My 4 piercings in one day extravaganza

At A Glance Author Neck piercer Contact t.r.white@bton.ac.uk Artist Sprog Studio Adrenalin Body Piercing Location Southampton, England

As an avid reader of Savage magasine, I was thumbing through it in an attempt to find a new piercing for my ears. I already have scaffolding and lobe stretcher in my right ear, amongst other rings and bars. I came across an orbital piercing than linked the inner conch and outer lobe. That was it, I ecided that this was the new piercing I had been looking for. I didn't tell my mum about it as she's not overly keen on piercing. I roped my friend into giving me a lift down to the shop, and so he could watch as well. As it would happen we were on the way down to the shop, and we had a car crash. It was not serious, but the car wasn't going any where. So the driver went home to sort everything out, and me and my other friend went down to the shop.

When we got down there, there was one person in front of me in a queue. We got chatting, and I explained what I was having done. As she was only there to get her first piercing, she thought it to be a little bit extreme, oh well?!! When I got into the studio, the piercer Sprog, who I know quite well now as he's done most of my piercings, sat me down and I then explained what I wanted done, and showed him the picture. He said it would be tricky, but possible.

He put on some music to calm both our nerves, and set about measuring up and marking the entry site for both piercings(as it involves two needles.) This took about 10 minutes, this all lead to my nerves building up. Eventually after what seemed ages he said 'are you ready?' I said yes, and started doing some deep breathes to calm myself, I always do this to relax before every piercing. Sprog mentioned that the inner conch would be very painful to pierce, but after the ring was in, the pain would die away quickly.

To do the piercings I sat up on his operating table. The needle passed through the conch, with quite a bit of effort, as the cartilige is very tough there. I won't lie, this did hurt A LOT!! he checked to see if I was alright to proceed, and then pierced the outer lobe, this luckily did not hurt as much.

He then clipped the needles to an appropriate length and had me lie on my side, so he could get to my ears easier. The next ten minutes was spent trying to get the ring to align into both needle tubes, this also almost bought a tear to my eye, all the while my friend found the fact that I was in pain thouroughly amusing. After cleaning up the blood, Sprog explained the after care, and said to put some ice on it, as it would swell for a while.

I tryed not to sleep on it for about a week, and the pain dulled after about two weeks. It looks spectacular, and it makes a talking point, however alot of people are grossed out by it.

When I got home I told my mum that I'd been in a car crash, and then showed her my ear, she asked if I'd done it in the crash, and I told that I'd had it done on purpose earlier that day, and she came out with the normal questions about did it hurt blah blah blah.

It was only three weeks before I went back and Sprog took a photo of it for his waiting room portfolio, I also went to get another piercing done. This one was even more complicated than the last. The same principle of orbitals, but passing through the lobe, anti tragur and inner conch. He said that this would probably be one of the most painful things I was likely to feel ever. So this time I opted for anasthetic. This made the area so cold that it actually hurt a bit. This was an experimental piercing for him, and he said that h's never seen it before so it was very much trial and error. Again the measuring took quite a while, all this time I was trying to chill out and relax. Finally the three points were marked and the piercings were performed. Even with strong anasthetic this hurt like never before, the sort of pain that puts you of piercing alltogether.

After the piercing was done I felt very faint and had to sit sown for ten minutes to sort myself out. I was in seriour agony on the way home, and as soon as I got home dunked my ear into a bowl full of ice. The pain dulled after a few hours. There was no chance of me sleeping on it at all, and unfortunatly I did have to take it out after about a month as it got infected, however it healed up well and I did manage to get a photo of it.

Since these events I have another conch lobe orbital above the last one, and now I thriving to find a new way to pierce ears. If you have any suugestions please e-mail me, if you want to exchange experiences, feel free. e-mail me at t.r.white@bton.ac.uk

See you later piercing fans...Tom White(Neck piercer)