I recently took a trip to Seattle, Washington and Salem, Oregon to dance and visit Wave. I spent the first weekend performing throughout Seattle with my dance troupe and then headed down to Salem the following week.
At A Glance Author Vermillion Contact SarynAngel@hotmail.com IAM Vermillion When A week ago Artist Jory Zan Studio Jory Zan's Location Salem, Oregon While in Salem we planned to do various crafty things and lots of shopping. We also discussed getting tattooed to commemorate my visit. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to get, a Clive Barker picture from a horror book I had recently bought. It would be an addition to the sleeve that I want. We visited two of the tattoo shops in Salem and while the first was interesting, the vibe in there wasn't encouraging, and neither of us knew anyone who could recommend the shop to us. The second place was worse, it was a biker shop, and they had cut pictures out of magazines to use as flash, which gave me an all around bad feeling. It just didn't seem right, like a theft of other people's artwork. We went over to the Oregon coast to camp for an evening and stopped at another shop. I liked their work a lot, as well as the general good feeling in the shop. Unfortunately, the artist couldn't take us that night and we were only there for the evening.
I had pretty much decided that a tattoo was going to be too expensive and that it just wasn't meant to be. When we came home from the coast, we decided to stop by Jory Zan's piercing shop to look at their jewelry. I had it in the back of my mind that a piercing might be a good way to commemorate my visit, instead of a tattoo.
Previously, I had thought that I was done with piercings, except for possibly a horizontal hood to compliment my vertical, and an ear project. Somehow, I decided that a tongue web would be the perfect piercing. Which was odd, as I had never really considered getting that piercing before. I had a number of reasons for deciding to go ahead and get the piercing. One, it was hidden. I am in a position of not wanting to upset my parents any more than they are already. This would be a piercing that is for my personal enjoyment. The only people who need to know about it would be the ones that I want to show.
So, I set up an appointment for that afternoon. I chose out a 14g CBR, (almost all of my jewelry is 14g, and I figured that it would be easy to switch out later, I also did not want a smaller gauge than that, for fear of tearing the flesh.) They gave me their aftercare pamphlet, a little bag of sea salt, a complimentary pen, and had me sign their permission form and show my ID. It then took a little longer for me to get in than they had told us, but finally it was my turn.
Jory is really sweet and personable. I was instantly at ease with her. The shop and the room where the piercings were performed were very clean, almost too clean. It is a new location, so it will take a while for the shop to take on qualities that I tend to see in most other shops. She had me sit on the table and chatted with Wave and I while she prepared her supplies. She had me swish with a mouthwash, and then asked me to hold still while she marked the location. After having me check on it, she asked me to lie down and relax. She then warned me that there would be a bit of discomfort while she applied the clamp. While she prepared, she had me doing deep breaths and relaxing. After a few moments, I figured she was getting ready to put the needle in, but the next thing I knew, she was telling me that she was putting in the jewelry.
I don't know how I feel about the fact that she didn't warn me when she put the needle in, it was kind of a relief not to anticipate the pain, and yet, if it had been a more painful piercing, it may have helped me to hold still better. The pain of this piercing was pretty much negligible. I couldn't tell the difference between the pain of the clamp and the needle going in. It was over very quickly and painlessly.
She did tell me that she missed her mark on one side, and asked me to take a look at it and let her know what I thought. She told me that the needle went deeper than the mark, but that was actually better than if it had gone shallow. I took a look at it, and it didn't really bother me. As I said before, this is a hidden piercing, and it isn't as critical to me that it is straight. Though, of course, I would have preferred that it be perfect.
Eating was difficult for a while, and is still awkward, a full week later. My saliva glands swelled up quite a bit, and were pretty ugly looking, but now that the swelling has gone down significantly, I really like this piercing. I can tell that I am going to end up playing with it a lot, as I already find myself trying to hook it over my bottom teeth. I plan to change the CBR out for a CBB in about 5 more weeks, as I think that will be more comfortable.