Well let me start off by saying that up here, in North Eastern New York, piercings are still somewhat of an oddity, and the less common piercings are practically non-existent. Lucky for me, my friend Matt, who just opened up his shop, Personal Touch Body Piercing, is from California. I met Matt a couple of months after he opened the shop, and he tries to keep the shop as relaxed as he can. It doesn't have the usual doctors office look that comes with most of the piercing shops up here. All of the regulars have added a bit of style to the place by drawing on the walls, and Matt has written some of his poetry on them as well. Matt also deals with each of his customers himself, he doesn't have any counter help (partially because he doesn't have a counter, only a couch).
At A Glance Author Jesse Contact cerrebus23@yahoo.com When A week ago Artist Matt Lapan Studio Personal Touch Location South Glens Falls NY This whole experience started with me and Matt sitting around talking about piercing. He had seen the anti-eyebrow on BME, and was telling me how he wanted to find some one who'd let him do them. Of course, me being the resident psycho next door at The Tattoo Clinic, and wanting to prove myself the same at Matts shop, volunteered. We talked about it a little bit then but didn't make any definite plans because I had a few other things I wanted to get done first.
So a couple of months went by before it came up again and we decided it wouldn't look too outlandishly bad on me. We figured it would help if we let my recently done septum heal a little more before inflicting more pain on my face. Also my labret was still not completely healed. Can you tell I've been on a piercing binge lately?
Finally the day came, and me and my girlfriend went down to poke a few new holes in us. She had never had anything else pierced before and had decided to get her tongue done. We got there, and as usual Matt was picking himself up off his couch as we walked in. We sat around for a while talking, and to calm my nerves a little we went outside to play some hacky sack, and have a smoke. We cooled down for a few minutes, and then he led me off into the back room. I sat in the chair musing over the new Star Wars paraphernalia he had acquired, then I heard the gloves snap. Which of course gave me a mental picture of the writing on his wall below the clock..."Time for pain!"
He spent about 10 minutes marking out the placement, and trying to center everything around my crooked nose. Finally, we decided on where they should sit, and he grabbed the clamp, while I tried to loosen up the muscles in my face. Now I have never been one to bitch about the clamp or the pain of a piercing, but when he put the clamp on, and actually managed to make it click down on the first notch, I thought he was trying to rip the skin off the left side of my face before he pierced it. It was at this point that he decided to tell me..."Ya know, you've got really thick skin there". I would have sarcastically thanked him, but he was holding a very sharp needle inches from my eye, and I figured discretion was the better part of valor.
The first one went right through, and I didn't feel a thing after that damned clamp. The second one was once again a new experience in pain when he put the clamp on. On this side he wanted to try pushing from the other direction (up and away from the nose) to see which was easier. It wasn't bad at first, but when the needle poked it's way through the thinner skin under my eye, I heard a crisp, crunchy little snap, and felt a slight twinge of pain. Then he slid the bar through, and it was all over. After he put away his clamps (bastard things), and needles, we went outside for another smoke. Before we went back in to start on my girlfriends tongue, a few of our friends showed up and complimented me and Matt on the new holes. I've been told they look like everything from tear drops to quotation marks. But everyone agrees that they look good and suit me really well.
All in all, it wasn't a bad piercing. It hurt less than my septum, excluding the clamp. It's been about a week since then, and although I had a little bruising around my left eye, they've been easy to take care of, and haven't caused me any discomfort. Now I'm just waiting for the day when my 4 month old son decides he wants to hold onto the shiny things in daddy's face.