So, there I was. In the middle of Sheffield, about to go to Thou Art, a piercing and tattoo studio with the best reputation, to get my first ever piercing. This was a big deal for me, as I cannot stand needles. They scare me so much. So, I start walking very slowly from the Peace Gardens, with my best friend, Becci, towards the studio. Listening to Machine Head - Now I Lay Thee Down in one ear, and every few seconds taking a mouthfull of Red Rooster, to calm my nerves. I chose to go a slower way than I normally would, walking around a small square, preparing myself to confront one of my biggest fears.
At A Glance Author AllFallD0wn When A week ago Artist My best mate Studio My house Location Sheffield We arrived at the shop, and looked around for about ten minutes. I was extremely scared. Just looking around the shop at various rings and bars they had in stock was quite scary. I also learnt that you could have your ear stretched to 50mm, something which I didn't know was possible before that day. I then casually walked up to the counter, and asked if they could do my central lobe on my right ear. She then informed me that there were no piercers in the studio that day, so they couldn't do it.
So you'd think that was it. I'd tried 4 times to get my ear pierced there, and each time there was a problem with it. The first time, I'd had no form of identification, and they will not pierce without I.D. The second, I brought it, but I needed one with my date of birth on. The third, Apparently the I.D I took wasn't up to standard. Needless to say, I'd got quite ticked off, so I practically stormed off out of the shop, quite mad, as you could guess. I then took Becci by the wrist, and we proceeded to the nearest Claires, a few meters down the same road, and we bought a pair of ear bars for £1.50. We then caught the tram back to my house.
During the tram-ride, I listened to some Avenged Sevenfold, to take my mind off the fact that my best friend was about to jam a needle through my ear. We walked the short walk home, in the pouring rain, and when we got home, we boiled some water and added some salt into the mixture. We then put the metal bars into the water, as well as the safety pin (which we measured to the same width as the bar).
Then, we started numbing my ear with an ice pack, wrapped in a tea towel. We worked out that we had about an hour before my mum came home, so we carried on numbing my ear for a good 30 minutes. Then, we took the safety pin out of the salt water, and sat down on my stairs. She leaned over, coming towards me with the safety pin.
I won't lie. There was quite a bit of pain. The pin didn't quite go through the way that it was intended. Quite a bit of force, apparently, had to be applied to get it to go through fully. Then, when we took out the pin, straight away, I might add, by the time we had sorted out the bar, and got it in the front of the hole, the back of the piercing had healed up. Ouch! This meant a bit more pain than last time.
We had to take the bar out again, and re-pierce the back of the ear. However, rather than taking it straight out, we left the safety in for a good ten minutes, making sure it didn't heal up too quickly. Then we quickly (much faster than the time before) took out the pin, and put the bar through. It went straight through the hole, no problems at all. We then put the little circle on the back of the bar.
Job done. Becci then told me to wash it in salt water at least 3 times a day (which I kept up for the first week), and to make sure I ate something. Something about sugar levels, which I did straight after.
Two weeks on, the piercing is my favorite part of my body. I can't believe how well it turned out, considering my best friend did it for me, and I didn't get it done professionally. I wouldn't recommend getting it done unprofessionally, but if, like me, you were getting fed up of being turned down for whatever reason, then by a friend is quite a good way. However, make sure everything you use is clean and sterile. I think this is the only reason that my piercing hasn't got infected, a thing which I hear is not a good thing at all.