Since I reached an itty bitty size zero my sophomore year in high school, I was curious about scalpeling. Since then, I've done a lot of research and my interest was more than piqued. It wasn't until I started having problems with my lobes that I really considered it, though. I figured I'd stretch as much as I could on my own before even thinking about it. I figured it'd be a few more years before I had it done.
At A Glance Author Dani Contact gesturesketch@gmail.com IAM DYEabolical When It just happened Artist Clay Studio Infinite Location Philadelphia, PA Until two weeks ago.
For about a year or so, my ears had pretty much stayed at 5/8ths of an inch. I was happy with the size for the most part; at the same time, however, I couldn't really stretch further thanks to my reckless high school stretching. I recently came down with a nasty cold, and through lack of cleaning and a lot of tossing and turning, I had taken my plugs out of my irritated ears. Apparently I gave them too much of a break. Within a week, my ears closed up to a 00 again. I was devastated. Years of my hard work, thrown out the window in one week. I decided it was time.
While I my ears were a little smaller, I'd taken a trip into Philly to talk to Kevin at Infinite and ask him what he thought about scalpeling my lobes. He told me to sit on it a bit more--as I was only 18 at the time--and keep coming in the shop. So when this crazy shrinkage happened, I called Infinite to ask if Kevin had come back to the east coast. Sadly, he wasn't working there anymore, but Clay also did some scalpeling. So after a little chat, I decided to head into the city with my friend so he could take a look and see what he was dealing with.
I have to say, as many times as I have been to Infinite, I never really talked to Clay. But man, is this guy awesome. He's totally sweet and very laid back and just one of those people that make you smile. When I arrived on Tuesday, he took a look at my ears and told me straight up how bad they were. I guess I hadn't realized what I was doing when I was first starting out because I had a looooot of scar tissue. He told me he wasn't as experienced with scalpeling as Kevin was, and he'd never done it on ears as scarred as mine. He also said he was willing to try if I was wiling to deal with the risk of them possibly winding up more scarred than before. I trusted Clay right off the bat and respected his honesty. Plus, I was way unhappy with how my lobes were reacting to recent attempts at restretching. I was totally game. Because of his lack of experience with ears as bad as mine, he offered to do it at just the price of the jewelry, which was really awesome of him. We were both getting something out of it: I was getting my ears fixed, and he was learning. I was totally down.
Infinite was unusually busy for a Tuesday afternoon, so I opted to come back on Wednesday to have the procedure. I brought another friend along who had no idea what we were going in for. (I'm known to get pierced on whims.) Clay seemed as excited as I did, even in his own laid-back sorta way. It wasn't long after my arrival that the three possible sizes of jewelry had been sterilized and we were ready to go.
Clay's room at Infinite has a really cool, relaxing vibe that reflects his own demeanor. The loud, thrashing music played in the lobby was fighting with the soothing, tribal chanting in Clay's work space. My friend, Clay and I joked around about random things as he got everything ready. Before anything, Clay took a taper to see exactly what size I was at; the 7/16ths taper only fit about half-way in. He figured the size I would wind up with was somewhere around there.
Next, he poked around my ears a bit, cleaning my ears and making marks with a skinny sharpie that he handed to me after using. At Infinite, they always give you the marker they use as a little souvenir and to show that they only use them once. I checked the marks out (which was difficult because they were more inside the fistula than outside) and plopped back down in the seat. I was totally stoked and ready to go.
He gently clamped my ears, spreading out the scar tissue so he could see where he was cutting, and after a bit of adjustment, he told me to take a deep breath and he made the first cut. I definitely felt it, but honestly, after getting the crook of my arm tattooed, it was nothing. It was more like a pinch than anything. The incision was small, anyway, so it wasn't too bad. I barely bled, if at all. He inserted the taper, which was the worst part since it just spreads open the wound, and then the jewelry. It still wasn't so bad. After that, he wiped my ear with a wet cloth which I assume was some disinfecting wipe of some sort. That was really nice after the burning heat in my ear. I must have made some kind of noise because he quipped, "Feel okay?" I replied with some sort of yes and he said, "That's because I just wiped your ear with heroin." We all had a good laugh, and he was like, "That's why you're so damn happy."
The other ear went pretty much the same and I wound up with two pretty clear glass eyelets in my newly cut ears. The coolest thing about them is that I can see the healing through the tunnels. After explaining the aftercare to me and a few more jokes, I asked how much the jewelry would be costing me. Being the nice guy that he is--and probably because he had just as much fun as I did--he told me it was no charge. Of course, I gave him an awesome tip.
Overall, getting my ears scalpeled was a GREAT experience. Granted, they're not as large as they used to be, but hopefully they will heal well and stretch nicely. Clay was great, as is everyone at Infinite, and I would recommend him and the shop to anyone. Infinite may usually be a bit more pricey than your average Jersey or Philly shop, but they make up for it in great service, cleanliness, professionalism, and an awesome selection of jewelry.
I will definitely continue to go there, and hopefully, once I'm a little more healed, I'll have Clay redo my double nostrils.
The scalpeling was great, my ears are only a little sore. But only time will tell. And so will sleeping tonight.