Body modification has always been an interest of mine. Infact, I have wanted to stretch my ear lobes since I was 9 years old. When I was 15, I managed to get them to a 6G before my parents noticed some odd Christmas and forced me to take them out. I since then restarted and am now at 7/16" going to 1/2, maybe more.
At A Glance Author Anonymous Contact Anonymous@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Lexci Million Studio Shambhala Tattoos Location Edmonton, AB Anyway, after spending much time exploring BME, looking at all the potential piercings I myself could have, I decided that facial piercings were not for me.
Luckily ears were still an appealing option, since there is a lot of variety and can still be hidden to a certain degree if needed. However I never did like the ears that had multiple rings or studs, especially with the butterfly backings. I found that not only unattractive, but I've never had a decent experience with butterfly backings. That and we know where they all come from, the dreaded piercing gun.
All ears are different, but I believe mine to be a little less than normal. Rather than your average ear being well rounded on the outer helix in proportion to the lobe, my ears are sort of vertically up and down. I ruled out any helix piercing for fear that after all the work, it would not look good on a less-than-normal ear. I then moved to piercings on the inner ear such as rook, daith, conch, tragus and anti-tragus.
The anti-tragus was ruled out as well, for my ears are stretched and each ear also has a second hole, leading it to potentially interfere. I also skipped the daith, for I felt I hadn't enough cartilage to pierce in the first place (later on while I was being piercing, I asked about it, apparently it was possible to pierce easily and I had a sufficient amount of cartilage for it.)
I settled on the rook after looking at many photos. They seemed pretty hit and miss though, for a lot of the photos I saw I did not like. I found a lot of the jewellery too long. But, I guess if it swells that would be acceptable. After looking through the 75 photos you can view without a membership on BME, I found about 5 that I thought looked incredible. I continued searching on Google to see if I could find any more pictures. By then I had narrowed it down to 8 pictures of attractive rook piercings that I wanted. I liked them all so much; I almost printed them all out on a page to bring to the piercer, just like you do when you want a haircut.
I was going to get the rook done while my friend came to Edmonton from Victoria, but it never ended up happening due to lack of time. However while walking on Whyte Avenue with another friend; we passed by a new, neat looking downstairs Tattoo/Piercing studio called Shambhala. There are 2-3 other piercing facilities on the avenue, but I had been hearing more bad than good stories so I didn't mind taking a look at this new studio. It was a pretty impulse thing to go in, even though I was going to get it done the previous week anyway. Lucky me, it was a Friday and they were having a sale on all their ear piercings.
I asked my friend if she wouldn't mind if we went and I got it done just then, not that we had anything better to do anyway. She agreed and as we went downstairs, being careful not to trip down them, we went up to the front desk and I asked to get my rook pierced.
After filling out the consent forms, I am pretty sure I only waited about 2 minutes before I was in the chair. Lexci went through all the standard information, aftercare, procedure and by then I was lying down waiting to get a needed shoved through my ear.
She put a mark on my ear, and of course I didn't have those beloved pictures with me at the time. I was a bit skeptical at the placement at first. I thought it would look better placed further out away from the nook in the cartilage. I can't remember why exactly, but the placement I thought would look better apparently posed a risk for healing and potentially hitting a vein. I took her advice and let her leave the mark where it was since it was either that or no rook at all.
As I was lying down in the chair my friend Kali held my hand .It didn't hurt as much as I anticipated, if at all. I could feel it, but it neither pain nor sting was present. The only part that did hurt was since the rook is in such a narrow place; the needle had to be twisted for it to actually go through.
It was a very quick procedure, soon after the needle, the 16G barbell was in and I was done. Apparently there was a decent amount of blood after the needle was twisted. I wasn't really bothered though, I was more concerned about how it actually looked.
I got up to look in the mirror and it looked absolutely great. I know everyone says that about their own piercing, but I was so pleased at the placement. It was straight, not too big, but noticeable and I loved it. Lexci was the sweetest piercer, I thanked her and said I would definitely be back.
Since then, my friend Kali and I have been going to Shambhala for all of our piercings and recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good studio in Edmonton. I went with Kali about a month ago to get her septum done. It was straight, bloodless and according to Kali painless. A couple weeks later, she went to get her tragus pierced, all done by Lexci as well. All of her piercings, as well as my one have all done well and neither of us have had any major difficulties.
It has been about 7 months since I got it done, perhaps more, and I haven't had too many problems. During the first month, there was the usual discharge and discomfort but it was all manageable. I did wake up a few times with dried blood that had trickled down my ear and face and there was a period lasting about a week where it was discharging and swelling like mad to the point where I told myself if it got worse I would either go back to ask Lexci about it, or just take it out. I waited the week, perhaps two and the swelling and discharge went away. After that the only discomfort was accidentally sleeping on it, bonking it with a telephone, or having the cartilage bend when I slipped on/off a t-shirt.
Either way, getting a rook piercing was one of the most favorite things I've ever done. I think it's a very attractive piercing on anyone when done correctly. It is quick, easy and makes a great first cartilage piercing, especially if you want something different than your standard helix.