It was prom weekend, and I was feeling really into myself at the time. I was with close friends some three hours from home and without any parental supervision. We were at the boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ, and I kept seeing piercing studios up and down the place. I have always had it in my head that I wanted the same piercing I used to help my older brother with.
At A Glance Author miffedMisFit Contact miffedmisfit@aol.com When A year ago Location boardwalk, wildwood, nj My older half-brother, who is seven years older than I am, has always been an important figure in my eyes. Simply because there was such an age gap between us, we didn't have the close relationship that I have with my younger brother, who is only eighteen months younger than me. One day he came home with a vertical industrial bar in his left ear. The 14 gage bar was pierced through his rook and conch. I always thought it was the coolest ear piercing I have ever seen, because I have only ever seen it once. This was back when he was about eighteen or nineteen so my memory is a little fuzzy. I do remember always helping him clean it after showers and occasionaly switching out the bar out for individual rings. He had a couple tattoos as well, and in general he was my first influence into the world of body modification. He wasn't very into it as far as I could tell with only two tattoos and four piercings, but he opened up the idea to me. Not to soon into the future from there, he moved out for reasons that I cannot remember. I think it was the second time he moved out. I have seen him once since, and have only recieved one phone call since. At the time, I had not heard from him in about five or six years. It truly upsets me, because I had always looked up to him, and he was never around. When he was around, he was the coolest big brother ever, not the best, but definitely the coolest. I sincerely miss him.
The main part of this story takes place back in I think May or June of 2007. As I said before, it was prom weekend. No parental supervision. As with most typical parents, they hate piercings, and I was eighteen years old. I kept walking in and out of piercing studios all up and down Wildwood's boardwalk. I saw one, whose name I cannot remember, and I decided that this was where I would get pierced. I wanted the same vertical industrial piercing that my older brother had. At the time, he was still the only person I had ever seen with one. Every single other person I had seen with anything similar, was a standard industrial piercing with the bar going through the top of the ear at the helix horizontally. So I walk into this particular shop because I had seen the permits on the wall which was also I believe swamped with newspaper clippings. The paper clippings were about the store and the resident piercer there and how good the service was and so on and so forth. I asked if he could do a vertical industrial, and I showed him where, and we proceeded to pick out the jewelry. I chose a 2 1/2 inch long black titanium bar with cones on each end. I let the guy take me to the back of his shop after he photocopied my I.D. and I filled out the disclaimer form. He marked where I told him the area I wanted to be pierced, I laid down, and he stuck the needles through. It hurt, but it wasn't too bad. After that experience, I do believe I am addicted to the pain and the endorphin high. The guy was nice, I thought he knew what he was talking about. He kept complimenting me, saying how the piercing worked with my short hair cut, which was a fauxhawk at the time. I think he said it looked very british punk. So I got up to pay while he was informing me about how to take care of it. He said a swim in the ocean would be good for it. The sea water would help it start healing. I agreed with him, because I remember reading some where online that saline solution, whether mixed at home or bought in a store, is good for a newly healing piercing. I was therefore a bit confused when he handed me a pink colored anti-bacterial soap that he told me to clean it with. The article that I read stated not to use colored soaps to cleanse piercings. I was like, okay, what ever. I paid him and left. I never intended to use the soap, and I never did. I met back up with my friends who were totally shocked at what I did. Some liked it, some didn't. I loved it; I had this gorgeous piercing that reminded me of my brother. So after a game of mini golf, and a long nap in my car, my friends and I packed it up and went home.
A few days after I got the piercing, I noticed that it was pressed against the daith (the inner ridge just above the ear canal). At first, I just thought my entire ear was swollen from being pierced twice through thick cartilage. However, by the time I noticed it, I figured the swelling should have gone down. I cleaned it regulary, and I kept turning/spinning the bar to loosen the crusty stuff that formed around each hole (which I later found out, but wasn't informed by my piercer, that I should not do). Days passed into weeks. I noticed that the flesh on my rook in front of the piercing was shrinking. It always held the shape of the bar through it, and I noticed that it was getting thinner and thinner. I thought (and stupidly so) that the swelling was just going down. Also, my daith was swollen up a bit and the bar was pressed into it, kind of engraving itself in my ear. The cone at the end of the bar through my rook also was pressed into the flesh of my ear right above it, which kept bleeding because the edge cut into it. Eventually, I woke up one morning and my rook was ripped. It had rejected all the way through. I took the bar out and let my conch heal. I was so extremely disappointed because I loved the piercing, I loved the way it looked, and I loved who it reminded me of.
When I examined the damage to my ear, I had a torn rook, and two spots (one where my daith is, and one above the rook) that were rubbed raw and open. The cartilage (my daith) actually seemed to be trying to grow around the middle of the bar. I let it all heal. To this day, I still have an indent in my daith and the cartilage above my rook, and there is a visible scar where the rook ripped. I can still feel each imperfection in my ear with my fingers and it is about eight months later.
A while ago, maybe two or three months after the industrial rejected on me, I visited a well known shop in Bellville, NJ, called Starlight Tattoo. I was recomended to a piercer there, a guy named Dominick, by one of my coworkers. I checked out the guys portfolio, and I was impressed with his work. The main reason why I was there, was because a friend had given me the idea of corset piercings. I had done a lot of research on corset piercings and surface piercings, which lead my interest towards dermal anchors. I was told this person did surface piercings, and I went there to see where I was able to pierce on my torso. While I was there, I learned that he loved to pierce ears more than anything. I had seen lots of wonderful examples in his portfolio. So remembering my failed vertical industrial, I asked him if he thought it would reject again if I got it re-pierced in the same spot. I told him what I had pierced, and what went wrong. He told me yes and why. He said my rook is to small to hold the bar without rejecting. The man who originally pierced my ear never gave me any warning against it. He never said it had a chance of rejecting. I was disappointed yes, but Dominick said he could do something similar to it, which peaked my interest. He said he can connect any two or three spots in an ear with a bar, just tell him where, and he would try to think up the best way possible. Amazing.
I have thought about going back, because after much research, and because I trust his experience. However I have not had the chance to yet. I have moved far far away since then to Memphis, TN, and I am currently looking for a shop in the area with some one experienced enough to trust my ears to again. I eventually will get something close to the vertical industrial I had. Like I said, it's a reminder to me of a member of my family. I'd like to have it back.