WARNING: This is a story is about a self piercing. DO NOT self pierce! It is dangerous and can lead to many problems and complications.
At A Glance Author squeakytoy94 Contact squeakytoy94@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Myself Studio Home Location Minnesota I had been looking at starting an ear project and was trying to decide what part I wanted to do first. I was planning on doing a horizontal and vertical industrial on my right ear and a double snug and tagus piercing on my left. My friend, Shannon, and I had discussed what I should do first. She personally didn't think the tagus would look that good so I decided to do the double snug on my left ear.
Now I'm currently a broke college student, so the money isn't there to pay for professional piercing. My mother works at a hospital and still had a couple sterile 18g syringe needles from a conference. So, planning out the procedure, I laid out alcohol, ear swabs, two needles and two studs. I washed and sterilized my ear and hands. Now piercing your own body is a rush. I was so scared at first, I didn't know if I could do it.
I was worried about the pain, especially since it's my cartilage. I marked my ear and placed the first needle. The pain was little, but the pushing the needle through was tough. I got it about halfway in the first shove, but I had to get a better grip on the needle. Once it poked through I paused to get my bearings. Since the needle was hollow, I could slide the post into it and pull it back through. The second one was a little harder, because of the blood, but I got it in. For the first night it kinda ached, but it wasn't horrible.
The next day I was leaving for a trip to visit a friend at college. Before we left the cities, Shannon and I stopped at a store to get hoops for my ear. Because we were on the road, I couldn't change them. After a 6 hour drive to the UP (upper Michigan) the first thing we did was change the earrings. This was probably the worst part of this whole experience.
First Shannon tried to follow the studs out with the hoops. When this didn't work, we went to just shoving the hoops through. Yeah, that HURT The first one ended up getting stuck halfway in. Shelly kept wiggling it to get it in while I was trying not to cry (and that's saying something, since I have a very high pain tolerance). And there was nothing to clean them with, so we had to use 5 o'clock. That is some of the cheapest vodka you can buy... ow ow ow After 15 minutes, a lot of blood, a lot of Kleenex, and a lot of flinching, they got in. The best part of this was that we were the local show on the dorm floor. So with my ear throbbing, I tried to get asleep, but it's hard when because I sleep on my left side. For the four days I was up there I got to clean my ear with vodka everyday and try not to get my ear knocked around. Since this is Upper Michigan in January. It was really, really cold out. For anyone who lives in a cold climate, you know how painful the cold metal of an earring can be on a new piercing. That brings new meaning to the word pain.
Here comes the part where my parents realize I had pierced my ear. I had done it and then gone to the UP for four days before they saw them. When I came home my dad was the first one to see my ear. Normally he would have freaked out and been yelling for hours, but he didn't care. He was like ok, nice earrings. When my mom got home though... she kinda freaked out. She came and asked me what I had done to my ear. I showed her and she started grilling me. Why? Where? When? I just explained and waited for her to calm down. It's hard to be the adult child with very protective parents, they never wanted me to get any piercings.
Healing process: So now I'm letting my ear heal. So far it's doing all right, though I really need to go back to using more sea salt. Using hydrogen peroxide is not a good thing. It is very irritating to the piercing and slow the healing. I've been using salt bathes and poultices to kill germs and clean my ear. To anyone with a new piercing. Avoid using any harsh chemicals to clean your ears, this really does slow the healing process. It also makes your ears extra sensitive to everything. The slightest bump can cause more bleeding and put you back in the healing process. I'm currently looking at about a two and a half to three month healing time, if I'm lucky.