"I want to get a nostril piercing!" was a current exclamation of my close friend. Being the enthusiast and promoter of bodily modification in my gaggle of friends, I fully encouraged the decision. "We'll go on Saturday." The foray would require much patience on my part in dealing with the 'Should I? Or Shouldn't I? I want to, but I shouldn't. My parents will hate it. But I'll look so good—' from my dear friend.
At A Glance Author Sarah Contact liquidtrance000@gmail.com When Six months ago Artist Jay Pond Studio Rockstar Body Piercing Location Providence, RI Finally, with enough cajoling we made it up to Rockstar Body Piercing, a shop I had passed many a time on my way up to CVS or to eat at the nearby Indian restaurant, but I'd never really given it much notice. New piercings had been lurking in the back of my mind for years, but I usually ignored the naggings as inconsequential, beyond my means— maybe one day. With my friend finally taking a step to modify herself (the least likely of candidates I assure you!) I felt thoroughly left out.
This trip inspired me to pursue my own modifications finally. For years I had carried three easily overlooked holes; a simple lobe piercing in each ear (stretched horribly and removed to shrink back— that's another story), and a miscellaneous little cartilage piercing in my left ear. My first impulse, which I acted upon poorly, was to get the second set of lobe piercings I'd longed for for ages. After calling Rockstar and finding out the piercings would cost roughly $50 EACH with jewelry, I was aghast and stubborn. Needless to say, a gunned $12 pair of lobe piercings was much more appealing and affordable. (This will become a necessary detail soon enough! Work with me, work with me...)
After getting the lousy gunned studs, I realized "Hm... Perhaps this was not the most intelligent decision..." as I began browsing the internet to find what other piercings might be attractive enough to warrant a steep piercing-shop price range (At least I knew well enough not to try and get my face pierced with a gun! If only that..). This dawned on my first discovery of BMEzine. What a helpful site! How thorough and useful!-Particularly in elaborating the specifics of gunned piercing risks. Regardless, I came across two piercings which specifically piqued my interest: the daith and the rook.
I gleeful explained my intentions to my friends, subtly hinting that perhaps they should keep me company for the experience. My newly pierced friend was mostly nonplussed, and my other close friend was not terribly interested but willing to humor me at least. For hours beforehand I poured through pictures of daiths and rooks. The rook, with a perfect little CBR would be my acquisition.
The three of us ventured up College Hill (Oh, that bloody hill!) and arrived at Rockstar just slightly early for a 6:30 appointment on February 16th (Not quite 6 months ago, but nearly). I gave over my ID to the counter-boy and read the necessary warnings and conditions, signed all the paperwork and eventually got to talk to my first professional piercer, Jay.
"What are you looking to get?"
"A rook!" (accompanied by a stupid excited grin)
He asked for a look at the ear to be needled. I offered without question, and stood silent with anticipation running fast through my veins.
"Nope. What else would you like?"
"What...?"
No good. Poor rook anatomy. No go. Not going to happen. Won't work. A curved barbell maybe?
AUGH! Nooo! How deflated I quickly became. Thus followed a 10 minute discussion consisting of my desperate search for a compromise. There must be some way to fit a CBR in there!
Jay continued to be uncompromising (which I would later slightly resent for a brief time). After the wave of disappointment wore off, I began to realize I'd wanted a daith as well.
"You mean 'doth'?"
...WHY IS IT PRONOUNCED SO HORRIBLY COMPARED TO IT'S SPELLING?! (The grammar Nazi in me raged silently).
Thus, the options were presented to me. Err, option. Singular. A large diameter 16ga CBR. ("Can't I get a smaller diameter?", "No.") While I debated to myself— daith, or no new piercing?— Jay took off for a cigarette break.
Adrenaline seeping back into my veins, I accepted mild defeat and settled for my second choice piercing and a CBR larger than I might have preferred. All the while my friend's patiently waited, playing with the chess board on the coffee table, keeping themselves busy. While the jewelry was being sterilized, I paid my fee and sat at the couch flipping through the sample book, chock full of prettily pierced folk.
Finally, the moment of truth arrived. I was lead back into a sparkling clean piercing room and asked to sit down on the bench. Jay thoroughly cleaned my ear with all manner of solutions, changing gloves frequently, and poked my ear with the placement dye. All the while Jay spouted the automatic cleaning and care procedure speech. Laying down on the bench I was lead through the normal process, all the while hopped up on adrenaline, wondering how big the needle was. Take a deep breath in, breath out slowly. And again, deep breathe in— PAIN.
Needle entry. Sweet Jesus that smarts! Eyes watering, stinging, stinging.
Now the jewelry! (inner expletive monologue) A tad bit of trouble, shaking hands, just one more minute, almost through... Good!
Upon sitting up and gazing into the mirror I fell in love instantly. How perfectly it sits in the nook of my ear! And how can one possibly dislike new shiny metal in their body?
This love of my piercing would soon turn into turmoil, though. After a month of strict, unwavering saline cleaning (at least twice a day) I began to notice a small bump forming at the top of the daith. Maybe it's just temporary... Perhaps I bumped it somehow? It's just a slight bit irritated. Saline twice a day, proceeded by warm sea salt compresses. This'll help!
It didn't, alas. Finally, around the two month mark— after panicking that the piercing might be infected, that it's going to reject, that I'm doing something wrong!— I found the time to get to Rockstar. My timing was off, and Jay wasn't in that day, so I conversed with Jef, the other piercer at the shop. His assessment was that the piercing was rejecting slighting, but that the bumps were common for a daith. Advised to come back in a few weeks to check on it again, I headed out of the shop, only just slightly relieved.
2 or so weeks passed and I made my way to Rockstar again, just as unhappy as ever. The bump has gotten bigger! It really does look like it's rejecting. $50 to waste! My beautiful darling daith...
Both Jef and Jay were around, and after a look at piercing Jay recommended a 5 day tea tree oil regime to try to dry out the bump and make it go away and leave me alone. Come back in a couple weeks and we'll see how it looks then.
The bump would have nothing of it. It stayed like any horribly unwanted pest does. Finally in mid-June went back again to Rockstar, feeling slightly guilty for pestering them so often with the daith trouble. Consistently, the bump had gotten larger and more aggravated, despite thorough sea salt soaks and saline cleaning 2-3 times a day, strictly NO sleeping on that side of my body, no bumping to the ear, no use of headphones or my cell phone to that ear, and all the failing hope for healing I could muster. The decision was set forth. We remove the piercing. Vitamin E massages are prescribed to get rid of the bump, and then, come two to three weeks I'd get a free re-piercing. (Free? Seriously?)
My personal diagnosis for my daith-failure is that I had those damn second lobe holes gunned. I got the daith pierced a month after the gunned lobes, which were not healing particularly well. I admit, I got slightly lazy with them, passing them off as quick-healing, industrious lobes. Needless to say, the night before I went to Rockstar and had my daith finally removed my right earlobe erupted with pus and blood from the second hole. Not a pleasant experience. In my uneducated theory, I don't think it's terribly far fetched that the poorly healing lobes became higher priority to my immune system, allowing for the daith to be more vulnerable to became agitated. (Not enough attention makes for an angry daith!)
After 3 days of the piercing being removed, a large chunk of the bump flaked off, and massaging lessened it to a barely noticeable scar. Today, nearly 3 and a half weeks have passed. I made my way to Rockstar, and was re-pierced by the charming Jef Saunders, and my daith is back once more!
I highly recommend Rockstar Body Piercing. The shop is very clean and Jay and Jef are very organized and thorough. I found a few qualms with the very first experience of being pierced by Jay, but he and Jef were always willing to offer advice and take a look at my ear and do their best to help me through the trouble as the months progressed. I can't wait to get more piercings there.
I'll leave information about 'daith: take two' for another time, once it heals (or doesn't) in a few months. Wish it luck!