| At A Glance | |
| Author | LotN |
| Contact | LotN@bme.anon |
| IAM | LotN |
| When | It just happened |
| Artist | Sque3z |
| Studio | Anomaly |
| Location | Pasadena, CA |
I work for one of those places with strict body modification rules. Actually, not too strict. They're okay with me having a honking red eagle tattooed on the back of my neck. But a visible piercing? It's studs (one in each lobe) or nothing.
But I was tired of not having this piercing (and a bit fed up with the company telling me how to be), so I figured - screw em! I'm doing it, anyway.
But I'd do it sneaky.
I'm sure there are dozens of piercing studios in the greater Los Angeles area that aren't 31.7 miles away from where I am. But why should I care about them when I've got Anomaly? The place has such a good reputation/big presence on iam, I figured I shouldn't even bother looking around. So I IMéd Sque3z and pitched him my sneaky idea. He thought it was possible and said to come on in.
So on September 22, I did.
I went into the store, a little trepidatious. I've never been pierced, never been in a piercing studio. Everything was as I read it would be: glass cases full of jewelry, hip art on the walls, a man with piercings in his throat behind the counter.
"Are you Sque3z?"
"The one and only."
He remembered the IM I'd sent him and told me what he was thinking. I wanted this piercing but had to keep it inconspicuous and as invisible as possible. He thought that I could use a clear, glass labret retainer. 14 g to limit the chances that the thing would break. There could be problems, though. It would only be held in with an o-ring, so there was a good chance it would fall out. But being a straight bar, it would also be easier to heal.
I was willing to give it a try. I filled out paperwork, got my ID copied (we joked about how horrible the picture is). He had me initial something which would be put into the autoclave that would prove it was working. I didn't quite get the gist of it, but that's more of a problem on my end than because of any lack of explaining on his. But he assured me that it proved everything was working and I wouldn't have to run out of the shop screaming.
We stepped into the piercing room and I had a seat in the "chair of piercing" (my term). He changed gloves about fifty times, asked me what side I wanted it on (left) and where I wanted it (ran my finger along the rim of my ear and stopped at the point I'd been stopping for the past twelve years).
He got his stuff together and cleaned my ear more thoroughly than it's ever been cleaned by me. Curiously, I never saw a needle. Not that I didn't have the opportunity. There were mirrors around the room, but I try to avoid mirrors like the plague (or vampires...or the vampiric plague!!).
He told me he'd have me do some breathing. Three deep breaths in, held, and then let out slowly. It would all go down on the third. The breathing relaxed me quite a bit, really. I should probably do some breathing exercises more often.
Anyway, true to his word, he pierced me on the third breath out. It hurt, but I forgot about the pain as soon it stopped hurting (approx. three seconds after needle insertion). Jewelry was in; I was pierced.
He had me sit in the chair whilst he went to ring me up. I felt fine, but I'm sure it's something they do for everyone just in case. I got up, got my bag of salt and a couple of the smallest Tootsie Pops in existence (honestly, I didn't know they could make rolls small enough to fit within them).
I left the shop feeling better than I had when entering. My ear started hurting about ten minutes into the car ride home. It was a steady throb that lasted until the next morning (and made it quite difficult to sleep that night). The pain subsided and returned only when I'd pull my hair behind my ear or put any pressure on it or look at it wrong. By day three, it only hurt when I forgot I had it (which I did when it stopped hurting) and caught it on my collar when undressing. That was a nice reminder.
Healing was uneventful. I soaked it twice a day in sea salt solution as instructed. Cleaned it up with a q-tip after soaking. Beyond that, I left it alone.
And no one noticed it. No one at work, no one at home. I felt both good about that (as it was the intention) and bad (because no one noticed this big step I'd taken).
I'm not sure if I liked it or not. I mean, I never sat around thinking, "boy, I'd sure love to have a clear labret retainer in my ear." It was always a ring I'd imagined. I was looking forward to it being healed enough to change out for a ring (and back to the stud for work).
This morning I got up, showered, soaked it, went to q-tip the jewelry - but there was no jewelry. There was just a hole. It was still a pretty good size, so the thing must have fallen out either in the shower or during the soak (either way, it ended up down the drain). I searched a bit for the stud, then for something I could shove in there as a substitute. Deciding soon after that this was a non-stop flight to Infectionville, I gave that up and decided to accept that my piercing was gone.
Two hours later, it had completely closed up. Nothing's left of my piercing now but a scab the size of a pinprick (and four gallons of salinated water, which I intend to put to use somehow).
I'm a bit sad to see it go. But I think the o-ring idea wasn't built to last. I'd only had the piercing for seventeen days, but I'd come to expect it to be there. It had grown on me, become a part of me. Not just as a physical piece of glass through my ear, but as a symbol of me finally doing the things I want (no matter what others want me to project).
I'll be back in the area in a couple of days for a tattoo (the place I go to's about two blocks away from Anomaly - convenient!). I'll stop by and see if there's any hope for a second try at an invisible cartilage piercing.
Maybe I'll just buy a bunch of spare retainers.
And if you always wanted to know what a labret retainer through ear cartilage looks like, it's your lucky day:
9/22/06 - 10/10/06