At A Glance
Author	Anneleise
Contact	Anneleise@bme.anon
When	It just happened
Artist	Jake
Studio	Sacred Art Body Piercing
Location	Newcastle, Australia

Today I got my conch pierced as a celebration of sorts. I quit my job :D

For a long time I worked as a medical receptionist at a local GPs office. They were very strict on piercings; I only have two sets of lobes and a tragus, and even that was pushing it. It was also a fairly toxic work environment, to say the least. My boss was, in every sense of the word, a bully. She openly belittled me in front of patients, was very passive aggressive and a control freak. Not long ago things got nastier than usual and I decided I didn't want to put up with it any longer.

This morning I made the nerve-racking journey into work for the last time and handed in my resignation. When it was finally done (and the knots in my stomach untied themselves) I was so relieved! I needed to mark the occasion in some way.. I had already been thinking a piercing of some sort would be the perfect way to do so. I just had to decide what to pierce ;)

I went over to a friend's place post-quitting and started searching through BME. Over numerous cups of tea we chatted about it and even got out a marker pen to play around with the placement. I had already thought about getting my conch pierced months ago but couldn't due to my job. It also scared me a little bit because all of the reviews I read on BME said it was super painful. But after a while I knew it was the only piercing I REALLY wanted right now, and it didn't make sense to get something I wasn't so keen on just because I thought it would hurt less. My mind was made up.

My friend and I made the trip into Newcastle and stopped at the Noodle Box to get a decent sized lunch. Last time I went to Sacred Art Body Piercing, to pierce my tragus, I hadn't eaten all day and I started to feel really faint (which was highly embarrassing). Luckily I didn't pass out, but it was a close call :P By now the butterflies were having a party in my stomach, but I was sure I wanted to go through with it. We walked up the long flight of stairs the second floor shop. As always the shop was a little on the warm side, but very clean and professional.

I was greeted by Jake behind the counter with a huge smile. The first time I visited Sacred Art about a year ago, I found his appearance a bit intimidating. I have never been exposed to that many people with lots of serious mods and it was a bit of a shock. To look at him there isn't much room left on his face and ears to pierce, he has inserts in his forehead and stretched ear lobes. He is also one of the friendliest guys I've ever met. He was very thorough and patient with me, explaining the general procedure and after care, and then got me to sign all the appropriate paper work. My friend was going to get her tongue pierced but she chickened out.

We had to wait a little while; there was a girl ahead of us getting micro-dermals placed between her shoulder blades (which looked really really good). Then it was down the back into the sterile piercing room. He talked me through where he thought would be a good placement, in front of the mirror, and then marked it up so I could see. We ended up placing it low on the inner conch, so it was tucked in close to the curve of the cartilage. I sat back in the chair while he finished prepping everything. He showed me the bar in the package that he would be using, and chatted away about how our day had been etc. After cleaning the area he told me to take a deep breath in and pierced on the exhale. It hurt. A lot. Not as bad as some people have described on BME but definitely worse than my tragus. And I heard the CRUNCH-POP that lots of people have written about. Jake then asked me to wiggle my toes (to distract me I guess) while he threaded the jewelry and screwed it on. That hurt a lot as well, but as soon as he stopped touching it the pain stopped.

All up it only cost me $45, which I was really happy to pay. I definitely recommend Sacred Art to anyone in the Hunter Valley. They are so friendly and professional, and I love that even though they obviously do lots of heavy mods they don't make you feel embarrassed or intimidated if you're just starting out. They also have loads of great jewelry. :)

Almost six hours later, I am so pleased with my new bit of shiny ear candy. I love that this piercing is tucked away just a little bit, and you don't notice it straight away. I also haven't seen anyone around campus with a conch piercing either, though I will probably start noticing them now. I washed it with salt water an hour ago, and it is still a bit stingy after that and I doubt I will be able to sleep on that side for a while. My only real worry is playing soccer. We have a bye this weekend, so hopefully it will settle down just enough in time for our next match.

I am very happy with my new piercing and it probably won't be too long before I visit Jake again :D