Rook piercing
At A Glance Author Gasuyina Contact Gasuyina@bme.anon When A month ago Studio V2 Tattoos/ Bath Body art centre Location Bath I have an interesting relationship with body mods it appears. The piercings I particularly like are discrete, slight ornamentation, rather than a bolt of metal through my flesh. But then I got a large tattoo on my lower arm in light brown which I didn't realise was unusual until the artist sounded surprised at how good it looked. Piercings, being less permanent than tattoos, have often struck me as something I would like to do, but my family are very anti-mod. I only got my lobes pierced as a teenager in an attempt by my mother to stop me getting a badly thought-out tattoo. But anyway, about 8 months ago, I got a hood piercing which I love, and still do. I still have to fight the urge not to tell people how pretty it was.
But I've got the body mod bug good now, and thought it would be nice to get a piercing somewhere slightly more obvious, either ear or eyebrow. I wear glasses and am fighting a loosing battle with my eyebrows as it is (I have my father's eyebrows: very dramatic, not very feminine) so I uhmm-ed and ahh-ed and decided to get an ear piercing. My first thought was a helix, because they're not unusual and can be very pretty but it seems everyone on campus has one of those, and I've always thought they looked silly with anything other than a CBR or carefully chosen barbell, and I like "pretty" things when it comes to jewelry. I'm not really a magpie, but I have those tendencies. It seems strange in retrospect, but the prevalence of helix piercings both was a for and against point ... It wouldn't raise eyebrows, but I would feel I was in risk of being a individual sheep: "Let's be different! Lets all dress in the same alternative fashions!" I'm also due to graduate this summer, all going to plan, and I wouldn't want to get a piercing to be told I would have to take it out for my chosen career path (which isn't actually chosen yet, but you know).
Doing a bit of hunting, I realised there were a lot more places in the ear that could be pierced than I ever imagined. Part of the discretion that I wanted in a piercing included the lack of "Oh! That must have really hurt!" reaction, which doesn't always have any relation to the amount of pain that it took: deith piercings are a perfect example. I've been told they're no more painful than a helix, and they look very nice, but that part of the ear looks very solid, and a lot of people think it would need a lot of force to pierce. I did contemplate getting a deith piercing, but I may one day want to wear headphones regularly. A friend suggested a conch piercing, but thats not really all that subtle (but she has 4 feet long neon pink dreads. We have different definitions of subtle). A rook grabbed my attention because it's small, discrete, unusual and would suit my ear shape very well. I'm of the opinion my ears are quite large, but they're in proportion to my head. Most of me is larger than average really.
I did a bit of asking around, got warned it would hurt quite a bit, and went to V2 tattoos in Bath. I'd bought replacement jewelry from there, and was satisfied with the level of cleanliness: everything was white and tidy. The man himself was a bit abrupt: not unprofessional, but not terribly talkative or friendly. As he was cleaning up, my boyfriend knocked on the door to ask if I wanted him in there, the man just said "Not allowed." and shut the door in his face. I found out afterwards there was a sign on the door saying "Friends are not allowed for hygiene reasons." but that did come across as quite rude. He asked if I wanted a barbell or ring, cleaned everything up and made the hole. As he was exchanging the needle for the bar, he said to me "You're brave, aren't you? Getting this done."
"Am I? Why?"
"It's meant to really hurt." And suddenly the pain in my ear was immense. I'd been alright but not thinking about it, but now I had no choice. A couple of seconds later:
"It's a pain you're getting a bar."
"Oh?"
"It's that much harder to put in." This statement was accompanied by a good thirty seconds of fiddling to get the thing screwed on. But to his credit, he listened careful when I explained where I wanted it, got it right first time with the dot of ink, gave me good aftercare advice (after I asked for it), charged £35 and told me to come back if anything was wrong.
My ear didn't really hurt, although the entire base swelled up, and so my ear stuck out directly from my head, being bright red ad about twice the size. Wearing any kind of hat was impossible with strong anti-inflammatories, and even then it was uncomfortable. That only lasted about a week or so. Three weeks later, the actual rook is still slightly swollen but I can rest on it carefully. It was very sore to clean for the first week, so I just soaked it and didn't try to wipe away the lymph. Now the edges are nicely healed up, it still weeps if something moves it without soaking first, but the bar is free and the skin is healthy.
It might be nice, one day, to get another next to it, but for now I'm contemplating another tattoo.
Post Script: It's been nearly two months now, and my ear is the same, except for some slight swelling/scarring around the bar, which appears to be settled down as I've recommenced soaking twice a day.