I had been thinking about getting my conch pierced for quite a while, and there wasn't really much stopping me - just getting myself to the studio and paying for it! I loved the idea, the look, everything about it.
At A Glance Author Shiv Contact ethnic_elephant@hotmail.com When A year ago Studio Sting, Oasis Market Location Birmingham, England After a great weekend spent by the beach, I decided to get pierced as soon as I stepped off the train back at home. The train station in the middle of town is less than 10 minutes walk to the studio, so after persuading my sister to meet me and come with me, I went in!
The staff at Sting are very informative, although the lady that pierced me wasn't particularly chatty. I don't know her name as she didn't introduce herself. I'm diabetic, so they did check that I had eaten and wasn't going to collapse on them!
Having never had anything more than my lobes pierced about 10 years previous to this, I had no idea what to expect. The lady marked a spot on my ear and handed me the mirror, which is when I realised she thought I wanted a low helix piercing! I explained that I wanted it to go through the cartilage, about halfway "down" my ear, right in the curve of my ear. After a couple more attempts, she hit the right spot, and so we went ahead.
I was pretty nervous, but to be honest, I hadn't really thought about the pain aspect of things. Quite what I thought would happen after I had it done, I don't know. Either way, I was determined to get it done and get it done now!
She sprayed my ear with freezing spray (I know people disagree about whether to use this, but as I say, this was my first 'proper' piercing so I didn't know if it was normal or not) which was possibly one of the most painful experiences of my life. It gave me a screaming headache from the cold and was just generally horrible and painful. At one point large ice crystals were falling from my ear.
Pretty much straight after this she used what my sister later described as a 'kebab skewer' to pierce me. It was very quick and because my ear had been frozen, I didn't feel anything more than a little pressure. In went the barbell, and we were done.
I sat there for a couple of minutes before getting up and going. By this point, my ear was beginning to get hot and red. I was feeling slightly faint/ill from the whole thing, so we went to get something to eat.
It wasn't until we got into the fast-food place that it began to REALLY hurt. Hot, throbbing, waves of sheer pain. I ended up with my head on the ordering counter because it hurt so much! I was swearing so loudly that my sister had to tell me to be quiet, heh! This pain lasted all evening. My family found it very entertaining as my ear had swollen up so much it was way bigger than the other and looked a right sight.
For the first few days, I couldn't go anywhere near my ear without wanting to cry. I accidently knocked it a couple of times, and that hurt beyond belief. I remember a couple of evenings I spent with my ear in a bowl of cold water trying to cool it down as it was still red and hot (I looked absolutely ridiculous with me on hands and knees angling my ear in the bowl!)
After a few days, it was no longer hot and throbbing, but it was still red and swollen. This eventually went down after about 10 days. It took a good couple of months for me to be able to sleep on that side.
It's more than likely that I took a long time to heal because of my diabetes.
My family, at first, were quite negative about it and called it all sorts of things from 'vile' to 'disgusting' and 'gross'. Now, they don't even see it when they look at me. They're pretty much anti-mod, but seeing as between me and my sister we've got 3 tattoos and 1 (soon-to-be-2) non-lobe piercing, they're having to put up with it.
Now, 18 months after getting it done, I still love it as much as ever. It hurt like hell getting it done, but I wouldn't change it for the world. It sits snugly just under the curve of the outer bit of my ear. I love the way it looks. It's healed brilliantly, and only gets irritated if I knock it or catch it quite hard. Even then all I need to do is give it a couple of salt soaks and be gentle with it and it's fine.