Piercing Questions and Tips
 

Hello out there. First post here, in case anyone cares (I'm sure you don't).
Anyways, I was thinking of getting my ears pierced soon. I've never had them pierced before, and had a few questions I couldn't find answers for. What I want to do is get two eight gauges in each of my earlobes, and then two eight gauge cartilage piercings in my left ear. I already I know about the process refered to as "Dermal Punching", and that's what I plan to do with the cartilage piercings so I don't have to stretch them and to prevent keloids. I guess my questions about all this were:
1. Is it feasible/Can I get the whole process done in one sitting?
2. How much would an expert on the subject estimate the cost at (I live in Northern California)?
3. Is this a good idea/do you have any suggestions?

Thanks!

I don't really know about the ear piercing stuff but you may want to go introduce yourself in the introductions thread in general

www.myspace.com/spazik should tell you everything you want to know about me, if you're that interested.

honestly I don't care but it is strongly suggested that all newbs introduce themselves there and while you're in general you may want to take a good look at the "for the newbs" thread

I already did. I just hate posting "Hi I'm new here!" threads. It's kinda retarded.

Yes, it is possible to go through all that in one sitting, but it depends a lot on certain factors. Including your pain tolerance and general health. Whenever going in for a piercing, make sure you've eaten and had a good night's rest. Even if you think that's wussy advice, it's not as wussy as you'll seem when you pass out cold in the shop.
Go to bmezine.com for more than you ever wanted to know about piercings and all kind of body modifications.

Been there already. Yeah, that's what I was hoping. I thought I'd be able to do it all at the same time, my girlfriend said I was stupid for thinking that (for some reason). Anyone else care to comment? But anyways, yeah, I've seen some pretty cool pictures at bmezine though (Some pretty gross ones too, uck).

I find the grossness entertaining. People do some fucked up stuff. :) I have my own page/blog there, too. It's fun.
As a side note, there are 8 guage needles out there. you don't have to use a dermal punch, unless you have extra-tough cartilage for an 8g. Usually piercers won't use a dermal punch for something that small, although for something like a 0 guage nostril, which can be distorted by stretching, they'll use the punch. :)

1- Most piercers won't do more than three at a time, because your body might not be able to heal as quickly if you do them all at once.

2- Don't go by price. Go by the feeling you get in the various studios/recomendations from friends, etc, etc. I'll shove a nail through your ear for kick and giggles, but that's not how you want it done.

3- If these are your first piercings, then don't do dermal punching. Wait and see how traditional piercing works for you. Also, be aware that with cartalidge, esp. dermal punching, what you do stays done. A no brianer, of course, but sitll. . .think over it carefully.

Ear Stretching
 

I am stretching my ears. Does anyone know an easy, affordable way to get earings??

My friend started by using straws. They come in lots of different thickness. I suggest starting with a McDonalds or Carls Jr straw. Work your way up to a Jack In the Box straw and then to a 7-11 slurpie straw. The thicker the straw, the harder the plastic too. Just cut the straw to the desired length and voila!

To slowly strech your ear without having to keep switching straws, get black electrical tape and wrap it around the plug a few times. A few new wraps every week and you'll stretch it fairly quickly.

hope that helps.

By the way, Have you read any of Raven Silverwolfs books?

actually im reading one now.but just to tell you, i made my name before i knew she existed.it was kinda an accident lol but at least they arent exactly the same.

I agree with Panther. Take at least a month or two to decide whether this is something you really want. I have quite a few piercings that I'm beginning to regret.

I have quite a few piercings and with the lobe stretching, an easy way is to just get it done at 16g(standard), let it heal, then just go buy an 8g earring and push it through.thats what i did to my ears.

I've heard it's easy enough to stretch your lobes yourself. If you don't want to go straight from 16g to 8g you can gradually go up in size, like go to 12g in the middle or something.

I'm not a super-pierced person myself, and I've only stretched a couple holes to 14g from the standard 16g (I had a pair of 14g earrings I really wanted to wear, so I forced them in)... only have holes in my lobes right now (two in the left lobe, three in the right). I'm thinking of getting a small (probably 14g) industrial or other cartiledge piercing at some point though, although I'm concerned about getting hair dye on it while it's healing. :P

with the hair dye subject...ive allways used saran wrap(however you spell it) and put a large rubber band arround my ears.it works well so the bleach has no reaction to the metal.

Awesome, I'll keep that in mind.

So I get payed tonight, just waiting for the direct deposit to kick in. And with my money in addition to getting my hair done and picking up a camera (so you lovelies can see the ugly mug behind the sarcasm) I'm thinking about getting a new hole put in my body.

As it stands right now I've got nine, two in the ear, eyebrows, tongue, labret, nipp's and navel. Not totaly sure where I want to get the next one, though I do want another one. I've been leaning towards getting my right ear done to match the left, or getting my septum.

Thoughts, suggestions, comments?

That's actually a bad idea. It can cause blowouts, where the flesh tunnel created during piercing comes out the back of your ear.

Get a taper, which is a tapered piece of mtel (obviously) that eventually becomes the gauge you want.

BMEzine has a list of knitting needle guages that can be used as tapers, somewhere.

The taper will enable you to guage your cartalidge piercings as well. But you won't want to go from 18-6 for any of them. Always go the next step up. 18-16-14, etc. etc.


And you can never have too many ear piercings.

Star of Blight: Other ear gets my vote. I like ear piercings more than septum piercings, but that might be a matter of personal taste. If you've got your heart set on a septum piercing then go for it.

Don't really have my heart set on anything to be honest, hence the pondering on my part. And I agree, I kinda have a narrow nose so a septum probably wouldn't look good.

Though, I could always get *cough* pierced.

Yeah... you've got to have a certain nose to make a septum piercing look remotely good (at least I think so), but ear piercings look good on just about anyone.

And yes, the other'd be interesting, too. ;)

Just no sex for a couple of months while it heals. Fuck not like I'm getting any these day's...might as well.

I'd think the post-healing would be worth it, though. I say go for it!