At A Glance
Author	Shannon
Contact	Shannon@bme.anon
When	A month ago
Artist	Nick
Studio	Harley Shop
Location	Australia

So the story begins...

For awhile I had been thinking of getting a new piercing, as it had been a couple of years since I got anything new. So I thought it was time to get a new addition to my piercing family. I came on bmezine.com and was having a look around at the different ear piercing (any other visible piercing was out of the question, my work would not allow it), after looking through many different categories I decided that I would like my rook, after all I have never seen someone with a rook before. Once I had decided, I started reading peoples experiences, to get an idea of the pain factor, healing time, and generally what to expect when I went to get it done. So I was set, it was only a matter of time before I went down and got pierced....

(Funnily enough, I had rung my mum the morning I got pierced and asked her if I could get pierced, she said it was fine. I didn't actually expect to get pierced this day!)

It was a lovely Monday afternoon and I was walking around my local mall with some friends one day when I came across my Harley Shop (They specialized in Piercings/Tattoos/Biker Gear etc:), I walked straight in and started asking questions, enquiring about different things such as the price, age limit etc: after talking with the guy who was going to pierce me. I was quite happy with him, because he had pierced me in the past (my eyebrow), so I made the decision that this is the time I was going to get my Rook. So I paid, picked out my jewellery and got led to the piercing room.

For about 10 minutes I stood around looking at all the photos on the wall (various photos of different piercings on people) and I spotted myself! I was a bit amused by this, and pointed the picture out to my friend and the piercer. (This picture was taken when I got my eyebrow pierced) They both laughed – I was right next to 2 pictures of nipple piercings. A further 5 minutes had passed and finally the piercer was ready, he had all his little tools ready.

So he led me to the seat, and got his things ready. He got straight to it, cleaning my ear and lining up the needle. Then it was over, I felt a little pain but not as much as I thought. One of my friends was standing next to me and started to gasp slightly, I was like 'What's wrong *nervous laugh*' Then he asked me if I had taken drugs or drunken alcohol in the last 24 hours, I said no and asked why. He said 'Oh, its no problem... you're just bleeding'. I laughed and told him that I was blessed with thin blood and I apologized for not warning him about this. At this point it is starting to hurt a bit, because the piercer was trying to stop the bleeding, so he was holding my newly pierced ear quite tight! This hurt more than the piercing it's self, in my own opinion.

After the bleeding had stopped, he quickly put the bar in so it wouldn't hurt anymore, and it was over. He cleaned my up, spun me around and let me look in the mirror. I was pleasantly surprised; I was expecting my ear to be red and bloody! But he cleaned it up nicely; there was no blood apart from the large amount of drips all over my brand new white t-shirt. (After getting home I soaked the shirt, and the blood came out – just in case you guys were interested, haha :D)

I thanked him for piercing me, and headed home.

The first few days after getting pierced my rook was a little tender, but the pain factor was about a 5/10, not nearly as painful as I thought at this time. As the days went on my rook was almost painless, I continued to clean my ear morning and night and after about 2 weeks it felt as if it was completely healed. It is at the 1 month mark, and its starting to be a bitch. Not overly painful, but more so than ever before. I plan on going down to the Harley Shop and getting my bar changed for a ring, as I think it will be easier to clean. & I also want to get a general check-up to see if the healing is going well. :)

I'm happy I decided to get my rook pierced. It is a very good piercing, and not very common at all in this area so I get a lot of compliments and questions about it, which I must admit, I love! So I'm just waiting for the day now until the pain is gone, and the piercing is fully healed – it shouldn't be long now. :)