At A Glance Author Eric Contact alchemy_pirate@yahoo.com IAM AlchemyPirate When It just happened Artist Michael Crites Studio No Regrets Tattoo Emporium Location Memphis, TN For nearly 2 years now, I've been wanting my inner conchs punched. At first, I was settled for 0g, but one day, I was like, "Man, 00g is so much cooler." so I made up my mind on getting 00g inner conch punches one day. Well, here's the story of how it happened.
This year for school, I started homeschooling at the 2nd semester, which meant that I could do my work at my own pace, and get done whenever I wanted. Well, I made the contract with my mom that if I finished all my work early and maintained a 4.0 GPA for the year, I would be allowed to get my inner conch punches. Of course, like anyone who wants something for like 2 years, they'll do whatever it takes to get that thing. well, I did it. I finished school on April 4 of this year, and that very same day, we put in the order at No Regrets for the punches. Normally, the wait wouldn't have been long at all, but because most people don't like punches past 0g, only punches up to 7mm were stocked.
From there, I decided to do what I've done for all my piercings, and have all my own supplies except for the needle/piercing instrument. So I went home and ordered a 00g IS concave taper and 00g clear GWS colorfronts from BodyArtForms. They came a few days later, and we set my appointment up for April 19th (yesterday). The anticipation was killing me up to that day. If you look at my IAM page, I was talking about it for the past forever. haha. Well, the day finally came, and I was a nervous wreck.
Like every piercing I get, I'm always ridiculously nervous until I sit in the chair to get it done. I was nervous the whole damn time with these.
Because I had my own jewelry, we had to get to the shop pretty early for autoclaving and such. My appointment was for 4:30, so we got there around 3. We arrived, and I chatted with my piercer and the counter guy for a bit, and we decided it was time to autoclave. I gave him the plugs and the taper, and we were going. Well, not going, more like sitting. We put it on a 40 minute cycle, and from there, the anticipation got worse. 40 minutes go by, and we go back to the room. We discussed everything with my mom about possible very loud crunches, screaming, and extreme bleeding and such, so she decided to stand outside the room, with the occasional peek in.
At first, I was to be sitting up, but I decided I wanted to lie down instead, which in retrospect, I think was much better. So, Michael did all my markings and stuff, and we decided on left ear first, and to do both punches back to front, then taper from front to back. He held the cork and the punch to my ear, and there was about 10 seconds of silence. Everyone in the room was like >_>. And he said, "tell me when you're ready," and I was like, "oh. I was just waiting on you." and that gave a quick chuckle before the ominous "give me a deep breath in" and he punched. It was so insanely painful. As you'll see in the video, I was giving out some nice profanity while it was happening. As soon as the punch was done, I felt insane relief. I didn't feel the taper. I just heard it squeezing through the cartilage, and the plug felt like someone had put an ice pack on my ear. He put some pressure on it with a paper towel for a few moments to help stop the bleeding some, and the first ear was done, and I was ready for the second one.
I honestly didn't know what had just happened to me. I couldn't place such an intense sensation into any category. I've shattered 4 ribs before, and this was still more painful, and I still had one left. It was go time. :p
So, we move to the right ear now. He does another quick little cleaning, and we get down to it pretty quickly. I tried bracing myself for such an intense feeling again, but hell, that didn't work at all. It hurt just as much the second time, but it just seemed to go a little faster. My right ear didn't bleed anywhere near as much as the left one, but it hurt just as bad. This time, I spouted a different string of obscenities, and after everything was done, we informed my mother that the process was over. She then informed us, "you know, it was really hard to pray with that kind of language going on." :p I apologized to her beforehand, so she understood.
I had to sit still for probably what was 15 minutes. I didn't even bother trying to get up, out of fear of fainting. I didn't think I would faint or have any problems, but I lost a lot of blood, so I figured I wouldn't try my chances. I finally felt okay to stand up, and took a look at my amazing new punches.
As soon as the process was done, we sent my mom on a quest for ice cream, and she came back with half a gallon of mint chocolate chip for me, which made me feel insanely better. We decided I wasn't good to drive, so I came home, and enjoyed a peaceful night after that.
Today, I woke up laying on my left side, including my ear. I was dreading getting up, but it's just a little sore. My right ear feels absolutely amazing, and I haven't had any problems with random bleeding yet (crosses fingers and knocks on wood.) I've got to figure out an optimal way to sleep on my back, but until then, I should be pretty okay.
All in all, I would definitely recommend getting cartilage punches to someone, as long as you're ready for pain. It's a great alternative to taking years to stretch a cartilage piercing. Anyway, check out my IAM page (AlchemyPirate) for a few pictures and a video later today. Thanks for reading everyone!