Saturday, August 11, 2007.
At A Glance Author Katie Contact Katie@bme.anon IAM WWTKD When It just happened Artist JC, I believe Studio Pangea Body Piercing Location Ann Arbor, MI This day will remain special to me for at least a while. I only have two small reasons as to why, but they mean the world to me.
1.) This was my first visit to a professional piercing studio. It excited me for whatever reason
2.) My 3 year old goal. It's harder to stretch when you're too poor to even buy crappy gauged jewelry :(
So, anyway... My boyfriend and I were heading to good old Ann Arbor, Michigan. While we were originally going to get some bubble tea and go play Unreal Tournament at Digital Ops, during the car ride we began talking about me piercing his friend Dan. Since my mother was driving, I gave him my "shut up..." look, and then began thinking of the beautiful 6G metal I was going to install in him someday...
Of course, that got me thinking about my piercings. I asked my mom to drop us off around Pangea Body Piercing so I could look for some new steel. After listening to the piercer talk to a girl who wanted her nose pierced for about 15 minutes, he finally got around to asking us what we were here for. In the case I spied a lovely horseshoe barbell that would've done nicely in my conch, he talked me out of it because it would aggravate the minor scarring around it. The piercer looked at my ears, and asked who did all of that. I was hesitant to reply that I did all of my work (With the proper needles and gloves, of course!),
and much to my surprise, he complimented me on all of it.
After talking a while about how I wanted to become a piercer when I was older, we were about to leave. Then I remembered that I was due to get some nice jewelry for my first holes. Preferably some single flared eyelets. My god, they're so pretty.
My poor ears had been at a 2G for over a year and a half, with shitty mall acrylic claws in them. I asked if they had any single flares in a 0, and luckily, they did! He rung me up, and offered to put them in. I was surprised that they stretched for free, and took him up on that. My boyfriend didn't seem too happy that we were going to be staying in the shop any longer, but I was doing something he wanted later, so we were even.
Off to the small room we went. He gave me paper towel soaked in hot water to help the stretching, and talked casually. We talked a little more about me wanting to become a piercer and the whatnot. My boyfriend has no idea what any of these things that we were talking about were, so his eyes just kinda stared blankly the entire time.
When my ears had been softened enough, he changed his gloves, and got out the pre-sterilized taper and began lubing it up. I was asked whether I'd prefer it to go a little quicker or a slow stretch, and I said I had no preference. Apparently he wished everyone was that easy to please. Then began the insertion of the big-ass taper into my right ear. It was just a little stinging sensation, and putting the eyelets in hurt more than the taper. The silicon O-ring was put on, and he went to my left ear.
Now this ear was always a bitch to stretch. He went slowly on this one, to make sure there weren't any blowouts or anything. My boyfriend got to watch me make "Oh god, this hurts" faces since I was facing him. As he reached the end and put on the eyelet and O-ring. Just a little blood, which I didn't mind at all. I thanked him, and told him I'd come back for any piercings I wanted. I would've tipped him, but I blew all my money on the eyelets. He didn't seem to mind, though.
Off we went to our Bubble Island and Digital Ops, and it was awesome. We left Ann Arbor at about 10:30, and immediately I did a sea salt soak to calm my angry ears and to clean off the dried blood. They're doing good now at 5AM. Not hurting even to the touch. (Not that I'm poking the piercing, just the very bottom of my ear) Pangea did a great job on them, and they're happy to have their fix of Industrial Strength.
Afterthoughts:
The piercer was very nice and informative, and he gets extra bonus points with me because he didn't think I was a complete dumbass because I do my own piercings. He thought it was cool that a 15 year old wanted to become a piercer apparently. To anyone in/around Ann Arbor, I'd totally recommend Pangea for all your piercings. The piercing room and entire studio is very clean, and the staff is all friendly, helpful, and very experienced.
Happy (Insert modification of choice here)!