After months and months of visiting BMEzine, and a lifetime of admiring other people with body modifications I decided it was time to get myself a piercing. The most trustworthy piercer in town was getting ready to retire and I was getting less and less patient...
At A Glance Author Anna Contact annataylor@hotmail.com When Three months ago Artist Tony Studio Salon One Location Bunbury I was in town on a Thursday night with a friend who is quite conservative and squeamish, I wasn't really planning to have my piercing done this night, but we walked past the salon and it was quite obvious that this was the closing night as the place was flat out packed.. so it was now or never, and I had been admiring snugs on bme for quite a while. I dragged my friend in, who was beginning to whine and mutter about something or other, I wasn't really listening though as I was already amping my self up to get it done.
The place is really clean and the staff were really awesome, I was taken straight through to the piercing room where Tony was waiting for me. Tony started piercing in the mid 80's when piercing was catching on in my town, he and his wife have no visible body mods. He had told me that he was sick of seeing kids at the time going behind some caravan park to get pierced in appalling conditions and ending up as giant balls of walking pus, and so he started piercing.. because he knew that he would hate to see his own kids in that state. Having said that, its quite clear that Tony is one of the biggest champions on this planet.
I told Tony I wanted my snug pierced and he sat me down, put some jewelery in what im guessing is an autoclave? or some kind of cleaning device anyway. He had chosen a curved barbell that was around 2cm long to accommodate for swelling. He then marked my ear, and asked me to tell him what I thought of the placement. I didn't really want it so high, and he moved it down till we were both happy.
.Skip around five minutes of small talk and several changes of gloves...
By this point my friend was chewing her nails and pressed up against the wall asking if she could hold my hand (I refused) and the giant curved needle was against my ear. Tony pushed it through in a clean swift movement, (he hadn't put clamps on because of the placement). I screamed. I heard laughing out in the salon. I laughed. Tony laughed. Tony put the jewelery through. And I was set (or so I thought.) The mirror Tony was holding up was showing me exactly what I wanted. I paid my money and was given some aftercare solution and I was on my way.
The piercing itself had given me very little trouble. Of course I felt the needle go through and it hurt a little. I was more shocked by the swiftness at which Tony shoved the needle through which had made me scream. As a cartilage piercing you can expect pain, but I had found it quite tolerable :)
That weekend I went on a school camp. This is where my troubles began. The first couple of nights my beautiful snug piercing had caused me no problems or irritations. However, after spending 5 hours on my school camp I had been smacked against the head by an excited friend trying to hug me, immediately my snug ridge swelled to twice its size. On a scale of 1-themostincrediblepaininyourlife this rated about 5,000,000,000,000. I had a lot of trouble sleeping this night. The only thing that could be given to me was a homemade ice pack, and as you can imagine this wasn't quite what I needed.
I woke up the next morning feeling a little better, yet by nine o'clock.. I had been smacked on the snug by a ball. By this time I had to ask myself how unlucky you would have to be to have a ball thrown from about 15ft away and get you right in your new piercing. As you can guess I was in great pain. The balls were being swallowed into my ear and I couldn't take out the jewelery even when I tried.
By the end of the camp I had been damaged (only on my snug mind you) about four times. When I arrived home my dad took me to the pharmacist (as I couldn't go visit the retired tony) who decided hydrogen peroxide would be my best bet. haha. ha. ha. I knew little about the harm of this at the time and I diligently applied it twice a day.. This had caused the piercing to seep pus non-stop.
A nice sized very hard lump had formed on the back of my ear.
two weeks pass..
I heard news that Tony had decided to train some new piercers in Bunbury so I went down town to visit him. He told me it HAD to come out... Tony got the piercing out after a lot of tugging, and I was surprised no pus came out. We concluded the piercing itself wasn't infected. Tony had an idea that we should shoot a little iodine through the piercing with a dripper and wait till it dries out, and see if we can put the jewelery back through. The probability that this would work was around 50% said Tony. He told me to come back in 2 weeks.
a week later...
I'm in my room and I just HAD to put my piercing back through. A little string of dried iodine was in the piercing so I pulled it out with tweezers. To my incredible surprise the barbell went through with no stress. The balls were on and voila! I was smiling again.. The lump on the back of my ear kept getting bigger and harder and I was getting worried again... It had also become itchy. I scratched it lightly and it popped *I KNOW OKAY ITS GROSS* covering my shoulder in thick pus *sorry* and blood. The lump turned out to be tissue that had grown (for reasons unknown.) I let the scab heal on the back of my ear (this took quite a while; 2-3 weeks) and finally the piercing too began to unswell. I still have a scar on the back of my ear, and my left ear looks quite different to my right (you wouldn't notice unless I told you but :) )
Fast forward to today. My snug is incredibly happy and the barbell has
about 3mm of space on either side. Regular salt soaks and generally being mindful of the piercing has allowed it to heal. Its been good for around a month now...
Before getting a piercing, it is quite important for you to consider events that are coming up for you.. If you're not patient enough to wait a while to get pierced (like before going on a camp,) you should be asking yourself if you're responsible enough to get a piercing in the first place. Another important thing to remember is that your own judgment won't be better than a reputable piercer.
Since I've had this done, I have also had my tongue web and the side of my navel pierced.
To anyone in Bunbury, if you can get hold of Tony (who makes occasional appearances at BodyJewelz) he is a great friendly piercer!