It has become a tradition for me to get a piercing on my birthday. A right of passage. The 16th birthday is a big one, so I thought, "What the hell... I'll get three!".
At A Glance Author Melanie Contact melanie_chinn@hotmail.com When A year ago Artist Joe Duccette Studio A&J Body Piercing Location Stephenville, NL, Canada
Armed with copious amounts of orange juice, my family and I drove to A&J body piercing, which is in the next town over. The piercer, Joe, first pierced My Inner Conch, and then My Anti-Tragus, and we were finishing the day with my Rook piercing.
This bugger gave me trouble right from the get-go.
Joe put the cork against my ear, under the ridge of cartilage he was about to pierce, and the needle went through no problem. Wasn't very painful at all. However, when Joe went to follow through with the jewelry, the hole had already closed over too much mostly due to swelling. So, 10 minutes and more blood saturated q-tips than I cared to count later, he had to pierce through again. This time he used a 14g needle and inserted a 16g curved barbell. Once the bleeding had stopped again, I look in the mirror, and it was perfect! Little did I know, this had been foreshadowing of more trials and tribulations to come.
I took care of all my piercings diligently. Sea salt soaks, saline solution, tea tree oil(which no matter what anyone says, works wonderfully for me and feels like heaven on an angry piercing). I was careful to keep it clean while not over cleaning it. I had always thought no one who takes his or her body modifications, health, and the health of his or body modifications seriously, wound up with infections. The universe taught me better than that though!
In July, 7 months after I had my rook pierced, I went to the beach with some of my friends. We swam in the ocean, had a fire on the beach, all that good summer time stuff. The ocean is, as Homer Simpson says, is the world's toilet.
For the week after I had noticed my ear was swollen again, I was experiencing more crusties, and it was sometimes hot to the touch. There was no pus or significant pain, so I thought I'd just irritated it or knocked it. So for a week, I just babied it like it was fresh, cleaned both the rook and anti-tragus(the inner conch having already fully healed) three times a day, and did hot compresses twice a day.
I woke up at a friends house a week after the excursion to the beach with my ear red as a fire truck and swollen to nearly the size. It was hot to the touch, and the ridges and indentations were softened dramatically. The ridge of my helix was just a little bump!
My mom took me to the emergency room. I was scared. Doctors don't have a good record for treating mod related ailments fairly or even correctly. However, the triage nurse who checked out my ear first was awesome. He had visible tattoos and a nose ring. He warned me - The doctor I was about to see was "male genitalia" and he was going to tell me to take out the piercing. I shouldn't do that.
And of course I shouldn't. Taking the jewelry out would have allowed the skin to close over the infection, prevented it from draining and created a dangerous abscess. But of course, "Take the jewelry out" was the third sentence the ignorant man said to me. The first was "Which one are you complaining about, you have to many" and the second, "It's infected". He then asked where the exit hole was after bending my ear forward to look behind it. I was greatly offended by his attitude and his thick question. I thought it was pretty obvious, but then I'm very bitter for my age.
I was prescribed 500mg of Novo-Lexin, twice a day, for 10 days. I was absolutely mortified. I made my parents promise they wouldn't tell anyone I had let a piercing get infected. When I think about people with infected piercings, I think of teenagers whose parents won't let them get piercings, and find a safety pin and a bottle of rubbing alcohol in their bathroom.
I didn't think about me. I didn't think about someone who was so careful, someone who had tried to educate herself so this kind of thing didn't happen. All sources say if a piercing is professionally done, and all aftercare instructions are followed chance of infection is low.
I took my antibiotics, and the infection cleared up. The pus only started to ooze after my first dose, and from there the healing was very fast. The memory still squicks me out though!
In the months after my infection, as the rook totally healed I came to make my peace. The sources said the chances were "low", but not zero. I got an infection, I cleared it, it healed and that's it.
I would absolutely go through it all again. The two re-piercing, the blood, the swelling, the tenderness, the puss. I love my rook piercing.
After that little adventure, what I'm left with is the knowledge that infections sometimes happen no matter what you know, or how well you care for you modifications. And the piercing that I get the most compliments on.