Birthday Piercing
(First Published on BMEzine.com, Fall 2001)

Birthday Piercings are the best. My birthday being December 5th, I didn't have the option of going "First Legal Drink" thing because my exams started the same day, and I had one the next morning at 8am (which I slept in for too!)

Anyways. Next thought, no drinking, then lets go piercing! Everyone keeps telling me how my head leans to the left, and my reply is "I've got more jewlery on my left ear than my right!" Solution? Right helix piercing at 12 gauge to try and even out my face!

History: Two 12g helix piercings in left ear, One 8g lobe in each ear, One 12g septum retainer. Therefore, there's 2 rings on the left that don't balance. I want one 12-g helix on the right, then my right eyebrow at 12 or 14g then my face will be even.

IM'ed Dustin to bother him for a piercing on December 5th, and even though he's a busy boy with school and projects and homework he agreed to pierce me early afternoon. Yay me! Oh did I mention Dustin is an appertince at Stainless Studios under Tom Brazda so the piercing is free? So give him a ring! (There's a shameless plug if I ever saw!)

Ring Searching: First contemplated a 14g right helix because I have a spare ring, and didn't feel like shelling out money. Then because I can't find it in the bottomless pit of a desk drawer, I fork over the $25.00 for a 12g ring. Looking for beads was a nightmare! The ones on my left helix are monsterous and aparntly bad for the piercings, which may explain the scarring I now have on that ear! Went with the little tiny black bead for this piercing. Filling out forms, got happy birthday wishes from people who read "Hey, today's the 5th, and it's your birthday!"

Marking: "Try to get it even with the top left one?" was my reply to Dustin's "Where do you want it?" Ooh this was exciting. At least a fifteen minute lecture from Tom about marking and positioning and pencaps and the "give a little take a little." We also went looking for big fat veins in my ear cartledge to which Dustin tells me "I've been close, but not with a 10g needle before!" Yay...I just realized my three biggest-gauge piercings have all been by this guy! So a mark is done and picked and finalized and agreed upon.

Piercing: This takes a long time! Clamp no clamp? I forget to be honest, I think no clamp this time. Tom stayed in the room, coaching, I'm trying to zone out but it didn't work. Go figure. I felt the tip of the needle a few times as Dustin lines up the mark with the needle (which is kinda freaky because I'm not sure if he's going to pierce or just tease!) and finally with a final "yes I'm ready" from my lips, the needle goes through. PHEW this one was a doozie! I know i got really tense and my fists got all clenched up and that really sickening POP sound I heard when the bevel ended and the round part of the needle was in, YIKES! Then Dustin asks me how I'm feeling and my only word back was "ow." Great literary merit for that!

Jewlery Exchange: 10g needle, 12g jewlery, lots of blood flow and close to very visible veins. What does all this add up to? Lots and lots of blood! Tom got Dustin to hold a piece of gauze up against the back of the ear before piercing it, and two more pieces tucked between fingers, and STILL needed more with the bleeding I accomplished! I get told by Dustin he's seen more blood out of me than anyone else before, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Oh, and that I swell like crazy, when I got home my ear was HUGE!

Post-Piercing: I feel faint after all the blood's stopped pouring out of my ear, Tom & Dustin are talking so I kind of quietly (I think so anyways, I had a bit of buzzing in my ears) say "I'm feeling kinda woozy..." so get ordered to put head between knees, then get to listen to all the tips of how you can tell if someone's about to pass out if they don't tell straight up (like me) with blue lips, cold fingertips, really warm back (all of which I had) then Dustin asks me if I want juice, I say yes, I drink juice and feel better. We're all ready to go and I *AGAIN* forget to tip Dustin. Don't worry babe, I'll get it to you one day!

Post-Post Piercing: I walk out like an idoit without the tip even though I had it in my back pocket, grab a coke from the machine for more sugar (but ack caffine!) and Dustin's ready to go back to school. Sweetie even offered to walk with me because we both go the same direction. Nice small-talk along the way although the noise level got a bit hard to hear. Did I mention I was wearing my new tibetten hoodie I got that day and I was BOILING? In December? In CANADA???

Healing: I've followed Dustin's advice again, with the "Leave it alone already!" aftercare. I didn't bother touching it the first day, ended up with some blood on the pillow after the first night. I wipe it clean and dry after every shower, and right now I've gotten kind of bad at picking crusties off with fingers when I'm bored but I'm getting better! This piercing didn't hurt nearly as much as the others did for healing. I'm accounting the 10g needle/12g ring as opposed to my previous 12g needle 12g ring. I could touch and slightly knock my right ear without being on the floor in a fury of tears! Success! Oh, look at the picture down below, that's about 2 weeks after the piercing, my ear is just strangly shaped I know, but dang! (click the picture for a better view)

Now for some choice quotes of the day:

• "You're going to be in my portfolio like 11 times right??"
• "You come in here all bubbly and bouncy but after getting pierced you're like someone punched you in the nose"
• "I've gone close to veins before, just not with a 10 gauge"
• "Didn't you bleed like this last time too?"
• And the best quote of all "Damn you people and your asymmetry!"

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