I guess most people start off writing a bit about their experience of body modification, so here's mine; I first got my ears pierced when I was about twelve at Claire's Accessories with a gun, because I was young and impressionable and easily led. Also, my mum paid for them. I went to a high school that was incredibly strict on uniform, so I did not want to get anything done, only to have to take it out again and have it close up. My next piercing was not until my eighteenth birthday when I got my clitoral hood pierced at Kalima, which remains one of my favorite piercings. I was really nervous because it was my first body modification and it was also my first experience in Kalima, so it helped break the ice, and Quentin was really professional and friendly. I knew that if I wanted to get anything else pierced in the future, I would not want to go anywhere else.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When N/A Artist Quentin Studio Kalima Location Worthing UK After a couple of months, I got the itch again and decided to go for a piercing which was actually visible to people. I'm not yet brave enough to go for a facial piercing, so I chose an ear piercing. But I did not want any old thing. I went on BME to get some ideas and clicked on the transverse lobes, which only contained a few pages of pictures, so it seemed that this piercing was pretty rare and special and I really liked the look of the horizontal transverses.
I phoned up Kalima and asked if they did horizontal transverse lobes. Quentin said that they did, but could I come down and get checked out to see if I had the right anatomy for them, because they only work for unattached lobes and they won't pierce you if it's going to look crap.
So I went down to Kalima to do this, with the idea that if it was all good, I would go and get them done. My friend Ian came with me, so I could bully him into getting another piercing too! Ian chickened out but the good news was that my ears were fine, so I picked out my jewelery, two silver straight barbells and went into the back room.
Quentin talked me through the procedure as he set it up, answering any questions about pain. I asked if he could possibly miss my lobe piercings, but he said as they were straight barbells they would go straight through (thankfully, though, I realized that I could still use them, as now the jewelery just rests comfortably on the metal bar). I spotted the pictures of his suspension on the wall and we talked about that and the ideas behind it. As I said before Quentin is very professional and friendly and passionate about his work you can tell that it's not just a hobby to him but a craft.
Then I lay down and breathed in and out and then Quentin told me that the needle was going in. The pain was not as intense or as sharp as my subsequent cartilage piercings but was kind of dragged out as the needle went through the ear. Then he slipped the jewelery in, which hurt more, then did the same to the other ear. I sat up and looked in the mirror and instantly fell in love.
Whilst listening to me thanking him profusely and smiling graciously, Quentin gave me my free aftercare package, salt, cotton buds and herbal tincture, and explained the healing process, and then gave me their phone number and opening times in case of emergencies. (I have been back to Kalima many times to finish off my ear project, because they are so good and because, luckily, I live just a town away.)
I'm really happy with my transverses, because I have yet to meet anyone else with them and they are really pretty on there own, in a simple kind of way. I also like the way that they frame any pair of normal lobe earrings that you care to put in it, like an extra flourish. Everyone likes them and wants to know if they hurt and if they actually go through the lobe and which I sigh and roll my eyes.
Unfortunately they were a real bitch to clean and apply the tincture properly. The skin around the holes on my right became sore and cracked because I must have put too much salt into the saline solution and I kept catching them on hair bands. But apparently you always have one good ear and one bad ear, and my bad ear was just really bad! They're okay now, although it's taken longer than it should have to heal, but I'm really happy with them and glad that I got them done.