In the grand scheme of things, I am really just a newbie when it comes to body modifications and such related items. Most of my friends and acquaintances alike started with getting their ears pierced, that is, their lobes. Most at a young age. My first piercing was my septum, unorthodox for a first piercing some said. I really love my septum but i felt it looked a wee bit lonesome all there on my face by itself.
At A Glance Author sins of thy beloved Contact sins of thy beloved@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Steve Studio Steve's room of horror Location hell I had always toyed with the idea of perhaps getting punched or scalpelled lobes so that my now 6 g. septum would not be overbearing to a pair of 18 g. children's earrings. So more than a year after getting my septum pierced, I decided to approach my friend Steven, who has been a professional piercer for about 6 years, and ask him if he would like to pierce my ears. After a chat about it over a nice joint, Steve said that he wasn't a huge fan of scalpelling lobes and that he would much rather dermal punch them. I said that because of my new job, I would like to be able to wear some sort of tunnel as the jewellery to be pierced with but not anything larger than a 2 g. to start. Steve suggested 8 g. punch with cylindrical non-tapered tunnels.
I picked out the jewellery previous to the piercing date and brought it over to Steve's studio in his home. (he had refurnished a room in his house to accomodate a dentists chair, fluorescent lights, tray holders and stands and a stainless steel sink and faucet.)Let me tell you, Steven's home studio where he pierced his friends for free was cleaner than some of the respectable tattoo/piercing shops I had seen in my days, thus making me feel alot more comfortable about this procedure.
Steven asked me to sit in the chair and to give him the jewellery to be autoclaved (the guy has everything). We talked for about 40 minutes or so about the procedure amongst other things and I learned that the 8 g. needle hurts a hell of alot more than the dermal punch. Apparently the bevel on the end of the needle doesn't always go through so smooth. Resistance equals more pain. Steven also said that the dermal punches make you bleed alot too knowing that I am a vampire and love blood play.
Once the jewellery was done in the autoclave, Steve slapped on some gloves and took out the punches and showed them to me. Then he marked my lobes and asked me to look in the mirror to see if I was happy with the placement of the dots. They looked fine and centered and Steve opened up the punches and changed gloves probably another ten times in between. Left ear first. Alchohol was applied and then the punch goes through. An excellent sensation and lots of warm trickling blood. Right ear next. Same feeling, like part of you being removed (literally) with virtually no pain. More blood, thank the Heavens. the jewellery went in no problem and I was cleaned up swiftly. I looked in the mirror to see the final product. Strange, it seemed as though the damn things had been there the whole time. It felt good to have something on my body that felt like it should have been there a long time ago. I thanked Steve, had a ciggarette and a beer with him and then left.
The aftercare according to Steve is just like with the septum. Sea salt soaks followed by a thorough but gentle natural lavender soap wash every second day of every week (even though I like to keep them meticulously clean every day). Allow 6-8 weeks healing time even though it may be less due to the conglomeration of blood vessels allowing quicker healing time in the ear lobes. Rotation of the jewellery is a no-no apparently and scungy hands are not to make contact with the piercing at any time. Steven and I see that alot and he gets pretty frusturated with some people.
Fast forward about a month into the future and everything seems to be smooth sailing. My ears are only slightly tender and they look healthy and less crusty/bloody. I am excited about stretching my lobes as trendy as stretched lobes are these days. my main goal is to have my septum at equal guages to my ears. Hopefully, I will extend to double zero tunnels in both lobes and my septum. The body's elasticity evokes artistry. There are a lot of cool and crazy things you can do with your flesh in the realm of piercings and such. I myself would much rather modify my existing few piercings that get a whole bunch of different ones and find myself jobless and looking like the dude from Hellraiser (please keep in mind that this experience is an opinion. Subtlety is daring to me. Look at me from the front and only notice the ears, but from the side, a window through the middle of my nose! Please be safe and have fun with your piercings people. I know I am having a shitload of fun.