Rewind to winter of 2004. I was a scrawny twelve-year old child. I knew very little about piercings but I was eager to learn and start a collection. Though I was fairly uneducated on that subject, I knew that hair salons probably should not be gunning young girls helixes. And I definitely did not want to follow that trend; so I spent hours staring at my ears from different angles, looking at all the different shapes and parts of cartilage. When I had finally decided on getting my rook pierced, my heart was set on it! Every day from the day I decided until my birthday I told my mom that I want "that nub" as I pointed to my rook.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon IAM tryceratopslover When Two years ago Artist Lois Studio Stigmata Location Guelph, On, Canada When my thirteenth birthday arrived, my mother and I went to Stigmata in Guelph to finally get my first real piercing. When we arrived there we were the only ones there at the moment so we went right up the jewelry-filled case/ desk and we told the receptionist what I wanted pierced. At first they said they wouldn't pierce me because they had a rule about only piercing people that were fourteen or older.
But my mom talked to one of the receptionists and then they said they would pierce me! To this day I don't know what she said, but it was probably something about how they were the only shop we were willing to go to because I wanted a quality piercing, and didn't want to have to go to a sketchy shop.
Shortly after I read the forms and my mom read and signed the forms, and we cleaned our hands with hand sanitizer. Then we followed Lois into the piercing room where I sat on the chair thing.
First I was asked if I wanted a barbell or a ring, and I chose a barbell because I didn't want the CBR to stick out from my ear and look and feel dumb. Then Lois marked my ear and prepared the tools and jewelry while I continued sitting extremely scared. She asked if I was allergic to iodine, and my mom answered for me because I had to clue. Turns out I'm not allergic to it, so she swabbed my rook area with iodine.
When everything was ready to go, Lois turned my head to the angle she needed it to be to pierce me (which was straight at a picture of a female nipple piercing, something a thirteen year old girl does not want to see). I was told to breathe in and breathe out really slowly. I inhaled as I was instructed, and as I exhaled, Lois pierced me. She quickly followed through with the jewelry, which happened much faster than I had expected it to take. My new piercing did not feel very painful until she was having difficulty screwing the ball on. After the whole procedure was finished, my rook was sort of hot feeling and only a bit sore.
Soon after getting pierced I recall saying "That wasn't as bad as I expected," I also remember Lois said something about how her rook was the most painful piercing for her (though she said that to me again this year when she pierced my conch, so I think she was probably just humoring me).
As we waited a bit longer to make sure I was not going to pass out, my mom decided to discuss the music choice in the shop, which was angry screaming. She said it wasn't as bad as at the place where she got her helix pierced because they had slipknot videos playing, and apparently she doesn't like "experiencing" that band with more than once sense. By then I was feeling fine and good to go.
The rest of the day my new rook was nearly painless for me. That night I was worried that showering would be painful on my ear from the pressure of the water, but it was fine. And when I went to bed I turned a small blanket so it was donut-shaped, and when I laid down I put my ear in the hole, so the blanket elevated my head and no weight was on my ear.
My rook healed great for me. I just soaked my ear in warm water and gently removed the lymph with a Q-tip, and other than that I left it alone. In the two years and seven months that I've had my rook, I can't recall ever bumping it, which I am grateful for because there hasn't been the slightest bit of scarring whatsoever!
It wasn't until a few months after getting my rook pierced, that I discovered BME and finally learned that "that nub" was actually called a rook piercing.
I definitely think anybody who is considering this piercing should get it! If I got it when I was a young wimp and didn't find it too painful, then anybody could get it!