Ten years ago I was eighteen and armed with the most money I'd ever had at my disposal before (student loan) I decided to embark upon a piercing spree, getting all the piercings I'd been craving for the previous five years but never had the means to get.
At A Glance Author Ribibe Contact Ribibe@bme.anon IAM Ribibe When Ten years ago or more Artist Rob Studio Perforations Location Brighton, UK The first of these was a conch at a large gauge. At this point the only ear piercings I had were four in each lobe and a helix, all done with a gun before I had the money or knowledge to do otherwise. I decided that a large conch would be a lovely juxtaposition to my other dainty (all as yet unstretched) ear piercings and one day when I had no lectures I bribed a friend with a piercing of his own to drive me to the (now sadly defunct) Perforations in Brighton, the best piercing studio closest to my university town and the one I'd been going to for all my piercings since I moved down to the south coast from London.
We arrived at lunchtime on a week day, just half an hour after Perforation's opening time but as usual it was incredibly busy. I chatted briefly to Warren, the owner, about what my friend and I were after and we were given a permission form to fill in. Waiting time was around half an hour, but as we'd already eaten we decided to stay put and flick through the latest issues of Body Art and PFIQ magazines in the ship to pass the time.
Eventually our names were called by Rob, the head piercer and we headed down the stairs from the waiting room into the small, blue-painted piercing room. While my friend dumped our stuff into the corner I hopped up onto the couch and told Rob what I was after. He said that the largest he could pierce my conch with a needle with would be 3.2mm (8ga), but if I wanted to come back at another time he could make sure he had some 5mm (4ga) dermal punches. I told him that 3.2mm was big enough so he asked me to pick out a CD I felt like listening to while he got his equipment together. I picked out a Smiths CD (because there's no nerve racking experience in life that a little Morrissey can't help soothe) and lay back on the couch, watching him set out the marker pen, needle, blob of lube and receiving tube on a piece of kitchen paper.
I showed me the choice of either titanium barbell or ball closure ring that I had, and I picked the BCR, though Rob warned me that healing might be a bit slower with a ring due to the weight and pull of it at such a gauge. He took the disposable marker pen and, asking me which ear I'd like it (I chose the left), studied my ear for a minute before placing a dot for my approval. The placement was perfect so I nodded and settled back down again to prepare myself for the piercing. Changing gloves again, Rob picked up the needle and told me to breathe deeply in and out three times, and he'd pierce me on the third out breath.
I have a pretty average pain threshold. I always find piercings painful to a certain extent, but no piercing before or since has been as bad as this one was; the only thing I can attribute it to was the larger gauge at which it was done. The pain was so white-hot and blinding I couldn't tell if it had been smoothly done or made a crunching noise that so many people report with cartilage piercings. All I recall is the pain and then the curious sensation of feeling the shell of my ear fill with hot blood as Rob said I was done. Leaving the needle in place, he squished some gauze into my ear to soak up the blood while I slowly tried to relax and untense every muscle in my body. When I'd stopped bleeding the BCR was inserted - again, a very painful process but not nearly as bad as the piercing itself - and I shakily swung upright to have a look in the mirror. Of course it was beautiful and worth the pain, as piercings always are. I sat in the corner and sipped a Coke as my friend was pierced, then we made our way upstairs and paid, leaving with an aftercare sheet (wash with plain, warm water in the shower every day and soak with seas salt twice a day for ten minutes) clutched firmly in our hands.
I was prepared for the healing time to be long and sometimes painful. It had been months before I could sleep or touch my gun-done helix without pain, and I was expecting that to be doubled. But in the four years I had my conch, it never came close to healing. During the first year I couldn't sleep on it at all and it never stopped crusting, despite sticking to the aftercare procedure to the letter for that whole year and scrupulously avoiding playing with it or knocking it. After that year I went back to Perforations and switched it for a barbell as Rob had recommended to see if it made any difference but this did not seem to improve matters any. I kept it for so long because I loved it dearly and kept telling myself that it might just be another couple of months or so before things picked up, but it never did. I can't tell if it was the large gauge at which it was pierced or just the conch itself, but that one was not meant to be.