The decision to get a snug was very much a desire that struck me at random. I haven't had any new piercings for around two years, and although I have been tattooed and scarified in that time this is the longest gap I've had between piercings since I first started getting pierced thirteen years ago, aged fifteen. There is no one real reason for this but a couple of lesser ones; in those thirteen years I've been through a large percentages of the piercings available to get and most, for one reason or another, are now retired so I don't have the urge for novelty I once did. Also I find myself moving towards more permanent modifications such as building up my tattoo work and the more short-term thrill of piercing has fallen by the wayside. But suddenly I had that familiar urge again, on a piercing I had never before considered.
At A Glance Author Ribibe Contact Ribibe@bme.anon IAM Ribibe When It just happened Artist Julie Studio Cold Steel Location Camden, London, UK With that gap of two years, I have also found myself much more reluctant to take the plunge than I once would have been. In my teens I got piercings on a whim, every other month when I was feeling bored or in need of something new and distracting and thought nothing of it. But now that I hadn't been pierced in a while I found myself surprisingly nervous about the whole thing, remembering the hassle and discomfort of long healing times and the pain of the piercing itself which I always found to be more intense in that area than on other places of my body. I put it off for a few weeks during the unseasonably hot London heat wave as I was having difficulty sleeping and functioning generally in the scorching 100 degree temperatures and used the excuse that I didn't want a fresh piercing to add to that, but last week the weather broke and I decided to quash my qualms before they blossomed out of control and booked an appointment at Cold Steel in Camden.
That appointment was for four o'clock yesterday, a warm Sunday afternoon. My boyfriend and I headed into Camden early, for a bit of shopping and a relaxed Sunday lunch over the papers before making our way to the studio. Camden has a great deal of piercing studios – as does London itself – but Cold Steel are head and shoulders above most of the dubious and merely adequate places in the area. I have been going there for many years and they have performed several piercings on me and I've never been anything less than one hundred per cent happy with every aspect of their operation. The small studio was busy this afternoon, with people milling around buying jewellery and waiting for piercings. We took a seat and my name was called within a few minutes by Julie, who recognised me from the various times I've been in before. She showed me the jewellery options and I picked out a light green curved titanium barbell, and she explained that the jewellery was a little long to account for any possible swelling as she le d me upstairs to the piercing room.
Settled on the couch in an upright position, we chatted as she marked two possible places for the snug on my ear. I chose the highest one, just below where that ridge of your ear starts to flare out into flat space. When we had the placing just right Julie lowered the couch to a flat position and I lay down, facing away from her. I am not someone who can watch – either directly or in the mirror in front of me – their own piercing being performed, being more of an eyes scrunched tight kind of person. She explained that she wasn't going to use any clamps as they were unnecessary for this piercing, then told me when I was ready to take a deep breath in and she would pierce me when I let it out.
I am also not the kind of person who describes piercings as feeling like no more than a hard pinch, either – or who most bafflingly can't feel it at all – I would guess that I have an average pain threshold but I feel piercings, and they hurt. I was pleased to find however that the snug was the least painful of all the ear piercings I have ever had – including helix, rook at conch at 3.2mm – it was an initially sharp, then dull, travelling pain as the needle moved through the thick fold, but nothing less than bearable. I relaxed with a few deep breaths before the jewellery was inserted, which as it often does hurt considerably more than the actual piercing itself, but it was over within seconds and I felt no more pain as the barbell ball screwed on quickly.
A couple more deep breaths and I stood up from the couch to admire my new piercing in the mirror. Julie advised me to come back in a couple of weeks so they could check up on it and switch the barbell to a more appropriate size if necessary, and suggested I carry on with my usual aftercare regime; a quarter of a teaspoon of sea salt in half a pint of hot water, soaked twice a day. I thanked her profusely and floated out of the studio to the bus stop, high on adrenaline and endorphins, to catch the bus home. Around ten minutes later the throbbing pain started to make itself known, but thirty minutes and a couple of ibuprofen later and the pain subsided, never to return. There was no bleeding; indeed, if it has bled at all in the studio it could only have been the tiniest amount, and no discernable swelling either.
That night my ear was very tender to the slightest touch and I woke several times in the night, fearful that I would roll over onto the wrong side and snag the barbell or just cause myself pain through the pressure, but this morning I had done nothing of the sort and the tenderness had subsided somewhat. I started the aftercare by soaking a wodge of cotton wool in the sea salt solution and leaving it on my snug until it cooled, then repeating for ten minutes. I'm extremely pleased with it so far, and while I can't say that this experience will lead me back to getting piercings as often as I once did, I am glad I remembered what a thrill it can be.