Up until April this year I didn't have any piercings at all. Not even ear lobes. And then I just went for it one day and it's all been downhill since there!
At A Glance Author sez Contact sez@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Darryl Studio Retro Rebels Location Aberdeen Originally I went into Retro's that day to get my labret ring changed , I'd been toying with the idea of a conch piercing for a few weeks but wasn't entirely convinced. But once I got into Retro's I felt a bit of an idiot just asking for my ring to be changed (although that would have been perfectly fine) so I thought what the hey, I'll just do it.
It was empty when we got there so we told the girl on the till what we wanted and Darryl came upstairs and she told him. We went downstairs and I signed my life away.
I already had my new labret ring with me so he put that in first no problems. The friend who came with me was already looking a bit sick, she doesn't like my lip piercing at all. Once that was done he changed his gloves and examined my ear for a few minutes, I decided on the right ear because I already had 2 lobe piercings in the left and didn't want it to look crowded. He said that I had a natural groove in my ear which looked like it had been made for a conch ring. Then he asked whether I planned on putting a ring into it later, I said hell yeah! That was my plan all along, I was desperate to get the stud over with and a new shiny ring in. He seemed pleased with that and said rings looked cooler in his opinion. So he cleaned my ear out and sorted a new tray with a stud and stuff (I wasn't really looking, I was laughing at my friend turning green in the corner). He lined up the dots on my ear and I went to take a look in the mirror. I couldn't see where they were at all so I just laughed and said I'd trust his judgement. He explained that to get a ring to sit in the groove of my ear he was going to pierce it at an angle rather than straight through, so the top of the stud would be higher up than the back. I'd never really thought about my ear that closely so I just agreed.
He fiddled around with my ear for a bit, getting me to lean different ways to try and get to where he wanted to pierce my ear. Finally he said he was just going to pierce it from the back. My friend was looking seriously ill by this point.
So he pierced it from the back. It felt REALLY weird. I could feel the needle like bending my ear from behind for what seemed like ages before it went through. Then it was through. Oh, and he told me to do the breathe in - breathe out + pierce thing but I couldn't figure it out. I was so busy trying to work out when to breathe that I completely missed the needle actually going through. It did make a sick little noise though! But it hurt a lot less than my first helix piercing. So he left me with the needle through my ear for a minute and asked how it was, I was like "What?" so he looks at my (very green) friend and was like see! It looks worse than it is! Then he put a stud through, my ear was feeling pretty hot and bashed around by this point but it went through ok and then we were heading upstairs. I had to hold my friend up (believe me, I won't be taking her to any more piercing I get!) then I paid (just for the piercing, the change of ring was free) and got given a little leaflet of piercing care and a quick explanation of what to do. He said I could come back any time if anything felt or looked wrong which made me feel better.
My friend headed off into town and I went off to meet friends. I was impressed that I could wear my earphones (the in-ear ones) straight away and they didn't even touch the stud - I didn't think about it before I got it done but I was a bit worried afterwards. Actually, it's really useful - my earphone never falls out!
It healed really well actually. My first helix piercing was awful and hurt constantly for until I took it out after getting bored with 8 months of pain. Anyway, it healed perfectly even though I didn't soak it as much as I should've - just once a day for a couple of weeks and then I let it do it's own thing until I changed it for a ring. Which turned out to be a HUGE mistake. It hurt like hell getting the original stud out, I had to go back to Retro's because it was nearly impossible to get the thing out because of the angle it was at. Changing it for the ring hurt a lot, probably because I'd been fiddling and trying to take the stud out for a few days. Also I only waited 9 weeks before changing it, I was so desperate for a ring!
But now it's all settled and healed and I am properly pleased with my beautiful beautiful conch ring. It was totally worth it!