My first and only piercing is my beloved industrial. I had seen it about 3 years ago and I thought it was the greatest thing as far as body mods are concerned. I remember thinking that if I got it, I could put a safety pin through it (which I know now is a stupid idea so I've never even tried it). My parents have always been hesitant on regards to piercings and tattoos; however I managed to convince them of allowing me to get the industrial.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A year ago Studio Goa Exotic Piercing Location Bogota, Colombia I made plans with several friends to go to the most reputable studio in the city, but all of them failed. Finally, I got sick of this one afternoon and asked my mum to take me. We phoned the studio and asked about pricing and hours and they said we could go at any time, and the price was reasonable.
We arrived at the place which was impeccable and approached the counter. I asked about an industrial piercing and the man at the counter showed me a photo album so I could make sure that was what I wanted. I was positive of this, of course. He then showed me different sized barbells of either surgical steel or titanium and I picked a medium-sized titanium one which was the only one my mother would agree with. Next, he called one of the piercers and explained to him what I wanted done. I waited by the counter for a while and was finally called into the back room.
The room was very clean. I could see an autoclave and several unopened boxes of surgical gloves around the room. THE chair was in middle of the room and I proceeded to sit on it as I watched the piercer unwrap the sterile needles and put on new gloves. First, he cleaned my ear thoroughly and then he picked up the first needle and announced to me that he would make the first hole. It was very painful, to say the least. Even more painful was the second hole. My ear felt hot and I was in so much pain I started to regret the piercing. He put in the barbell which was just as (or even more) painful than the needles themselves. However, the process was done. He cleaned my bloody ear and handed me a mirror so I could admire my firs real piercing.
I was in a bit of a daze and didn't feel too well. I was shaking quite a bit as I walked outside while the man behind the counter handed me an after-care pamphlet and explained to me what had to be done in order to clean the piercing. My mother paid and purchased some sea-salt and we headed home.
I had no problems at first, except the usual pain when a hair got tangled or when I hit it against something. However, the real complications began when after three months my ear was still swollen and didn't have a natural colour but rather a red turning-into-purple colour. I went to see my doctor who prescribed antibiotics that I was to take for two weeks. They worked and my ear was normal again. However, I started to develop keloids which would get smaller when I did my sea-salt soaks (which I didn't do twice a day, like advised but rather once a week since I had gotten lazy) but would eventually grow if I didn't soak them. I, stupidly, decided to let it go and assumed they would go away. They didn't go away, nor did they grow but just remained there.
Now, I play football (soccer) and as a goalkeeper I knew that leaving my barbell in while playing could result in a painful injury. I knew that taking out the jewellery for an entire game would cause the piercing to close, so I went back to the studio and see what could be done. As advised I purchased two rings that I could replace the bar with while playing. And while there I asked about my keloids. They said they were normal and that they were there as a result of not doing the sea-salt soaks and told me they could remove them right then and there. So again I sat on The chair and the piercer popped the bump on the top hole on the outer part which was notably bigger and uglier. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be done but at least it made it go away (it hasn't reappeared since). Yet a problem persisted: I had bumps on the inner part of my ear in both holes.
Recently while reading up through various sites on the internet I learned that tight jewellery could cause keloids to appear while constant sea-salt soaks could make them go away. Therefore I purchased a longer barbell made of surgical steel and began to do my soaks religiously again. A week later the bumps around the holes of my piercing are notably smaller and the piercing is starting to look just like I dreamed it would.
In all, I would say the only downside of my experience was not following the cleaning instructions. I advice everyone who wants to get this done to do the soaks unless you want your piercing to look as ugly as mine did for a while.