Warning - this is not going to be a short read. Partially because I am in the mood the right but also because a 2 hour piercing experience warrants more than a paragraph saying, "hey, here's my new piercings, cool yeah?" I'm no stranger to piercings (I've had....(counting) 27 piercings) and I have never had an experience like this. If you wanna skip ahead to the photo descriptions, it's on down the page. I'll even highlight it.
So here it goes...
I got to work early today and my job is really lenient with hours and stuff so I said I was just going to use my lunch break to run some errands and it might take awhile. Left around 3pm for my piercer. Initially it was because the other night (one drunken night...) the bead to my microdermal fell off either in my sleep or at the bar and I needed a new one. Having a hole in your head that isn't filled with a proper gem just feels awkward. I also needed my nose screw tightened a bit and him to look at my latest conch piercing I got the day I moved to Texas.
Boy, is it so convenient to not live 1,000 miles away from my piercer...
Oh, and after not wearing my plugs for a few weeks they had shrunk so we were in the process of restretching them so I wanted to go up a size. Got all that done and told him I needed something to balance my left ear out since I had retired a few of my piercings just out of getting tired of taking them out and putting them back in daily for my second job. So he tells me he's been doing a lot of ear projects lately because he has this new titanium jewelry that, "just bends like butter." So he looked at my ear, asked what I had in mind, I told him he was the genius and it was really up to him, and after staring at my ear for a few minutes explains this concept that I just couldn't visualize (never can) and said to go for it.
He mentioned doing two new piercings and stretching my current helix piercing so he cleaned my ear like crazy (seriously, it was like a 5 minute cleaning of my ear) and started to bend the jewelry while looking at my ear. Spent a few minutes bending it and then says to me, "you're going to hate me but I think we're just going to do 3 new piercings."
"Okay" was my response.
About 5 more minutes of bending the jewelry he tells me it's time to do the preliminary markings. Cool. Another 5 minutes pass once he has got what he wants.
"Okay, take two deep breaths" is my cue to know that it's time to shove a needle through some thick cartilage. Second exhale is when the needle goes through. I hate doing the first exhale because I know the second inhale will come and then I have to exhale and then it's going to be pain. I'm such a wuss. The first piercing hurt. Bad. I uttered a few cuss words.
Back to staring at my ear for a bit and then deciding if his preliminary mark was where he wanted the second piercing to go. I thought he had something in his hand that wasn't a needle...it looked wooden to me so I didn't know what he was doing but then I heard my cue. I thought he was just going to do something with the jewelry or something that might hurt a good bit. Nope, second hole done on the second breath and I was not expecting it. Less pain than the first one but still wigged me out a bit.
That's when the jewelry started to go in and started to get bent a little more. Lots of pressure. And I mean lots. The funny thing through was that I was pretty calm throughout it. I'm usually not afraid to tell my piercer that he really sucks (and even more offensive things) when he is putting me through pain but I was really zen. When he was marking my ear at first I was just closing my eyes and not really thinking about much. I don't meditate because I can't ever clear my mind but it's probably the closes to meditation I've ever been. He gave me props for preparing myself for what I was about to get into. I was kind of in that state a lot through the whole process and I think that's what helped me stay calm for when I wasn't in a meditative state.
Anyways...
After lots of fun pressure fiddling with the jewelry it's time to do the third and final hole.
"Okay, give me a deep breath."
In my mind that means he's being lazy and means give him two and on the second is when the needle is going through. Okay, inhale. About the let it out thinking how I've still go one more inhale til the needle and then bam! I exhale and the needle goes through, I automatically (while the needle was halfway through my ear) was like, "you jerk! You were supposed to give me two!" Of course he would throw me for a loop...
Jewelry goes through. More fiddling. More pressure. This paragraph is not for people that don't like blood and freak out over the word. I've never seen so much blood come from getting pierced. I rarely bleed but when I do it's like a q-tip is able to clean it up. Maybe two. When I looked over there were probably 10-12 q-tips and a tissue that had quite a few spots on it. Not cute.
After sitting/laying in the chair for an hour and a half I finally got to see what was done to my ear. Because honestly, I couldn't tell what he was doing at any point in time.
So now, if you skipped all the mumbo jumbo, this is the time where you get to read what is going on in the pictures.
Picture 1 - My left ear. I kinda labeled it to make it easier. A is my microdermal that I've had for quite some time now. B is the first piercing that was done. I guess it's an inner conch piercing and I guess D, the second piercing done, would be classified as one too. C is a conch piercing I've had for quite a few years. E is the third piercing that was done. I'm going to get a smaller that spot ball put one once it is healed. You can also kind of see my top helix piercing through my hair.
Picture 2 - Back of my left ear. The bottom big ball is the first piercing done today, the one above that is my old conch piercing, where it leaves the back above the older conch piercing is the second hole done, and then the top is the third. And you can still see the scarring I have from the very first piercing my piercer ever did on me.
And just for some update purposes -
Picture three is my right ear. The blue hoop is the piercing I got done the day I moved here. It was meant to cover the scarring that is there from my snug piercing rejecting but the ring isn't staying quite where we wanted it to. Once it has healed I am going to get a helix piercing right across from it and turn it into a conch-helix orbital.
Picture four - My nape! Now officially over 4 years old and still going strong.
Oh, and I feel like DDN hasn't seen my face in awhile...
Oh, hai.
I really want my conch pierced too! Something to look forward to when I am done with trampoline and tumbling.
