I decided one night that I wanted more holes in my earlobes. I'm currently a sophomore in high school, and I'd gotten one set in seventh grade (it got infected, so it was re-pierced in eighth so I could wear earrings to graduation) and the second holes, after a lot of begging, for Christmas last year. I was bitten by the piercing bug! I really, really, really wanted more holes in my ears. I decided that I couldn't do it myself, as I don't have a very high pain tolerance.
At A Glance Author Marina When It just happened Artist My roommate, me, and the girl down the hall Studio In my dorm Location Somewhere in the united states! I approached my roommate about a week ago, to see if she'd be willing to stick a needle through my ear. May I mention, my roommate is about as conservative as you get, she only has one hole in each ear (not that I judge people based on holes) and tends to wear whatever her mother buys for her. Her answer was "Sure, but you know I've never pierced in my life, right?" I nodded. I'd find someone else if I could, but I really, really wanted another hole.
Tonight, after shopping at the mall for two hours and buying some new earrings for a new hole (not sterile or autoclaved or anything, just "sensitive solutions" from a cheap jewelry chain), I asked my roommate (D) to pierce my ear. The girl down the hall, S, wanted to watch, and her roommate, K, who has some self-piercing experience, agreed to watch and make sure we were doing it right. D was very excited, and that made me nervous.
I soaked some new, fresh-from-the-package sewing needles in hand sanitizer, squirted them off with saline, and wiped them with a Clorox wipe. Note: none of these things are really that helpful in real life, they were mostly to make me feel better. I did the same with the new pair of studs. I really should know better, as a BME reader, but I hadn't read about anything going horribly wrong from piercing a lobe with a sewing needle. I had D hand-sanitize her hands about five times before I would let her near the needle. I'd marked my ears earlier this afternoon with a Sharpie (again, probably not the safest thing to use!) and I wiped them off with Clorox, hand-sanitizer, and saline. We decided to do the right ear first.
I sat on the floor of my room, and D grabbed the needle. (She'd been careful not to touch anything after cleaning her hands.) K reminded us that we should put something behind my ear for the needle to go into, so I cut up an apple like you see in movies. I stuck the apple behind my ear and said, "GO!" D shoved the needle in my ear, and I heard it hit the apple. I didn't hear anything "pop" in my lobe, but I heard every cell of the apple that she went through, get crunched. It sounded like when you take a bite of an apple, but by my ear instead of my mouth. D took her hands off the needle and leaned back. I pulled the apple off and went to inspect in the mirror: There was a needle sticking out of my ear. Great. What now?
K advised that we should let the needle stay in for a bit, maybe ten minutes. Now would be the time to stick another needle in the left ear if we wanted to get both done tonight. I wasn't looking forward to the pain of pulling the needle out and putting an earring in, so I figured one ear was good enough for one night. S excused herself, she didn't like seeing a needle halfway through my ear. D disappeared, and K and I hung out for a bit. I read a book, and before I knew it, half an hour had passed. I decided that I needed the stud in, and D was nowhere to be found, so I asked K to do it.
She cleaned off her hands with 3 different methods, and we sat down. As she picked up the stud I'd hand-sanitized, Clorox'ed, and saline'd, I freaked out. "I don't think I can do this.... We need to leave the needle in... we need to take the needle out and let it close up!" K was very understanding, and she said "If that's what you really want to do, but you're halfway there, don't give up now. You want this hole, right?" I nodded. I was shaking a bit, but I decided that I wanted the hole. I put a headphone in my other hear and listened to music, and said "Go, just go, get the stud in."
When she pulled out the needle, I barely felt it, but my ear was relieved. As quick as possible, she picked up the stud, and started pushing it in. It got about halfway through (I think) on the first thrust. "Is it through?" "No." I felt it punch through a layer of my skin. "Ow. Is it through?" "Not yet. Here it comes again." She pushed it again, and it went through another layer. I thought I heard the pop, so I was excited. "It's through?!" "No. Shh. Breathe. Listen to the music." She pushed through a few more layers, very painfully. Each thrust (for lack of a better word) hurt about as much as getting a hole pierced with those stupid guns. Finally, it was through. I thanked K, and put the butterfly back on it.
When I started typing this, my ear was still bright red, hot to the touch, and in quite a bit of pain. I'll do the left ear whenever I'm ready, and I hope I won't get infected because of shoddy sanitizing methods.
Moral of the story: If you want a hole, find a way to get it done, if you understand the risks. If my hole becomes infected, I will understand why, and take it out, and not blame anyone. I would never have anything other than a lobe pierced outside of a professional studio, but I wanted this hole, and now I have it. It's still throbbing, but the experience was worth it.