I already have a conch piercing, and never thought I'd want another one. I have what I call my 'boring ear'. It wasn't stretched at the time, so just had two normal sized lobe piercings, and spent a lot of time thinking about what I could do to make my right ear just as interesting as the left. I'm not big on symmetry, so I knew I didn't just want to copy, but honestly, how much can you do with an ear? Eventually I decided on two conch piercings that I would wear rings in.
At A Glance Author Sophie Contact Sophie@bme.anon IAM MyDaydream When Six months ago Artist Sarah Studio NPNG Location Shipley, West Yorkshire So I toyed with the idea for a while before deciding that I should just do it, so I found myself waiting in my piercer's hallway. I waited for her to finish with a tongue piercing that seemed to be taking longer than usual because of a squeamish mother who kept running in and our of the piercing room. It was cramped, there were five of us sat on the stairs that led up to the tattoo shop above all waiting to see Sarah. Usually she has a large waiting room with magazines and comfortable chairs, but an unfortunate water leak meant she was piercing in the waiting room now. Not that this bothered me; the waiting room in NPNG is cleaner than some places I've seen.
So I sit down and we have a chat for a while, she has a quick moan about the mother and her studio, and I tell her how my university course is going. Then we get down to business. She tells me that we'd have to do the piercings separately because there'd be too much swelling otherwise. So I agree, and go with her suggestion we do the top first and leave the bottom for next time. Out comes the bottle of numbing spray, she holds my ear out and then one, two, three pierce. I was shocked, my other conch was my second piercing and I thought it killed. This was nothing, it felt like a pinch, but I was sure once I got into the cold October air that might change. I paid, and said that I'd be back to see her next time I was home from university. Then out into the cold air.
I went and bought a small bottle of tea tree oil from Superdrug to clean the piercing with since it worked so well for my last conch. I got home and tried to clean some of the blood off using a cotton bud dipped into the tea tree oil but it didn't really work as there was still a lot crusting on the back.
All went well with it, there were a few knocks and bumps along the way, and one case where I was cleaning and knocked off a scab and ended up with blood trickling down my neck. But it was painless, and by December I was ready to go back for more.
I go in and compliment the new paint work in the studio, I never realised it was possible for her room to look brighter than it did, but she achieved it! I sit down in the chair, which she alters for me because the person before me had been a little girl so the chair was REALLY high up. She prepares her things and hands me another consent form to fill in while she gets set up properly. Then a quick mark up and she sprays again, pulls out my ear once the cold feeling has set in, one, two, three and pierce. And it bloody hurt. I wasn't expecting it, the last one had been a doddle but this one was going up there in my list of painful piercings. Sarah explains it was probably due to the scar tissue from the last one making it tougher for the needle to go through. But it's all done; now I just need to pay and baby my conches until they're ready for the rings.
Cleaning is a little more difficult, and since the top piercing has swollen up too it means cleaning between the two is difficult, and in the end give up, just making sure not to touch it too much and to make sure it gets a good blast of water in the shower. On really sore days I'd whip out the tea tree until everything was settled, but really just leaving it alone can work wonders.
A couple of blisters formed after a while, that I ignored and hoped they'd go away. Occasionally they'd spew out lovely yellow goo, and other times would just make my whole ear twinge if it got caught. Sometimes my ear feels weird, like it needs to crack or click or something, but it's just the piercing and the feeling passes after a few minutes.
Then a couple of weeks back I decided I wanted those rings in for summer. Months of warm weather and tied up hair meant my ears needed to be in the best condition possible, and that meant no blisters. I brought back out the tea tree oil and cotton buds and planned to tea tree the blisters until they'd shrunk to nothing, and then strike with a wonderful pair of shiny new rings. After a few days they were noticeably smaller, and with cleaning I had a lot of dried gunk coming off onto the bud. It was all good, and I was excited about my next trip home so I could finally have the piercing I'd set out to get.
I walked into Sarah's studio just as she was opening and told her I wanted my ear changed to rings. We talked about style and colour, all my jewellery matches appart from my plugs, and we were ready to go. Except she couldn't get them through the holes, and told me that if I gave it a few weeks and then I came back we'd try again, hopefully with more luck.
On the way home I decided to take this failure as a sign. The rings I was shown didn't appeal to me, and I have difficulty imagining myself with rings now. The bars are perfect to me; they are the piercing that I want in now. I can always change my mind in the future, but I don't see that happening.