Last week I went to see my piercer since I was in the mood for some new jewelry. She stretched my lobes a bit to only a 14 gauge and that went well. When she was done, I told her that I was in the mood for a new hole! She new that I liked to stick with my ears (due to my job, I am unable to have facial piercings) and that I also liked getting piercings that are not too common for my area. (To elaborate on that, I do live in a small town that is very close minded...the large majority of the population consists of elderly people and the people that come into the shop for piercings tend to stick with the navel, tongue, nose and other very common piercings.) So she suggested that I get a snug piercing. She continued to tell me that I would be her first snug experience so I figured, what the hell, I will be her first! When she preforms her first piercing of any kind, she also does this at a discount which also helped me make my decision!So she prepared for the piercing, got out the needle, the jewelry, which was a cute barbell about a half inch in length, cleaned my ear, showed me the placement of the piercing, and we were ready to go. She told me to lay down, told me to take a deep breathe in, then out and she pushed the needle in. It hurt really bad! I actually yelled "O my god" when she did it and she laughed at me...but I laughed at myself too. It hurt, but not too much not to laugh at myself for my reaction. She put the jewelry in and I checked it out and fell in love instantly with my latest addition. I was very pleased. She told me the aftercare of sea salt soaks and I was done. She also reminded me that sometimes the slightest little bump can screw up a piercing. This was on Saturday.
At A Glance Author Amybaby Contact Amybaby@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Stacy Studio Blazing Angel Location Shamonkin, PA I took great care of my piercing...it was looking great Sunday-Wednesday...no redness or swelling. It was a tad bit sore, but I figured that was to be expected due to the amount of cartilidge we went through. However, when I woke up on Thursday morning, I noticed right away that my ear was pounding. I went to check it out in the mirror and I was surprised to see that my ear was bright red. I assumed that I had bumped it in my sleep perhaps and decided to take extra care of it today. So as the day progressed, my ear became sorer and sorer. By the time I came home from work at 7:30pm, my ear was swollen so bad and the redness had went to a bright red to a dark red and was moving down into my ear. The swelling was so bad that the only visible part of the barbell, which was pretty visible all week, were the balls at the end of the piercing. I was always told that you should never take out a piercing that may be infected because the hole could close up and trap the infection inside, but I was in so much pain that I ignored that. I tried to loosen the balls myself with no success, so I volunteered my husband to help me. We ended up having to use two pairs of pliers to loosen the balls and after a few minutes of struggle and light headedness, I removed the piercing. After a few minutes, my ear felt so much better. By the next morning, the redness had decreased significantly and the swelling had also went down. Two days later, things are going well. No more redness or swelling. It appears to me that the hole is still opened.
I plan on visiting my piercer today just to let her know what happened so she can inform her future snug piercing customers of my experience. (I would like to add that I do not think what happened to me had anything to do with my piercer...I do believe it was something I did.)
Will I ever attempt this piercing again? Most likely...yes. Even though I did have trouble with it, I loved the way it looked and I just think that this as a freak accident that may not happen next time. I have faith that this will not happen again since I have numerous other cartilidge piercings that I hade no problem with even with minimal efforts to maintain great aftercare. I will admit that I am not good with keeping up with aftercare...so that is why do feel that I brought this whole bad snug experience on myself and that is why I will attempt this again in the future once my ear is all back to normal.