My Piercing Experience

Industrial

As of now I've had my industrial piercing for almost twelve hours. This wasn't a spur of the moment idea by any means but, the day was spur of the moment it just aligned really well. My best friend had a birthday recently and for his gift I paid for his piercing so while we went there I decided to get my own done.

Upon first arriving the shop I went to didnt by any sense of the word look like it was to be a very modern shop it was one that you would think you would go to for a under the table job. Upon entering it was a beautiful setup with lots of tatoo designs on the walls laid out in a minimalist yet blatant way, artwork was on the walls and the building itself was much bigger on the inside than first appeared. Two customers were in front of my best friend and I do we were chatting for ten to twenty minutes about tattoos and piercings. He had gone first before me while I waited on a soft couch flipping through the tattoo book before I switched to my phone.

Upon him exiting the piercer Shela whom my waxer Alysa had said had done some of her own piercings was cleaning up between us as all legit piercers do that are actually good ones. I said I was going to use the bathroom first and once I walked out she was ready. I hopped up onto the table which was only a little shorter than a counter so I had to jump onto it knee first and turn around. I asked her a bombardment of questions more so as a refresher and to get an idea of how they did things in her shop both Before and During the prior setup of my piercing. A few of my questions being price as that changes shop to shop; it was 80 with a 6% fee for card. I asked about threading type. For those that aren't aware there are two types internal and external; internal is 100% if you can choose one you WANT this one to thread through your holes because the male part goes into the hole so it's like having a tiny screw push through a hole because it IS a tiny screw going into a hole while it's female part the ball screws onto it. Meanwhile internal threading has the female part on the bar so a nice smooth piece of metal goes through a hole while the male part the ball screws into the shaft of the bar. Now that you know this most piercing places you go to in the area I love use external threading this was no different. I was a bit sad about this but this wasn't the piercers choice but the manager and she had been trying to get them to change over.

If your wondering my preference I prefer internal for sensitive areas and I recommend it for all areas really BUT I can't say how sensitive this one will be just yet I'll inform on that in a few weeks.

Back to the main part of this experience. I'm sitting on the table thinking about the fact how I forgot to eat anything but like a responsible customer I did circle I hadn't eaten anything in the past few hours. If there was an issue then I was going to head out get something light to eat and come back since the piercing was already paid for and I'm 98% sure they would have done it once I came back in.

I'm sitting there asking more questions I can't recall as I'm informed if I want to I can swim I have to be sure after I'm done I wash my piercing. This I was very surprised about as there is mixed review on this granted where I live is by the ocean so salt water helps with healing just have to make sure red tide isn't rolling in is all. I'm told the deal of keeping it clean not touching it and not twisting it as that affects the healing time and does more harm than good.

I ask her another important question one pertaining to my experience with piercings and long bars. That being can I change the bar size out once it's a bit more healed. In my eyes once it's not painful to touch and a week after. Since and I quote "I have small ears."  So the bar has a solid 1/25 -1/2 inch of bar that is free floating as only a fraction of that will be used by any swelling that occurs so a long bar is going to cause some major shifting and slow healing time. I'm informed on the fact yes I can do this after a few weeks to which the instructions I was sent home with on keeping clean day 6-8 weeks I can change it out but I might do it sooner than that since I have so much extra bar I'm going to be dealing with that will impair my healing time.

I am then, asked to turn my head which I do and angled for the best piercing angle as I'm informed to take a deep breath in and let it out. On the out breath is when they pierce. She got it through the first hole as I told her I needed a moment I knew wouldn't be long but if I didn't take that moment I'm 50% sure I was going to pass out from the rapid release of adrenaline. She tells me but what would have been no more than 10 seconds later but was Probably a lot shorter as time was very much longer for me to release the second breath. A much shallower one for me. My hands are clawing at my thighs a bit as that doesn't me is a way of dealing with stress to refocus on something else. After she pushes the jewelry in and knots it off doing a wonderful job of not getting my hair caught in it. A feat in and of itself as I have a LOT and curls get all over the place with baby hairs. I stay still as I tell her I need a moment as I was getting dizzy. She asked if I needed to lay down to which I declined eyes now just opening after this since I closed them to deal better with the pain. I knew I wasn't going to pass out if I stayed seated but she asked if I would like some candy. I hesitated then agreed. I'm pretty sure she had a bit of a amused smile on her face to my reaction. I accepted the candy for a few reasons 1) I hadn't had anything to eat 2) the candy will increase blood sugar which reduces risk of passing out and 3) eating helps with pain. At this time my ear was numb from the rush of adrenaline but was coming off it as I went to show my friend the metal sticking through my ear now; aka the industrial. My ear is throbbing at this point so I go over to a mirror to look due to the fact the one in the room was too far away for me to see with my near sight and also the fact I'm too short to see it if not on the table which eyes prevent that. I check and it looks good I note I wish I had it a little lower down but as I type this I know WHY it wasn't lower down and it's due to how my ears inner cartilage rests. If it was lower down I have some inner cartilage that forms a surface bump which would press against it and cause it the shift during its healing time. It was a wonderful call on her part.

She came out noticing that I was checking and said that she had just came out to make sure I was looking at it to see how I liked it. I liked it and it fit my aesthetic my beast friend and his mom and sister both agreed it fit my aesthetic which is a major compliment to me seeing as I m a major aesthetic person and my piercings I get reflect that perfectly.

After I tell my friend who's lower end upper lobes which are none existent so his look a lot like lower helix piercings and a little sour about the fact his didn't even hurt after BUT I'm also happy they didn't as he doesn't like sharp pain. I feel better with sharp pain in general it's the full I will punch somebody over aka the healing process of piercings. We go into his car stickers in hand to one of our favorite food stores Bon Appeteite for his dessert and my breakfast/lunch/ pre-dinner grape leaves. My ear is throbbing still but lessening so I can focus on him. My lack of food 100% made the pain more notable however it was only a 4-6 on pain level mostly due to the fact this had a higher rating on my end since I didn't eat and I had to ask for a short pause between initial piercing.

Upon getting home I showered as I needed to wash oil off from my Brazilian waxing I had 10 minutes prior to my piercing possibly also amped up sensitivity but it was a productive day so I really don't care about that timing.

I was stressed upon entering my shower however I didn't need to be as my hair was bobbined back out of the way and the water wasn't directly hitting my raw flesh. Just run off which was good as my piercing bleed minimally after so it helped loosen if not remove some of the blood crust.

My friends and I bet upon who in my family would notice it first so far based around time and proximity my moms fiancé is winning due to the fact she noticed it only after 45 minutes or more as it was awhile. So far I'm curious to see if my little brother notices it first or not. I have a feeling he will but I haven't been around him today I'll keep updated on this. For now it's time to sleep I'll update on how that goes and leave you with the few worded summary

Pain scale: 4-6
After pain scale: 3.5
Recommend eating beforehand even if just a piece of bread and also recommend drinking water before as it helps. Asks lots of questions since it helps with anxiety and avoid touching your jewelry even in accident it's very tender and sore you just rammed a foreign object into it.
Shower/ wash piercing after to loosen/ get ride of some of the crust from blood.

Till next time my needling fiends