Where to start?
At A Glance Author aruku Contact aruku@bme.anon IAM aruku When It just happened Artist Dan Studio Eternal Body Art Location Chinatown, Honolulu Let's go back four years ago when I received my first piercing-a standard lobe piercing. Where did I get it? The mall. With what? A gun of course. It's a bit hazy since it happened such a long time ago. I could tell you who I was with, what classmate I ran into, and what I ate right before but that's not relevant to the story. I can-I will tell you however the person at the booth didn't know how to use the gun properly as on the first 'shot', the hole was only partially there so she had to fire again. Not fun and by far a bad way to experience one's first piercing. I choose a nice titanium hoop from their selection and wore it for the next 2 years until it snapped while getting into my car one day. I switched it with a hoop from Macys. At this time, I was very inexperienced with piercings as you can already tell.
Let's jump ahead a bit now. The next two years nothing new happened. No new holes, no new problems-same old same old. Two years later-early last month-my sister told me she was going to get a labret from a piercing shop. For awhile now, I wanted one and decided to go with her (you can read about this in my other experience entry at: http://www.bmezine.com/pierce/05-lips/A60628/lipquick.html). On the way there, I was deciding whether to get another hole in my left ear. 40 minutes later, I made the decision and when we got to the shop, I chose a nice 14 gauge. I had a new hole made above the one I had for four years and had the older hole tapered.
This is where the problems began. For the first two to three weeks it was fine. Then one day, on the old hole, I noticed a bump. My sister thought that it was a keloid but I didn't think so. A cyst is what I thought it was. I started sea salt soaking several times a day (say that ten times fast) and did not notice a change. Finally, I went to the piercing shop (a different one back in Hawaii) and the piercer there who I think really knows her stuff (http://iam.bmezine.com/?dexie747) informed me that the bump was hypertrophic scarring caused by the piercing as it was crooked. She took it out and told me to wait about a month and then I could get it pierced again correctly.
During the next few weeks, I surfed BME looking at the various ear piercing options I had available and one day discovered one called a transverse lobe piercing. I saw a picture on the BME Wiki of it done with a CBR and absolutely loved it. This was what I wanted.
Now about two weeks ago, I took an alternate route to the gym one morning and walked by a shop called Eternal Body Art. It was conveniently located three blocks from where I live so this was a big plus. I made a mental note of the location and continued on with my day. A few days later at the gym, after I finish lifting I notice a man with quite a bit of piercings and tattoos. After I finished changing, I walked up to him and asked if he was a piercer and as a matter of fact he was. Lucky me. I asked if it was possible to do a transverse and he said it sure was but I should wait awhile longer to let the scar tissue go away. It turns out he was Dan, who runs Eternal and he also knew his stuff and was very friendly as well.
Now let's fast forward again-this time to yesterday, the day I received the piercing.
I walk to the shop and we greet. I choose my jewelry-a stainless steel CBR. When we were talking, in walks another potential customers who wanted part of his tattoo blacked out. Dan quoted him $50 and the guy tried to lowball and although Dan kept his cool, I could tell he was becoming ticked off with this guy. You can't cheat an artist like that. Dan then told the guy it was $60 now or he could go somewhere else. He left. After that, Dan went upstairs to set up and the shortly after I went up stairs to the piercing room to join him.
The piercing room itself is normal size however the ceiling is very low-I think it was about 6 feet tall (his shop is in one of the many 50+ year old buildings in Honolulu's Chinatown). Dan proceeded to clean my ears and then mark the exit and entry points and then showed it me. It looked good so the fun part began.
He had my lie down and then got ready to stick me. A transverse lobe piercing is done freehand so it is a slower process than regular piercings. I don't recall how long it took but I do remember he did it in two 'pushes'. This was actually the first piercing I ever had done where I bled so he spent some time after cleaning me up. The pain was not bad at all-probably about the same if not less than a regular lobe piercing. After I was cleaned up, I took a look in the mirror and loved it. It was still a bit red and there was blood but it was great.
I went back downstairs, paid Dan for his services, received some post care items and went my way. I didn't realize it until I got home but my ear still had some blood on it. In fact, when I got to my apartment to check it out in the mirror, there was a drop of blood about to fall from the ball of the CBR. No wonder people in the lobby gave me strange looks!
I'm writing this a day later and the piercing already looks much better (it looked amazing yesterday too!). I'm very happy with it. In fact, before I left the shop yesterday, Dan asked if I could come back after it heals so he can take pictures of it for his portfolio.