, and don't expect it to feel good.