I'd wanted a daith for a really long time. I loved the way it looked (like a pearl in a shell) and the story behind it that I found on BME. I was abused by my mother from the age of about four to fourteen, when I finally ran away. Part of her abuse of me was the lies she told me, including that tattoo ink "poisons" the blood and that means "God hates you" for the rest of your life. Knowing this, you can understand why I hate being lied to and why the idea of a piercing that filters out lies and bullshit is an attractive idea.
At A Glance Author RubySoho Contact RubySoho@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Gary Valentine Studio Inverness Tattoo Centre Location Inverness, Scotland The day I finally got my daith, me and my friend where hanging around in town. My friend is homeless at the moment so came to crash at mine for the weekend. So we were standing in New Look, she was looking at clothes and I said "Wanna go see if the tattooist's is open?" I had really bad piercing itch.
When I dragged her there (she's not into piercing)I was so happy to see it was open. We walked in and i saw the apprentice at the counter. I'm so sorry I can't remember his name, it was either Justin or Jordan, so for the purpose of this I'm going to call him J. I said I was interested in a cartilage piercing (at this point all I wanted was a normal top of the ear cartilage piercing) and asked how much it cost. "J" said £30, I only had £20 and I told him. J shouted this through to Gary (who I hadn't seen at this point) if he'd do it for £20. He shouted back that if I came back in half an hour and smiled sweetly he might. So that's what I did.
Cut to half an hour later and I was filling in the form for my "cartilage" piercing and talking to Gary. He asked If I smoked and if I wanted a cig before I got pierced. I said I did and yes please! So me, Gary and my friend went out the back of shop for a smoke. While we were out there me and Gary starting talking about piercing and BME (I think my friend got pretty bored). He asked where I wanted pierced and I showed him. He said that was kind of boring and "Don't you want something more interesting like a rook or a tragus?"
"Well....I've always wanted a daith." He said as it was a slow day, he'd rather do something interesting for my £20 and J needed to see a daith being done. I was going to get to my daith! He went inside to get everything ready.
Me and my friend finished smoking and went inside. He showed us into the room at the back asked me to get on a high bench sort of thing and lie on my side. He put on gloves, cleaned my ear and all that ,while giving J a running commentary. He marked up my ear and asked my friend and J if they thought it looked good, since I wouldn't be able to see it myself. When they said yeah, he put this freezing stuff on it. I'm not entirely sure what else he did as I couldn't see, but I remember him explaining that the needle would take a while to go through. I should point out that I was really nervous and shaking, partly because I was so excited. I asked for a hand to hold and J offered his. And so Gary pierced me. The best way I can explain it is like a scratch, then the needle seemed to go through nothing and then a scratch as it went out the other side. It only took a couple of seconds and was NOWHERE as painful as I expected, out of ten I'd probably rate it a five for pain. It really wasn't that bad. I got off the bench to look in the mirror. I loved it. I finally had my daith!
Gary is a really great piercer, he's the only one that's ever actually sat down and discussed aftercare with me. So far I've been doing what he told me: clean it with a cotton bud and boiled water, then put some baby soap on it, leave it for a couple of minutes, wash it off and dry it with cotton buds. I've been doing hot compresses on it as well, when I feel it needs it. I haven't had any problems with it so far and sleeping on it isn't a problem. Most people don't notice it unless I point it out to them, but comments have ranged from "Cool! I want one!" to "Piercings are disgusting! You're disgusting!" My daith is the only one I've ever seen in real life and I love to bits. If you want one, go do it. It's not as scary as it sounds. And gary is officially the best piercer I know!