Shortly after I got my lip pierced I began to think about what to get done next. I do not have a huge collection of piercings right now, six running up my left ear, 8mm tunnel, lip, and my newest metal, my scaffolding.
At A Glance Author toobie Contact toobie@bme.anon IAM toobie When Three months ago Artist Paul Studio Pro-Body Location Bradford A colleague of mine from the pub I work at had her scaffolding done a while ago, and I never really noticed it, until she came in complaining that she had had to change the bar on it because it was swelling due to a knock. I began to muse on getting one myself, but for a while it went no further than that. I began to question everyone I knew who had one (this amounted to three people) and got conflicting stories about infections and scarring. In the meantime I stumbled upon BME which gave me a wealth of information, all of which was positive in helping me make up my mind.
So one Saturday I got up early with the intention of getting pierced again. I knew that eating was of the utmost importance, me being as slim as I am, and with this being a piercing through cartilage – twice. So the boy and I went to Weatherspoons for a late breakfast, and I ate a reasonable amount.
I never planned any of my piercings before and just wandered in and decided to get something pierced, so by now the anticipation and nerves were building up. I walked into the city centre to Pro-Body and it was busy. Paul was with some customers answering some questions so I waited quietly checking out plugs. He finished and I quickly asked how much the industrial was. He told me it was £30 and so I slipped out to go to the cash point. While I was out I also decided – with a little encouragement from the boy - to buy a sugary fizzy drink. We went back and it was still pretty busy so we stood outside and had a cig to try and calm my nerves. Once cig later and a much quieter piercing studio, I was sat on the big familiar leather chair.
Paul marked my ear up and asked if it was ok for me. I asked to have the bottom point lower, but he explained that if he put it in any lower the bar would rub against part of the inside bit of me ear and irritate. So I was pleased with the placement and sat back down.
While he was gloving up and setting up he explained that he would put the needle through one side of my ear then push through to the second. I asked which he would be doing first, as I knew the second one would be more painful after my body was already trying to cope with the first. I also knew from previous cartilage piercings that the further up my ear it was the more it would hurt. I wanted the top one done second to get the painfulness all over at the end. I was lucky and he said he would do the bottom one first, without me having to ask. So I lay back in the chair and took a deep breath. I was expecting this to be seriously painful.
The first hole was made and it was no where near as painful as I was expecting. It was a bit of an anti-climax. Paul let the needle rest for a couple of seconds, and then told me he was going to do the top. I was right and the second one hurt more than the first, but nothing I could not handle. To be perfectly honest it just felt like a regular cartilage piercing, but obviously, one straight after the other, which is quite hard on your body.
The next step was to put the jewellery in. The bar had been measured up against my ear, and a slightly longer to allow for swelling. The bar was put in with no problems, it was just a touch uncomfortable, and screwing the ball on the top of the barbell was the fiddliest bit.
No bleeding to clean up, and I was all done! I got up to look at my new piercing in the mirror. I loved it. I paid and left the shop, that familiar warm sensation in my ear of New Piercing. Four or five steps up the road however, I started to feel a little shaky and my legs felt weak. I sat down on the nearest bench with the boy and drank half the bottle of fizzy drink to get my blood sugar levels back up. This was the first time I have reacted to a piercing.
Two months on or so, and it is healing nicely. I have been cleaning it with warm salt water, which is much trickier that any other piercing as there are four places to clean. It is taking some time to heal completely, but that is to be expected. I am taking zinc and vit c to help it along.
I am so desperate for it to heal quickly because there are more piercings that I am impatient for, but I know I have to wait. I do not want to risk this rejecting, and go thorough that all again, after I have fallen for this one. I can sleep on it now, albeit a little uncomfortable it is not sore. I would defiantly get it done again, and am already thinking about another through my rook and conch... But we will see how that goes!