I'm 15 in a few days and a few hours ago I pierced my own cartilage! I have been into piercings for just over a year now and I really like getting new ones but often I am not allowed so for now I have just my new cartilage piercing , 3 regular holes in each ear lobe and my nose piercing. I live on an island in Scotland and we have no piercers up here. I self pierced my nose nearly a year ago (with a sharp earring , it turned out fine though and I still have it) and I self pierced the third set of holes in my ears nearly 2 years ago (using the same method as I pierced my nose with) and I have never had any problems with either of them either. I got my first 2 sets of lobe piercings gunned in a jewellery shop at the ages of 6 (first set) and 10 (second set).
At A Glance Author Joanne Contact xxlipstickgalxx@aol.com When It just happened Artist Me Studio My bathroom Location Scotland About a month ago I got my cartilage pierced with a gun in a hairdessing salon. Bad idea! It swelled up real bad and I screamed every time I touched it. And don't even mention the times I accidentally whacked it with hairbrushes and stuff. So painful! After about a week , I had to get my mom to pull the earring out for me. It was so sore , but at least I had that piece of rubbish out of my ear haha. My friend got hers done at the same time , skipped cleaning it lots and stuff and hers is healed already! So unfair but I hope that my new piercing will heal okay.
I still really badly wanted my cartilage pierced though! The gun in the haidressers hadn't put me off it. My friend has a piercing gun and was going round piercing people's noses and ears for free. She offered to do my cartilage piercing for me. But I told her no. I really didn't want an other gun piercing. Even if it was free. She showed me how good her cousin's cartilage piercing she did with her gun was healing but I still said no. The painful swelling that I had suffered was so bad you couldn't pay me to get it done with a gun!
When I got home that day I decided that I would pierce it myself. But with the proper supplies - a sterilized hollow 14g piercing needle and a 16g labret stud that would be long enough for any swelling. I told my mum what I was planning to do , and she was fine with it. So I went online and used my debit card to order the supplies. I couldn't wait till they came!
Today , they came in the mail. I was off school because I have a sinus infection. It's nearly cleared up though so thats okay with me. As soon as the supplies arrived I took them upstairs into the bathroom so I could pierce! I cleaned the surfaces with antiseptic cleaning stuff. Then I cleaned the labret stud with the antiseptic stuff too. The needle had came sterilized in a packet , but the labret stud hadn't so I just cleaned it as best as I could.
I decided not to numb. I figured it wouldn't hurt that much and I was right lol. So I got a felt tip pen (non toxic) and marked the spot I wanted pierced. The spot was just above where I'd had it done with a gun. I decided not to pierce in the exact spot as I figured going through scar tissue would probably hurt a lot! Then I cleaned my ear with antiseptic again.
I took the needle and pushed it through. It went through very fast and painlessly. It just slipped through. I was very surprised that it had gone through so quickly and that it hadn't hurt at all. Then I got the labret stud and put it in the back of the needle and pulled the needle through the hole again so the labret stud was in my piercing , and then I spent ages trying to screw on the tiny little blue gemmed ball. It took ages to screw it on , but once it was on - I was happy!
It had started to bleed a little but minus the blood , it looked really pretty! I decided to have a shower (despite having one just hours earlier) to wash off any blood that could infect my new cartilage piercing. I'm going to be cleaning it with sea salt soaks and H2Ocean piercing after care spray. I don't recommend DIY piercing but I used the proper tools and I made sure that everything was as clean as I could make it so I guess it was okay for me. Thanks for reading!.