Pretty pink pirate...princess
At A Glance Author Rachel Contact Rachel@bme.anon IAM delusionalfairy When A month ago Artist Zak Studio Mainstreet Tattoos Location Edgewood, MD To begin this lovely tale, I will tell you that when I was 8 years old I got my ears pierced at Claire's with a gun. And up until I was in high school, I had many problems with them. They were always infected, so after awhile I just stopped wearing earrings all together and let the holes close up.
Fast forward to a few months ago, I was at Mainstreet Tattoos, hanging out with Zak. That day I was getting my chest piercings and I was trying to pick out a new septum ring from the idea book; when I came across the coolest pair of glass plugs, pink with skulls and crossbones. As soon as I saw them, I knew I had to have them in my ears.
They were and are perfect. Pink with skulls; hardcore with a dash of girly, just what I needed.
I told him that I wanted them and he said he would order them for me. He asked what size and I said 2 gauge. Later that night I was thinking about it and changed my mind. I messaged him and told him make it double zero instead. Because bigger is better, I always say.
Of course, somehow anything coming from Zak, always takes a million years. And by years I mean months. So after months of waiting, I am almost sure it was as long as summer was, he said they were ready and waiting. The next day I was there. I dragged my friend, Erik, with me after work on a hot summer July day. And wow did that suck. We got caught in the worst traffic ever. Even when we got off to take a back way, we still were stuck. We ended up being stuck in traffic for an hour and a half. My spirits were not dampened though. Even though, my air conditioning was broken and I was dying from a serious lack of water, I was mega excited to be getting my ears pierced.
We arrive and wait around talking to Zak about this and that. Just to let everyone know about how he doesn't like to tell me stuff, he decided to change my jewelry size from double zero to zero. And that is totally cool. He just never tells me anything.
Meanwhile, he sets everything up. Makes sure everything is all sterile and clean. He went for my right ear first. I have to admit I was pretty nervous. I mean he was going to shove a four gauge need through my ear and then taper it up to a zero. But hey, I was up for it. And away we go. He asked if I was ready. As ready as I'll ever be, I squeak and grab my friend Erik's hand with a death grip.
As I squeeze the life out of my friend's hand, Zak pushed the needle through. Oh dear god, what was I thinking? He then proceeded the follow through with the taper. Holy shit, I thought, that was so not the best feeling in the world. Erik asked if I was okay, and I managed to say that I was. And Zak asked if was ready for the next one. No, I thought, I most certainly am not. But instead I went ahead with it. I am pretty sure the second one hurt even more. The needle was another oh dear god moment. And then Zak had trouble getting the taper through. He said that my left ear wasn't as stretchy. I told him I didn't care and to hurry up and get the jewelry in. which he did, but not in a timely fashion, or at least not in a Rachel timely fashion.
I couldn't even believe how much my ears hurt afterwards. And the next day was no better. But by day three, there were down to a constant hurt. And by day four they were down to a constant dull throb. And by the end of the week they were dandy, except for when I accidentally bumped them on something.
I just left them alone the whole time. No touching, no nothing. Although there was a 'special' (and I put special in quotes for a reason) day in which a certain someone forgot I was allergic to latex and gave me a latex O-ring when I lost my silicone one. My ear blew up to say the least. There was lots of blood and oozing and pain. Please let's not forget the pain, but after I got that situation remedied. My ear turned out to be okay.
My ears are actually quite happy now. And while there are some who think piercing and stretching up so quickly the way I did was stupid, I think it was just what I needed to have happy pierced ears.