I have always liked industrials. I think the long exposed bar intrigued me, but as time passed, I saw more and more people who had them. And that definitely made getting one less desirable.
At A Glance Author Philo Sophia Contact Philo Sophia@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Katrina Studio Sub Q Body Piercings Location Sacramento, CA I am not into the, quote, unquote, normal piercings that people have. I have 13 piercings now, and I only wear five of them, because the others are boring. Ears ...Navel ... ect ... yawn
I wanted something unique. I had an idea, but I had never seen it before. I talked with some friends and they thought it sounded cool, but I just never got around to getting it done.
Some of my friends and I got together one weekend. My friend Maria wanted to get a tattoo, and all of us went. While she was getting it done, the rest of us were wandering the little shop looking at tattoos. The shop also did piercings so I thought I would at least ask about the piercing that I imagined. I talked to one of the piercers, and described what I wanted. I asked him if I could get a bar going through the top cartilage and then through the middle cartilage of my ear. I showed him where I wanted the piercings to go through and he said that it would work. I was stoked. I decided that I would get it done right then.
I signed a release form, let the piercer copy my driver's license, and listened to his little pep talk. Then I sat down, and had a friend hold my hand. I got a little nervous while he was getting his things together, but I was not going to chicken out then.
He used two needles to pierce my ear with. When he pierced the inner cartilage, the needle stopped halfway through and he had to jam it through the rest. I almost passed out. I had to lay down with two hollow needles sticking through my ear.
When I relaxed a bit, he put the jewelry through and my awesome piercing was done. My friends all said it looked cool, but I needed to stay lying down for a minute before I could get up and check it out in the mirror. It looked great.
The outer cartilage did not hurt at all, but the inner cartilage was a bitch.
I got tons of compliments on it; most people had never seen a piercing done like that before. Although I have to say, my parents and grandmother were not impressed.
Unfortunately, I was not careful with it, and the piercing rejected. I did everything that I was not supposed to do. I slept on it, played with it, and I did not clean it well either.
I wanted to get it done again soon after, but the jewelry magically disappeared. I am pretty sure my mom stole it, and threw it away.
A little over two years later, I was walking in midtown Sacramento with a friend and we had some time to kill before the movie we were going to see would start. We walked past a piercing shop and he jokingly said, "Hey, you should get something pierced!" I turned around, said, "OK!" and walked into the shop. He thought I was nuts!
I really liked the piercing I had before and decided to get it done again. I talked to the girl who was going to do it and told her that I had it done before and it rejected. She checked out my ear and the scars from the previous piercing and said that it looked as if it was too shallow before. We talked it over, she showed me how she thought it would work best, and I went for it.
This time, the piercing was much faster and easier than before. She only used one needle. In one push it made it through the center cartilage, another push went through the outside cartilage, she put in some jewelry, and voila! The piercing was done. The pain was not bad at all and I could not even feel it after it was finished.
I left the shop and met my friend to see Palindromes (a great movie by the way), and I felt and looked great.
I took really good care of it this time, cleaning it three times a day with Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, and I did not touch it. I also had short hair this time, so it was not tangled in it all of the time.
I love it. In December, I went to a fancy party and got the jewelry changed to a gold bar. (For a pretty penny.)
Everyone's ears are shaped differently. Some people can not get this piercing at all. Others have a smaller piece of cartilage in the center than I do, so it probably would not hurt as much as mine did the first time, and more of the bar would show. I would encourage anyone who is considering getting an industrial to look at their ear and think of different ways the jewelry would fit.