About four years ago, I went to a concert hosted by a local radio station here in Chicago. In the program book handed out to the members of the crowd, there was an advertisement for a piercing studio, and a few small pictures of various piercings the piercers had done. That day was the first time I had ever seen it: the industrial. I had no idea what it was; but I thought it was amazing. Something I hadn't seen anyone (around here at least) have. I wanted it! Unfortunately, I didn't know I would have to wait four more years from then to have my wish granted!
At A Glance Author thechemkitten. When A month ago Location Chicago, Illinois A friend of mine has a sister who is a professional piercer. She had previously done my tongue and lip, both which I had absolutely no problems with the healing of either afterwards. Two great piercings. Overall, I could trust her with putting holes through my body and sticking metal objects in them. :) Being the piercer's sister, my friend had nearly every piercing she could ever want done for free; and not too long ago, she had told me her sister had pierced her industrial for her recently. I immediately replied, "Tell your sister to set up a date when I could get mine done!" She did just that, and I set money aside for what would be my newest addition.
A few weeks later, I showed up at my piercer's house, ready and raring to go. I brought my boyfriend along, since he had never seen a piercing get done right in front of his eyes before, and he wanted to hold my hand to help me through the experience, since he and I had both heard that the industrial was quite painful to get pierced. I was just taking deep breaths, making sure I didn't forget to breath as my piercer got all the supplies ready. I asked my friend to get me a cup of ice water, since I'm quite prone to getting extremely lightheaded and passing out after piercings. I oftentimes think I'm feeling just fine, then stand up and start walking towards the door, only to find that I get super woozy and my vision blacks out ... I wasn't ready to have that happen this time! :D
Anyways; my piercer asked if I was ready for the first hole, and I nodded affirmingly. She said that she was going to do the top hole first, which she had also said was going to be tougher than the lower one would. Which is because the cartilage there is thicker, if I'm correct? I took a deep breath in, and there was a sharp pinch and quite a bit of pressure as the needle went in. As gross as this may sound, I could have sworn I felt the needle going through each layer of skin and cartilage on my ear. She finished that hole and sheesh! It felt like it was burning after she got that needle through! I took a few sips of my water, and she let me relax a bit before she attempted to get the ball on the end of the barbell. About 5 minutes later, I grasped my boyfriend's hand once again as she prepared to pierce the second hole. This one was not half as bad as the first hole. Just a bit of a pinch like before, but it was over relatively quickly. She screwed the ball onto the other end, and handed me a mirror to look at the finished product.
I couldn't be any happier! It looked WONDERFUL. I thanked her, and gave her the money for the piercing, and me and my boyfriend were on our way. During the car ride home, the throbbing and weird burning sensation in my ear was quite annoying and I complained about it a lot at the time, but I couldn't help but keep pulling down the sun visor to look at my new piercing in the mirror!
I knew my mother was not going to like it, so I chose to let her find out about it on her own as I do with all my other piercings. One day, I was just feeling bored enough that I directly went up to her and said "Hey; look what I got done a few weeks ago". She said something about it being disgusting and how she didn't want to look at it, which just made me even more proud of it. :D
It's healing nicely, and it's been about a month since I got it pierced. It doesn't really hurt unless I accidentally knock it on something, or get it caught on my shirt when I'm changing (OWWW!) To sum it up, I'd say if you are reluctant to getting the industrial done due to stories you've heard about the pain factor ... I'd say SUCK IT UP! It's definitely WELL worth the pain; especially the end result - a beautiful new piercing!