I first got into piercings and the like about a year ago. I started dating my boyfriend then and he had some piercings I thought were "crazy". Where as I had none.
At A Glance Author Mike Contact Mike@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Billy Studio Black Lotus Location North Kingstown, Rhode Island I don't know where I saw my first industrial, I generally knew what they were, but I never knew what they were called until I was talking about piercings to him. Which we rarely ever did until I got my first helix piercing with a gun at Claires. (Woo! Go stupidity and ignorance!)
Anywho. Two more helix's with guns (Woo! x2 for stupidity!) and self done lobes that were stretched to 12ga. So, I actually started showing my mom. And she suprisingly was, "Yeah. I'll sign for it." But she's not the type to just go off and drive to some place she thought would be a dirty hole in the wall in an alley and let them poke me a couple times. I actually had to show her pictures of studios, how steril they are, and how they actually do it, especially with gloves on.
So for my birthday she took me to get it. I looked up the closest studio near me, which was about 25 minutes away. (She refuses to drive to Providence to go to the place where all my friends get their stuff done.)
Couple days later...
So we get to Black Lotus, sign the papers, get asked if I'm pregnant, (I'm very much a male, Haha.) Pay first (Which all the other experiances I've read, they pay after.) It was $77 which I thought was kinda expensive, but I wanted one so badly I didn't really mind.
I sit and I'm kinda nervous, but I know what it's gonna feel like. Because I was oh so experianced with my gunned ears at Claires. I knew he was going to use a hollow needle, I knew how the procedure would go as. As I watched a video somewhere online.
I get brought in, we chat about random things he had. Noticably a stretched helix which I thought was amazing. I get told about the procedure, asked if I was nervous or going to faint. Showed me the needles and equipment. No clamps. Which I was releived, they kinda scared me...
He marked my ear, I didn't get to see the placement of it, I didn't notice that at the momment, I was still in shock I was getting it done. At this time I was really nervous but feeling good.
I was told to breath, In, then out, then in, then out all the way then PAINNNNNNNN. It hurt more than a gun, but it was a good kinda pain. Made me think, "No stopping myself now. I'm actually getting it."
Now... I don't really know what happened next. I was sitting upright infront of a mirror, I could've watched, if I wasn't concentrating on the pain.
Last time I saw, he was screwing in the beads, and cleaning up the blood. I bled kinda a lot for a "regular" ear piercing.
Was given aftercare instructions, yadda yadda, blahblah and so forth.
I was in love with how it looked, and probably looked at myself in the mirror collectivly for the next few days for over an hour.
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Well, about a month later, it got major infected. I didn't know what was happening. It was beat read, pussing a little, and was the worst "healing pain" I've felt. Like, it STUNG instead of "buzzed" with pain when touched.
I went back to Black Lotus, asked him what's wrong.
"Yeah. It looks a little pissed off. Just keep following the aftercare instructions and come back if it doesn't get better. Then we can put on a bigger barbell."
Then he went back into the backroom to talk to his friends. I didn't feel like a valued customer, more like, "Just one of those idiot kids." Which I why I'll never go back there.
I really wasn't sure why I wasn't given a bigger barbell in the first place, though. When he pierced it, it was pretty tight. The beads touch my ears now. And it was worse in the few couple of days because of swelling.
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So that was my first infection. I cleaned it 3 times a day with soap and saline solution, and it stopping pussing and stinging after a couple of days.
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Two months later, it's pretty much fine. It hurts a tad when I bump it, but it's nothing too bad. I clean it twice a day, both holes, both sides of my ears. I stopped using the soap now, because it dried out my whole entire ear, and it looked like my ear was peeling off. So it's pretty much set on saline solution.
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The placement is a little off, the top hole is a little too close to my head. But atleast the bottom hole is fine and not shallow. I'm a little mad about that. But overall it looks good, and compliments the rest of my piercings very well. I can't wait until it heals, then I can get more that I'm itching for...