As a kid I had always wanted to have pierced ears and it eventually came down to where my mom was much more nervous for me than I was. At that point as an impressionable 10 or so year old I didn't want it for aesthetic, spiritual, or even personal reasons. I only wanted it to fit in. It didn't matter how many empty ears were walking through the mall-- all I saw were the sparkling, dangly ones.
At A Glance Author Leopard Contact Leopard@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Douglas Moon Studio American Tattoo Location Stafford, VA Two mall gunned piercing sets later I started to realize a new obsession in piercings and came upon the BME scene. I was about 14 then and waited somewhere around a year for my next piercing. All the while I slowly worked my parents up to the idea of consenting to a needle being stabbed through my body and some "gaudy" piece of jewelry being shoved into it so that I only to ended up looking like an aborigine.
I seriously don't think I would have ever gotten my snug if it weren't for that fact that I had planned going with two friends of mine, Amanda(who wanted the right side of her lip pierced) and Rachel(industrial on the right side as well).
But my day eventually came on Nov. 12th after having been postponed weeks because of stupidass conflicts with marching band. That day I went on down to American Tattoo with my mom. The only reason I agreed to going to this place was Amanda said she had talked to the piercer there and he seemed really awesome. In personality, that is. So I was a little nervous when I found out that my mom had called him and he didn't even know what a snug was. But I had waited far too long and my judgment was just a bit clouded.
We had a look around the shop which was very clean and had a hospital air to it, if it weren't for the unusual tattoo art all over the walls. It seemed to be separated into stations which were separated by low walls. As I waited for my friends to show up we talked to Doug, who was in fact awesome, and we cleared up the placement of the snug. He seemed very confident about it and I was able to calm down at that point. I swear that guy's humor got all three of us(me, Rachel, and Amanda) through the whole thing, but unfortunately I can't remember any of his quips. Rachel showed up alone which I knew would be an issue because she is only 17 and needed her mom to consent for it. After several trips outside with her phone telling her mom to come it was settled that she was no longer allowed to get an industrial and would get a helix instead when she showed up.
Whilst waiting for Rachel's mom and Amanda, MY mom said, "Screw it, let's get this over with." I think I was originally supposed to go last because both Rachel and Amanda do not like needles one bit and they were afraid of backing out. I, however, have a high tolerance for pain and don't mind needles at all and now I was apparently going first. Doug led us back to his little section and I jumped up onto the dentist style chair. He put my hair up in a clip, wrapped one of those fluid catcher like things they use at the dentist around my neck, and started explaining the procedure.
At that point I was shaking and my palms were sweaty but I was thoroughly convinced that I was ready for this. After cleaning he used the purple marker to make an entrance and exit point and had me and everyone else approve them. Then he had me lay down as he put a couple of layers of gloves on and took everything out of their packages. He showed me the needle and the 16 gauge ring he was going to use and decided that clamps would make it more difficult and said he would be doing it freehand.
At first the cold of the needle was more aggravating than the pain, but it slowly became much much worse when the needle started having trouble getting through the thick layers of cartilage. While he was pushing it through he explained this to me and assured me that everything was fine. My mom had been holding my hands after she saw that I had closed my eyes and Rachel was watching with a very pale face. Then it was time for the jewelry. Doug said that it was sometimes the worst part even though it's brief. Which it was.
He blotted the little blood that resulted and showed me my new snug with the mirror.
And God was it beautiful.
After the aftercare speech Rachel's mom and Amanda with her mom showed up and went ahead and got their piercings. They were all in their own right beautiful but I was just so proud of my own that at that moment it was the prettiest thing I had ever seen.
It's been 7 months since and it's still pretty temperamental. I decided to use a saline wash in the form of a nasal spray 2 times a day and wash it in the shower with dial soap in the beginning. Nowadays I use the LITHA(leave it the hell alone) mindset, other than once or twice daily putting tea tree oil on it. I've never been the best healer and it has some hypertrophic scarring on the outer hole but tea tree oil has helped to decrease any of that on the inner hole. I can sleep on it most days but just like people it has it's good and it's bad days. I've never tried to take the jewelry out myself and now I'm looking for a nice titanium ring to put in instead to see if that might help with redness and irritation and all that fun stuff.
I still love it and surprisingly so do my parents. I've even convinced my mom to let me gauge her ears! Even if it's just a few sizes, this is the same woman who wouldn't let me get 99.9% of all the piercings in the book. But I'm trying to find some sort of taper to gauge my snug a couple sizes bigger because 16 looks just a bit too small. I can't wait for more piercings but my parents say I can't get my tongue pierced til I'm 18 because it's too sexual... and I haven't found a piercer experienced with surface piercings to do a horizontal eyebrow and a horizontal navel piercing below the standard one which will probably be the next thing I'm allowed to get.
The snug has the reputation to be a rather painful and hard piercing to heal but I'll tell you right now it is completely worth the slick, beautiful shine you come out with.