I've never had a real piercing; not at a studio anyway. I've had my lobes pierced with a gun in the mall, and have been stretching them on my own, which has come out really well. I knew I wanted a real studio piercing though, so for my 19th birthday, I decided to get my rook pierced.
At A Glance Author StarBar Contact StarBar@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Jason Studio Body Adorned Location Austin, TX I'd been looking at pictures of rooks that had been pierced for a while, trying to decide where I wanted the exact positioning and so on, when I came across a picture of a rook/ cart orbital (also known as a rook/ daith orbital, as my piercer, Jason, told me). I decided that this was the piercing for me. It was so beautiful, and very unusual. So I began to look up piercing studios in Austin, to see what places looked like they were reputable. I found what I thought I what I was looking for in a studio, and a few days after Christmas (but still over a month away from my nineteenth birthday), I headed out to the studio, Body Adorned, to get my piercing.
My initial reaction when I walked into the studio was that it probably wouldn't be a great place to be pierced. The waiting room/ lounge area looked somewhat grungy and there was a giant chocolate lab running around. I figured I could at least talk to the piercer, and see what the room I was going to be pierced in would look like, and if I was still uncomfortable with the place, I could ask him if there was another place in the area. So I told him what I wanted and he took me into the back to take a look at my ear.
When I walked into the room I was going to be pierced in, I immediately felt so much better. The room was very clean, and everything looked really well organized. At that point, I pretty much knew I was going to be pierced there.
He looked at my ear, poking and prodding abound, and told me that he thought a rook/ cart orbital wasn't going to work with my ear, the reason being that, because of the shape of my ear, there would be a lot of pulling on the jewelry, causing a lot of scar tissue, and a high chance of rejection. There was also an incredibly long heal time on it. We talked for a while, and decided that what was best for me was to go with what I originally wanted, a simple rook. So he sent me back to the lounge area while he sterilized the room and autoclaved the jewelry and needles.
While waiting, I filled out the necessary paperwork, signed the liability contracts, read over the after care paperwork, and then watched "I Love '93" while tossing a chewed up bottle to the giant dog. The piercer came to get me when everything was ready, and, with my stomach full of butterflies, I headed to the back to get my first studio piercing ever.
I sat in the chair, which looked oddly like a dentist's chair, while he got everything ready and explained to me exactly what he was going to be doing. Once everything was set up, he picked a placement for my piercing and asked me if I thought it was going to be okay. I looked at it in the mirror for a few moments, excited that I was finally getting it done, decided that it was perfect, and sat down so he could pierce it for me.
He told me the name of everything he was using, and made sure I was comfortable at all times. Once he had everything ready to go, he led me through a quick breathing exercise (slow breath in, slow breath out three times) and pushed the needle through. There wasn't so much pain as pressure when the needle went in. More breathing exercises as he put in the jewelry, and screwed on the ball. There was no blood, and overall, nothing really hurt. He explained to me exactly what I needed to do to take care of the piercing, and then sent me on my way.
I've been cleaning it with Dial hand soap, and doing sea salt soaks on it every day, and it looks great. I've found a piercer that I will go to for the rest of my piercings, and he made my first studio experience a great one that I will never forget. The only thing that would have made it better was if he had told me what gauge he had pierced my rook at., so that later, when I'm looking at new jewelry for it, I'd know what size to buy it at.
The entire experience only cost me forty five dollars, and has left me with something that friends, as well as people on the street, stop me to ask about.