I had decided I wanted to 'dazzle' my ears, as I was bored with my lobe piercings. I have 2 piercings in each lobe that were done with a gun (eeeek silly me!) when I was about 8 years old. So, one Saturday afternoon I got in a cab with a friend of mine and went straight to Totally Pierced in Sydney. We looked around the piercing studio and looked at all of the jewellery and read the comments book on the table. My friend was planning on getting his eyebrow pierced and he started freaking out about it the moment we went inside!
At A Glance Author thepeadoctor Contact ameera@yousiph.com When A month ago Artist Scott Studio Totally Pierced Location Sydney, Australia We finally plucked up the courage to talk to the piercer working there that day. He introduced himself as Scott and he seemed really nice. My friend and I were both a little suspicious at first because we could not see any piercings on Scott, but he assured us he had piercings in 'other places' and we weren't allowed to see them! What a meanie :)
After our friendly little chat with Scott he brought out the forms for us to sign and checked our ID (I haven't been carded ever, and I'm 24, so I was impressed!). We signed our forms and Scott went in to prepare the piercing room for us.
I told Scott what I wanted and asked him a few questions about it. He's a really nice guy and acted like a total professional the entire time. My first question was 'does it hurt?', he laughed and said 'for about 2 seconds'. He lied, but you'll hear about that later on :)
We went into the piercing room where Scott measured my ear, marked the area to be pierced and checked to see if I was happy with the placement and cleaned my ear with betadine and then peroxide.
Then came the needle! He took it out of the packet and then I started shaking and asking about the pain! He said he was going to use a 12 gauge needle and I almost died! He could see I was a bit freaked out and asked me if I wanted to continue and of course, I said yes. There was no way I was pulling out of this now, as I knew I'd regret it.
Ok, now it was on! The needle was dipped in betadine ointment and on the count of 3, it was pushed through my ear. All I can say is OUCH. That thing bloody hurt, the stinging feeling was like nothing I'd ever felt before. The crunching noise of the piercing was horrible and I felt physically ill because of it. Once that was over, it was rammed through the opposite side of my ear. The needle was left there for about 20 seconds while Scott opened the packet with the barbell in it and prepared to insert it. The barbell went through and the needle came out. The needle coming out was a bit painful, but nothing compared to the first insertion!
Once the jewellery was slid in place I started bleeding heavily, but Scott cleaned it up nicely for me. I was so pleased with the result...perfect placement, perfect jewellery, everything was simply perfect (well, except for the dried blood all through my hair). My friend and I left the piercing studio very happy and eager to show off our new metal. Despite the fact my ear was throbbing and I felt like throwing up, we went out on the town and flashed our steel barbells to everyone!
I had throbbing pain in my ear for about 12 hours and then I started the aftercare routine and it settled down. I was told to clean both sides of the piercing twice a day with the antiseptic solution provided. I have since moved on to washing with anti-bacterial soap and soaking with sea salt solution. Since the day of the piercing I haven't had it bleed or secrete pus, only lymph. I didn't sleep on it for the first couple of weeks and was really careful not to knock it. Let's just say washing and brushing my hair were a bit difficult during the initial healing period!I've had my wonderful industrial for about a month now and although it is still a bit tender and still gets crusty, it is healing amazingly well and looks great! Everyone adores it! I cannot wait for the 3 months to be up so I can change my barbell to an 18ct gold bar. I love gold!
I'd like to finish this by stating that YES this particular piercing hurts like hell to get done, but the results are amazing. If you are thinking of getting this done, DO IT! Also, Scott from Totally Pierced is an amazing guy and I would recommend him for all your piercing needs.