I go to a college about an hour outside of New York City and had been living there for a few months when I decide to get a new piercing. I started school when I was still 17 years old and for awhile I was unable to experience being fully free. Finally about a month after my 18th birthday I decided it was time to get a new piercing that actually didn't require parental permission.
At A Glance Author ononomous-ess IAM dontbitemypaw When Three months ago Artist Alex Studio Red Rocket Tattoo Location New York, NY I wasn't really planning on getting any specific piercing. Instead I decided to look around bmezine.com to see if there were any piercings that I liked. Since I'm rather paranoid about piercing my face (I'm afraid of facial scars) I decided to get yet another ear piercing. I already had 14 other ear piercings all together so there was very little room to fit a new piercing, causing my number of choices to narrow down quite a bit. I eventually decided on an industrial piercing and got very excited about my decision as I read different experiences and looked at all the various pictures.
After a few weeks I took a train down to the city with my sister to Red Rocket Tattoo since I had read good reviews about it online. When I got there I saw the piercer Alex smoking inside. This made me feel a bit uneasy because I think of smoking as dirty and think that any place where a needle is supposed to enter into parts of your body should be clean. Depsite being put off by this I still decided to go ahead with the piercing.
I told Alex what I wanted and copies of my ID were made. Alex joked around with me about my picture (I have short pink hair now and I used to have very long brown hair) and then he briefly examined my ear to decide what size jewelry to use. He had me sit down upright in a dentist-like chair and prepared the various "tools" for the piercing. Everything seemed sterile and he wore gloves the entire time, but I was also put off by the fact that I had to sit upright during the piercing. I suppose I grew used to lying down for ear piercings at my old piercing place back home. Meanwhile, my sister sat down on the couch and averted her gaze since she was more nervous than I was.
It finally came time for me to get the actual piercing. After hearing about how much the piercing hurt I closed my eyes and prepared for the worst. However, the piercing didn't hurt at all though it was mildly uncomfortable. After a few seconds the jewelry was through both holes and the balls were screwed on. Alex handed me a mirror so I could take a look at my new piercing. I wasn't too pleased with how it looked but that was only because of the purple ink that remained after he had marked my ear. I paid him 70 dollars (60 for the piercing, 10 for H20cean) and gave him a tip, then went back to my school. I constantly worried about someone accidentally hitting me in the ear and my hair quickly became tangled in the jewelry.
I soon found out that I would only be able to sleep on my left side, which is the side without my industrial piercing. Even lying flat on my back proved to be difficult since the jewelry very lightly touched my bed and thus caused my piercing to hurt. Cleaning it wasn't so difficult considering I was using H20cean, but after it ran out I used my own salt water mixtures.
After a few weeks of having the piercing a bump formed on the top hole, probably as a result of accidentally bumping my ear in the night as I attempted to sleep. This bump only grew bigger when a friend purposely hit me in the ear on two different occasions, despite the fact that he clearly saw the obvious bar going through my ear. I've honestly made no attempt to get rid of the bump because it's not visible to most people and I'm not the best when it comes to taking care of piercings. I should also note that this piercing is very annoying and frustrating because my hair constantly gets tangled in the top ball.
Once again I've become bored with my piercings and this time I think I'll actually dare to get a facial piercing. After looking around on bmezine again I believe I've decided on a lip piercing. However I will not be returning to Red Rocket Tattoo because after reviewing the piercer's online portfolio I've discovered that it appears he uses the wrong types of jewelry for some different piercings which I find rather scary.