I decided one day that I wanted a medusa piercing. So, I called Sean and told him. He told me to come in and he'd pierce it. When I got there, he didn't have any jewellery. I said I could switch a shorter labret with the long labret studs that were in my side lip piercings. (They were originally pierced with CBR's.) He said it would look stupid, having one long and one short stud. I told him I'd go home and change the jewellery. He still stuck with "No" for an answer. He said he'd make me a long labret stud before Friday. It was Monday. So I left the studio disappointed, and went to my friend Bill's computer store and played with my laptop.
At A Glance Author San Contact San@bme.anon IAM BlueStar When Three months ago Artist Sean Studio Artistic Impressions Location Niagara Falls, ON, Canada I would call and bother Sean about the labret stud. On Friday, he said he had made the jewellery. (They make their own jewellery at Artistics.) I went in and after studying my face, which, at the time, had a 6ga labret piercing, 2 14ga lip piercings, a 4ga septum piercing (that is invisible to everybody) and an 18ga nostril piercing. Sean said that my mouth would look too crowded with the medusa piercing. I wasn't impressed. He said he would do it for me, but that was just his opinion. Remi and Phil told me it would look too crowded. I asked about horizontal eyebrows, and he said he didn't have any 1/2" bars, and 5/8" would be too big for my small face. Do note that these bars would be bent into 45 degree angle surface bars.
I was bored and I wanted a fun piercing, and Sean probably wanted to do a fun piercing. He suggested doing a ring finger piercing. I said that it wouldn't last very long. He showed me pictures of a ring finger piercing he did on another girl. Fresh, and healed. He said she had a bitch of a time healing it, as she worked at a factory, but it did heal. I was a bit skeptical because I've read on BME, many times, that these piercings don't last very long at all. Remi and Phil said it would be cool. So I decided, what the hell, let's do it. Note: I handle horses. I wear light fake-leather (I'm a vegetarian.. and a poor college student) gloves when I'm with them now. (Except for once, but that was an emergency, there was a tornado and I didn't have the time to get the gloves.)
Don't get me wrong. I'm probably making Sean sound like a stubborn bastard. However, he's not. He puts the client before the mod. He will voice his opinion on it, and give the pro's and con's and whatnot. Before we did my venoms we had a good, long conversation on what could possibly happen. The worst that happened was my tongue swelled. He cares about aesthetics and the customer. This makes him a good piercer. We did my horizontal eyebrows a week later, with 7/16" barbells that I had in my collection of jewellery and I did agree, that anything longer would have taken over my face.
Back to my finger. The skin seemed loose enough and I wasn't expecting much pain. Sean pulled out the supplies and we found a 1/2" ring that would fit my (small) ring finger, on my right hand. (I wear a ring on my left hand, or I would have done it on my left hand, because I'm right handed.) Yes, he washed his hands, changed his gloves, took everything out of sterile bags that were autoclaved, etc. If he didn't do all of this, I wouldn't get pierced by him every other week.
He cleaned and marked my finger. I agreed with the marks. The piercing was on the bottom side, my palm. I was watching him as he set everything up, and he did the piercing freehand, and I'm pretty sure he used a 12ga needle and 14ga jewellery because he told me I was going to bleed. He didn't tell me I was going to hate him after the piercing was done, so that lowered my expectations of pain, because he's told me that for some not-very-painful stuff.
Now the fun time, take a big breath in.. big breath out. I watched as he pierced my hand. I felt a sharp pain as it entered, a dull pain as it passed through, and a sharp pain as it exited. It caught me off gaurd a little bit because I wasn't expecting it. It was also neat to watch him pierce me. He said we were going to the fun part, jewellery insertion. It wasn't that bad. The throbbing in my finger went down after a few seconds, the ring was closed, and the cylinder shaped bead was put in. The cylinder shaped bead laid flat against the top of my finger, rather than a sphere, which wouldn't. There was a drip or two of blood and I was good to go.
I hung out for a bit and then walked to my car and unlocked it. I realized that driving might become somewhat of a problem. I drive with my right hand when I'm driving automatic. (You don't have much of a choice in a standard.) I kept my finger off of the wheel. I picked up some Purell, yes, I know, bad. It was for if I was out, and I got my hand dirty I could throw a bit on it and clean it off. I did this rarely. My aftercare regimen was what Sean suggests and what I've been doing: salt water soaks. 1/4 teaspon per 8oz water. I'd stick my hand in a large cup of very hot salt water and leave it there for 15 minutes every morning. Other than that, it was fine.
I grossed a lot of people out. I also have a bit of a horror story. Sean told me to take an ibuprofin-based painkiller, preferably motrin, to keep the swelling down. I didn't. So it swelled a lot. At first, the ring would move a bit, and it felt loose. After a couple of days it was digging into my skin. Oh, ya, I lost the bead constantly too. Most of the time I found it, but I went through a handful of beads. Well, that night when I felt it that swollen, I grabbed a 3/4" purple-blueish titanium ring from my collcetion. I used bolt cutters to try and cut the ring, as I couldn't get it out. Eventually, after fighting, I got the ring out without mucking it up too terribly badly. I wouldn't put it in a piercing though. I hung it through my 1/2" tunnel.
I slid the 3/4" cbr through the piercing and snapped a tiny bead in. That felt a LOT better. I soaked my hand for 15 minutes and left it alone for a few days. I kept loosing the stupid bead. So my brilliant idea: superglue. I grabbed a tube of superglue and would put a piece of paper or something between my skin and the ring, and drop superglue onto the bead. It worked for a couple of days, then I lost the bead again. Screw it. I closed the ring so that the sides overlapped.
After about a month I stopped soaking my hand and just washing my hands often with antibacterial soap. After two months the pain was gone. During the first month, I put a twoonie into a pop machine, and it got stuck, and I stupidly smacked it with my right hand. I spent some time soaking it with hot water in the washroom until the bleeding stopped.
Right now, its not sore or swollen, it crusts a little bit, and I still have the 3/4" titanium cbr in it, except its closed a bit tighter, since it moved around a lot before and was irritating. I have a very "different" piercing and my brother uses it to blackmail me. My mom did notice I was "wearing a ring" on my right hand and she was pleased, since I'm not girly at all.. She didn't see the other side of my hand, however, and I knew it would gross her out, so I kept it a secret. Until my brother said "Did you show Nick your finger piercing?" while in queue at a store. I'm pretty sure my mother heard, but didn't care.
Sean did a good job, and its healing quite well. Hopefully it stays. However, I do plan on starting to horseback ride again, and you hold the reins between the ring and pinky fingers. I also can't punch people anymore. Even though I went through some troubles at the beginning, its worth it. I do know the piercing may not last in the long-long term, but hopefully it does.
Props to Sean for kicking ass and being a great piercer.