For a few months, I had decided to get my earlobes pierced for a second time because my mother asked me to stop stretching my first ones. When I finally got up the nerve to ask her, she didn't really have a problem with it as long as I paid. I looked up the two piercing studios in my area and Ink Link was the only shop that had reviews on BME, and they sounded promising. Also, I hadn't heard of them tattooing minors, unlike Devotion Tattoos.
At A Glance Author discomfort.wings When It just happened Artist Robbie Studio Ink Link Tattoos Location Hickory, NC My mom finally took me today. We went to go eat Sonic first because I had heard that eating was good for you beforehand. I got a little nervous as I finished my lunch because I realized that I hadn't been pierced in 9 years, and that was with a gun. I was worried that it was going to hurt and make a fool of myself. I was also afraid of bleeding all over the place.
When we got to Ink Link, I wasn't really greeted, just asked what I wanted by a man with ears stretched to about 1" and tons of tattoos. I told him and he asked me what type of jewelry I wanted. They had CBBs that perfectly matched my current ones in my first lobe piercings but I was disappointed to hear that they didn't have ANY internally threaded jewelry. He told me that the threads went inside the needle and I would be okay as long as I didn't take my jewelry out during the healing period. I decided that I'd go for it anyway although I was a little wary of his expertise now. I also had to tell the lady taking my information that I wanted to be pierced at 14 gauge because they didn't ask me. My mom and I showed our IDs and signed a form saying that Ink Link wasn't responsible for any injuries caused by the piercer. After that we sat on the couch while Robbie talked to a woman about a tattoo she was going to get. The place smelled clean and it looked okay. I wasn' t worried about getting some weird disease in there, I mean. I looked around after about 10 minutes and decided that it might take a while, so I picked up a book with pictures of different tattoos people had gotten in the past. As soon as I lifted it up off the table, I was called into a room.
I was asked to sit down and he marked my ears with a fine tip Sharpie and I asked to look at the placement. I explained to him that I was going to stretch my piercings in the future and he told me that they probably wouldn't interfere with each other but just in case he would pierce my ears at the very edge of the markings. I sat in the chair while he put on some gloves and got the needle ready (it was in a sealed package, and the CBBs were in tiny little ziplock bags). My stomach began to feel a bit uneasy while he grabbed my ear and he told me to take a deep, long breath. The needle felt like someone was pinching my ear really hard. I didn't bleed at all. It didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would and I felt silly for worrying. He pierced my other ear and it probably took three to five minutes for the entire process.
He didn't give me any aftercare instructions other than "keep it clean and don't touch it with dirty hands and you'll be fine." No information on how I should clean it, what I should use to clean it with, or how long the healing time would be. I wasn't impressed with the lack of advice, but I knew I could find suitable aftercare elsewhere. Maybe he didn't give me great aftercare advice because I already have healthy piercings in my lobes and he knew what I was doing. Maybe he just didn't think that lobe piercings needed as much care as an industrial, i.e. I kind of felt like I was being hurried out of there, regardless of the reason. Anyhow, I paid my $40 and gave him a $6 tip. He seemed pretty happy about that.
The ride home wasn't that great because my ears still felt like they ached as bad as whenever I got pierced. The frigid air conditioning directly blowing on my ears didn't help very much either. Now, just a couple of hours later, my ears don't hurt at all. The placement looks fine and my ears still haven't bled. I say that it was an overall okay experience, and Ink Link is a mediocre shop. I'm not so sure that I'd take my business there again and I feel like I paid too much for what I received.