Last summer I decided that I needed another piercing. I had recently had my nipple pierced, and was itching to get more. I decided to go to the piercing-only shop in Philadelphia, Infinite Body. I had gone there the summer before for my vertical hood piercing with one of my girl friends and felt very comfortable there. Also, their website is filled with tons of helpful information, so I knew they knew their stuff.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Kevin Studio Infinite Body Location Philadelphia, PA Even though my boyfriend hates piercings (despite the fact that he has 3 tattoos), one weekend when he came to visit me I decided to drag him down to South Street to get a piercing. To his chagrin, after walking around the many mod shops there, we turned down a side street to go to Infinite. The store room is immaculate, with clean floors and walls and lots of glass cases to show off their jewelry (much of which is one of a kind, with wood, glass, amber, etc). After filling out the paperwork, we sat down in the store room to wait for the next available piercer.
Kevin came out to get me, and I was excited because he was the one who had done my hood. We walked into one of the rooms, which was painted maroon and had real art in frames on the walls. I hopped up onto the dentist chair after he cleaned it off and listened as he described what he was going to do.
While he prepped my ear, my boyfriend decided to take an interest in what was going on. Now I had two guys hovering about my head, one with a sharp needle, both of which were chattering away to each other. When Kevin inserted the needle, the pain was not as bad as I expected. Since I already had a nipple pierced, I was not surprised by the pain. However, a lot of pain did come in the next few minutes.
I had decided on a snap fit barbell, rather than one with screw on balls, because it was cheaper. However, Kevin had a VERY difficult time slipping the thin end of the ball into the bar, and those few minutes where he fiddled with the fresh cut in my ear was not comfortable! Soon, he got it to work and I was able to be on my way.
The next few weeks I tried to sleep on my other side, which I was able to do. However, my piercing was really irritated. I had a difficult time cleaning it, because after the swelling there was no room to move the barbell in order to clean the inside of the piercing. It was always crusty. I finally decided that I would take the barbell out for a minute or two, clean the piercing, and then reinsert it. Bad idea! Every time I pulled it out I had to put it back into the hole, and I would end up making it bleed by either putting in the barbell or trying to push the thin wire into the bar.
Fortunately, I lost the ball down the drain and decided to buy a new barbell. This time I got a screw on one that was longer than the other one. Now I finally had the room to move the barbell around to get soap into the piercing. It was much less irritated, but I still had problems with lots and lots of crusting. The gook would get caught on the part where the bar screws into the ball and get stuck there, causing more body fluid to flow out.
A month ago, I lost the ball to the barbell. Because I couldn't get my hands on quality barbells at school, I decided to put in a ring. It had been about 8 months and my rook had not healed yet. It only took a few days for the nastiness to clear up. However, if I bumped the inside of my ear, or the ring got pulled forward away from the inside of the ear, it still hurt a lot and there was still some flaking from the hole.
This weekend, I lost the ball when I was visiting my boyfriend, and since I didn't have any replacements I had to leave the ring in with a gap. During the night it fell out. In the morning I tried to put the ring back in, but I couldn't find the entire hole. It bleed and bleed and hurt sooo much. I finally gave up. Today I tried to use a barbell to reopen it, but I had no luck.
While I loved the look of the rook piercing, the upkeep was too much. I was prepared for a long healing time, but the constant irritation was too much. From this experience I've learned two things:
--- Use the best jewelry for the healing period. You can always change the jewelry after it is pierced! It's not worth the money, time, and effort to have a good looking piercing if it's never going to heal. Jewelry should be the right gauge and leave lots of room for cleaning.
--- Sometimes you need to cut your losses with piercings. It may be in your best interest to just give up and let it heal before it ruins the tissue. You can always try to repierce it later!