At A Glance
Author	Hannah Banana
Contact	Hannah Banana@bme.anon
IAM	Ice_Pick_Abortions
When	Three months ago
Artist	Paddy
Studio	Bodyshock
Location	Temple Bar, Dublin

Background

Trips down to Dublin for the purpose of piercing were becoming more and more frequent. I had essentially completely lost faith in the Belfast piercers after one pierced my nipples too deep and the other messed up my friend's nape by using straight bars and refused to use proper surface jewellery. So down to Dublin it was! The two hour train journey is always filled with excitement on the way down and satisfaction on the way up. Usually it was just for a day trip but since it was the last weekend before I went back to the horror that is my second year of university we decided to make it a weekend.

The original plan was to go down for some fun (heh heh) and so James could get his venoms pierced by Paddy in Bodyshock after emailing back and forth. I didn't really plan to get any work done, other than get my cleavage bar changed as it turned out the original one was actually damaged and no where in Belfast carried appropriate jewellery or had the experience to help me with it. I wanted to go to Snakebite as they had done my vertical labrets and I continually hear their praises being sung by other IAM members. The more I thought about it though the more I too wanted to get something pierced before going back to university. I decided to see about getting an inverse navel but sadly that was not to be..

We got there on Friday and basically spent the day wondering about in the sun and scoping out where everything was. We also stocked up on some Oral B mouthwash for James, some q-tips and some painkillers for the both of us. We'd brought our own sea salt with use and the hotel had a kettle so salt soaks weren't going to be a problem. I won't tell you what happened on Friday night but Saturday we left the hotel in search of some lunch before heading to Snakebite. My jewellery change went off without a hitch and while I was there I asked Rob to have a look and see if I was suited in an inverse navel. Unfortunately I wasn't. I was disheartened and despite my better instinct my mind immediately went off on tangents about what I could get instead. I decided I wanted something else in my ears but after going through a lot of hassle with my vertical industrial in the last year I wanted to avoid cartilage as much as possible. A lobe orbital was in my head but I decided just to put everything on a back burner for now.

With that all done we were off to Temple Bar to find Bodyshock. While I sat outside the piercing room and waited for James to be done with his venoms some other people came into the shop. One of the people had a lobe orbital and that clinched it. I'd get one of them. The only worry I had was I was stretching to half inch in my lobes at the time and I didn't want to mess up the stretching or annoy the new piercing. When James came out I was too shy to say I wanted something then so we left and came back. I'm weird like that..

Procedure

When we went back Paddy was with someone else so I waited for him to come out and have a look at my ear. When he came out I told him I wanted a lobe orbital but I wanted my lobes to be half inch eventually. He said it wasn't a problem and whipped out the callipers to measure my left ear. It was decided that a 16mm titanium BCR would be used with a diameter of 12mm. With that sorted it was into the piercing room.

The general small talk was made while he cleaned my ear and marked me up. I approved the marks and sat on the bed and angled my head so Paddy could get at my ear. The top hole was done first. It was only a light stinging. It goes through the point where the fleshy lobe ends and the cartilage begins so I was expecting it to hurt more. The bottom hole was a slightly hotter stinging feeling. The ring was inserted without a hitch with the ball on the back. I thanked him; we paid and left just in time to see a woman fit herself in a box!

Aftercare

Straight after
By the time we got back to the hotel my ear was throbbing quite a bit so I took a few painkillers and put the kettle on to boil for a soak. James had a look and there was quite a bit of blood crusted around the bottom hole. An awkward soak was done by dunking my ear into a cup and keeping it there for at least five minutes. After the five minutes were up, damp q-tips were used to remove anything left round the piercing or on the jewellery. It was easy to keep my hair out of the way as it was in dreads at that point, which are very easy just to put on the top of my head Sideshow Bob style.

Sleeping was a bit awkward but was nothing new since I'd had other cartilage work done before. I either slept on my right hand side or positioned my hand so it created a gap between the pillow and my ear. Not entirely comfortable but very effective.

Week 1 – 2
The first two weeks really weren't much of a problem at all. I just soaked the piercing twice a day in a warm sea salt solution. I used a shot glass and moist q-tips to move most of the gunk. I made sure it was well rinsed in the shower after washing my hair. Then things started to go a bit wrong.

Week 2 – 3
Gradually a bump began to form on the top hole. Since the top hole is basically in cartilage this didn't surprise me. Through healing my daith and industrial I had found the best way for me to get rid of these bumps was to just leave it well alone. No aftercare or anything. This time it just didn't work and the scarring just got bigger.

Week 3 – 4
The hole in the lobe was fine, back and front, but as the top hole got worse I started to get a large bump on the back as well. My ear was obviously swollen around the top half of the jewellery and was more painful than it was when I had it pierced. I was peeved. This was exactly what I'd wanted to avoid as I knew I wouldn't have the time to give it the care and attention it needed while I was at university. Because of this it didn't get babied. I just left alone.. well that's lie. I left it alone in terms of cleaning but when I was bored in lectures I couldn't help but pick at my ear. I really should know better and this obviously made everything worse so don't do it!

Second month
I continued to pick at it and only clean in the shower for about a month until I was off university for Christmas. Over Christmas I managed to get in the way of an excited cat who decided to crawl up my back and launch herself off my shoulder, catching my ear with a claw as she passed. As you can imagine this defiantly was not pleasant. At the time it didn't really hurt much but over the next few days my whole ear had swollen and looking at the back there was an obvious cut above the top hole. Unfortunately I was away from home for a few days and had no access to sea salt so I did some hot compresses and just made do.

When I got home I got distracted by Christmas and New Years so the necessary care and soaking still wasn't done. It wasn't until about two weeks after the cat incident that soaks were started and there's a huge improvement. The swelling has really gone down, the bump has gotten smaller and the back of the top hole has really cleared up.

Third month
I'm at the start of this stage now. I have never been this flippant and careless about healing one of my piercings before and after all this unnecessary pain and swelling and general yuck I won't be taking this attitude with a mod again! I suppose something to take away form this experience is don't get something pierced for the sake of it if you know you won't have the time to look after it properly! It's better to just wait and then have trouble free healing and an overall healthier piercing in the long. Although I'm now soaking it regularly I do still pick at it when I'm bored. I can't be totally perfect!