Planning: Well it all started a year or so ago when I wanted to go bigger on my ears. I had started with a 00ga and 0ga in my left lobe and a 6ga in my right lobe. My right lobe was already a little big since I had it at 00 once before but it was placed pretty low so I had taken that out a few years ago and gotten it re-pierced higher up with the 6ga. I knew I wanted to go bigger, but at that point I would have had to either go bigger on the right then keep stretching the 00; but it would still look uneven and just not right altogether. So the only other way was to get my lobes scalpelled.....
At A Glance Author Adam Contact Adam@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist John Joyce Studio Scarab Body Arts Location Syracuse, NY I'm big into research and that's what I spend a lot of my time online doing. Researching anything and everything and reading a lot of forums. (One helpful bit I might add in here now regarding forums, is that there will ALWAYS be someone that praises something with their life and another person who says it's the worst thing in the world; and this can be on any subject or item, trust me on that one.) Anyways... I had been looking for somebody that could complete my "scalpelling dilemma" that was within' a 5 hour drive from Albany, NY. I have to say it was really hard. Maybe I just wasn't looking in the right places, but not many people list that they do scalpelling as it's not the most 'legal' thing to do without being certified and licensed to do surgery, etc. etc.
None-the-less I kept searching... I checked on BME's QoD as I've read a lot on there before, and it dawned to me that Ryan from Precision Body Arts is right in Nashua, NH and that's only 3 hours away from me! I knew he had done dermal punching and scarification, but not sure about scalpelling, so I found him on MySpace and shot him a message. It had been about a week and still no response back, I had seen that he had read it and was a little discouraged at this point; but no later then I was about to go do more searching I had gotten a message back from Ryan. He had explained to me that he could do the lip piercings I wanted as well as any other future piercings/dermal punching, but he would have to recommend me to somebody with more scalpelling experience as he hasn't done a lot of it. For somebody to say that instead of just saying "Yeah I can do it!" means a lot and shows a lot as well. He had told me of a guy out in Syracuse, NY by the name of John Joyce, the owner/piercer of Scarab Body Arts, and sent me a link with his website address on it. I messaged Ryan back and thanked him for everything then set forth on my goal.
So I checked out John's website and was very impressed by the way everything was laid out and how the shop pictures looked extremely clean, organized, and well thought out; which is exactly how I am. I had then decided to shoot him a message on MySpace as well. A day or so later I had gotten a response back from him saying he could definitely do it. He wasn't sure on how big he could get them right away without looking at them in person first, and I had said that I wanted it done safely before just trying to go the biggest at the first shot. We had sent messages back and forth for a week or so. When I had figured out a date, I confirmed it with John, and then just waited like a child does on Christmas morning for his presents.
Driving There: The drive was really easy as I've been out that way a ton of times; plus my handy Garmin c530 GPS was amazingly useful as always. I was pretty nervous, but not as bad as I thought I'd be. I had packed a lunch with a sandwich and some cookies so I had some food and sugar in me before the procedure so I didn't get light headed. It's better to be safe than sorry! It took just about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get there. The biggest thing that sucked though is that my car radio doesn't work, so I had to listen to my iPod through a pair of 10 year old Sony headphones with a broken "strap piece" that goes around your head, hahaha. I pulled up on the street and noticed there was only on street parking, so I parallel parked, put money in the meter, then went up to his shop.
The Shop: When looking from the outside he's on the 2nd story of a brick kind of building and he's got a sign outside in front by the door to get in the building; as well as lettering on his windows. I got up to the shop and instantly felt a lot better about everything. I was greeted by a guy behind the front desk and explained to him who I was meeting and he told me to have a seat and John will be with me shortly. I walked over by where the seating was and checked out all the jewelry, cases, portfolios, etc.
It was the cleanest and nicest shop I have ever been in or seen, especially finding out after talking to John, that he had done all of the work to it himself so I was amazed. Everything was so organized and he had even had a "What you always wanted to know about piercings/tattoos but were afraid to ask" kind of book he had typed up and that was just another thing to put me at ease about the whole process.
Procedure: John came out and we talked for a little bit. He then checked out my ears and said it'd be no problem; and that he will be out in a little bit as he had to get everything set up in the piercing room. He came out about 5 minutes later and we were all set to go. He had all sterilized tools, needles, scalpels, everything. He first did 2 lip piercings I had wanted done as well; so he measured around my lip and marked off 2 dots and had me check them out in the mirror. I wanted them over just a tad and without hesitation he gladly wiped the previous 2 off and put 2 more back on and had me check in the mirror 1 more time. They were perfect and off we went. The first thing I noticed is that he is an extremely knowledgeable guy. He answered any and all of my questions to perfection and then some! He also does an awesome breathing exercise too which doesn't seem like much to an outsider, but when you're doing it and everything is going on it helps a lot. So after those were done I wanted a few minutes for a break before the scalpelling was to be done.
I had gotten some water and hung out and read some articles he had up on the wall. About 10 minutes later I was ready to go. He had brought over another person who was finishing up his tattoo apprenticeship named Ricky. John told me that Ricky was going to be handing him tools, tapers, jewelry, and whatever else he needed when doing the procedure. Basically having him as an extra set of hands since it's much easier that way than doing everything by himself. We all went into the piercing room again; I took off my necklaces and whatnot and laid back down on the chair. As he was cleaning my ears and taking out my old jewelry, I was talking to Ricky about his ears since John had scalpelled them; basically asking about how much it hurt and normal kind of questions. Then John was doing some measuring and making marks on my lobes. He said he was going to do the left first, seeing as how that was the lobe with the 00 and 0 next to each other. Than, after doing that one he'd be able to determine how big he can go with the right lobe. I laid back down and then it begun. He had put the clamp things (I don't know the technical name, I apologize) on my ear to basically hold it in place and to stop some of the blood from pouring out. He had said a lot of people put them on too tight but it's a very bad idea for that, hence he doesn't do it that way. Told me to take 3 deep breath's and he counted with me, and on the end of the 3rd exhale he began cutting. I was extremely surprised on how it wasn't that painful. Yeah it hurt, but it was more of a sharp and stingy feeling vs. straight pain. You could hear/feel every "layer" of skin in the lobe though so that was pretty weird. He got half way through and said just a little more to go; he then continued to cut and was all the way through. He was holding paper towels to it to clean off some blood and I could hear it being all squishy sounding. He then had put a few different tapers in, and when he finally got to the 13/16's is when the pain started. The cold of the taper felt nice, but it hurt twice as much as the scalpelling did! Probably due to the fact my ear had just been violated with a sharp blade and the "clamp things" were off. He put the jewelry in and then said he had a few small pieces of skin he had to basically "touch up". He did that then I was golden. He then went on and proceeded the exact same way with the right ear. Taper to 9/16's, then the jewelry went in. Another touchup on the right and we were good to go. I saw up, Ricky took pictures of them, then I went over and checked out my freshly cut ears in the mirror. I was so pumped and extremely happy. John then had said that everything went extremely well and I might not even have to come back for any touchups. Usually people do at least once, sometimes twice depending on the situation; and to stretch my left to how big I wanted them and match it up with my right. I know I wanted between 1" and 1 ½" so I'll go to 1" then see from there. I'm going to go back for some other work so I'll h Aftercare: I got a sheet highlighted with everything I needed to do for my aftercare. Basically leaving it alone the first night and letting the blood do its thing. Then doing sea salt soaks 2-3 times a day as well as taking Ibuprofen to help reduce swelling and take away any pain. It was pretty easy and they healed up great. Took about a week for the blood to stop and 2 weeks or so for it to stop 100% but no big deal, after a few days you don't really notice it all that much anyways. About a month in, I did notice on the top back of my left ear it looked like there was a small blowout, and addressed this to John. He said it looked normal after I emailed him pictures and it usually goes away on its own. He was right, about 3 weeks later it was gone and all looks good again. I still think I might need a little touchup work due to me being extremely anal and picky about stuff but John said it'd be no problem whatsoever and to just let him know then stop by and he can get it done so both ears look 100% symmetrical, or as close to possible. =0P
Driving Back: I got in my car, checked my ears in the mirror to make sure they weren't bleeding, turned on my GPS, and then was on my way. A boring 2 ½ hour drive home now considering I only have headphones to put on for my iPod and wasn't going to be doing that with all the work just done to my ears. Everything went smoothly though until the last 30 minutes... I looked at my ears in the mirror periodically and at that time; I noticed a little drip of blood coming down my neck on the left side. Luckily, I had some napkins in my glove box, so I used some of them to wipe the blood off. Soon enough I had no more left so made my first stop at a rest area and ran into the bathroom. I got some paper towels and cold water and basically just cleaned off my ear very lightly and tried to hold the "ghetto cold compress" to my ear to help with the bleeding. It worked pretty well, so I grabbed a bunch of paper towels for the road and was on my way back again. I stopped at the mall to show my friend Sarah, but again saw it was bleeding again, all over my ear and neck! I went to the bathroom and did the same shit again. Then afterwards showed her then went home and relaxed the rest of the day to the feeling of my ears having their period.
Conclusion: John knows his shit to the tee. I'll be going there for any piercing work and recommending him and his shop to everyone. It's just over 2 hours away but I don't mind the drive at all, I'd drive 5 hours if I had to, it's completely worth it. My ears now seem so small so I think I'm going towards 1 ¼ - 1 ½ inches should suffice. There is no pain, and when they're in you can't even tell, it feels just like normal earrings, it's awesome. I would do it all over again if I had to, the experience was great.
Thanks: I would like a huge thanks to John for everything. You did such a great job, you're a super nice guy, very personable, gave me a great deal, and such a nice shop. I would like to thank Ryan Ouellette, owner of Precision Body Arts for the recommendation to go to John. I would also like to thank my parents for not kicking me out of the house and killing me, even though I'm 21. =0)
Afterwards...: The first night sucked. John had told me not to be alarmed if I wake up and it looks like somebody had shot me in the back of the head... So I wake up, and lift my head off the pillow and hear a "squish" kind of noise and knew that the whole back of my head/neck was moist. Not to my surprise, my pillow was drenched in blood. Not just regular "cut my finger" type of blood, I mean thick stringy blood. So the first thing I do is clean off my neck and head and check out my ears. They are all coagulated with dried blood and it wasn't dripping so that was cool. Then I run to my other room and grab my digital camera and take pictures, I couldn't resist.
The second day wasn't too fun either. It was Easter and I went with my parents over to Vermont to visit some family. It was dripping a little bit of blood off of my right ear so I had used up about 40 tissues on the ride there wiping it off the bottom of my ear so it wouldn't get all over the car. When I got there I had did another cold compress on it for 10 minutes or so and that seemed to slow the bleeding, and did that throughout the day until I went home.
As the week went on the blood started to slow down and I believe on the 4th night I had no blood at all on my pillow so I was quite happy. Most of the blood around the ear, front and back, had dried up and basically was stuck to my ear so that was good as well. Towards the end of the week most of the dried blood had came off and there was no more bleeding, only a little bit after I showered but it wasn't pouring out as it was earlier in the week. The second week all the blood was almost gone completely and on its "way out". Still in a tiny bit of pain here and there but was starting to get to sleep pretty normal again and the skin on the lobes looked a lot healthier. Now I'm at 3 months and I'm up to 7/8 in the left and ¾ in my right. No tapers, no Teflon tape, no anything yet. They all went in perfectly and easy and that makes me happy. I'm also stretched by 1/16" and taking my time so that's a big help I believe also. On my goal of 1 ¼ - 1 ½ should be all good by Christmas or early 2008.