I went out and bought one of the self piercing guns with two studs from JC Penny when I was 16, then I went home, locked myself in the bathroom and went for it. My left ear came out right, my right ear came out with the back on the bottom of my earlobe. It looked really bad.
I drove back to the store and bought another gun, and repierced my ear. Unfortunately, it was still swollen from the first time, so even though it looked right when I did it, when the swelling went down it was a little off. It still is. I got over it.
I can see this has been pretty well covered, but I wanted to add a few things:
The best way to tell if your piercer knows what they’re doing is to watch them. In other words, hang around, con a few people into going ahead of you, and see whether the clerk manages to hit the earlobe or not.
No matter what you think, you’ll probably never wear your piercing studs again once you’ve taken them out. This is good, because most of them are not especially attractive looking. Rather than try to find a set that’s good-looking, you should try for the most inconspicuous pair they have.
No matter how often you turn your earrings, no matter how well you clean them, there’s always going to be a little bit of clotted blood on your earrings the first time you take them out. It’s nothing to worry about, but see again my point number 2.
Never, ever, wear earrings that are larger than your actual ears. (This is just a general fashion tip, but I figured that this was the place for it.)
After having begged and pleaded for years, when I was about 13, my dad finally let my sister and I get our ears pierced. I knew the earrings that I wanted, and was sure I would wear them everywhere. Went to Claires, or something like that - left them in for about a week, then started taking them out every night just to check whether or not the things had healed… finally did at about two months, like the people had told me. Three months later, the right ear closed up. The left was fine.
Freshman year of college - a friend finds more earrings that will be perfect for me, we head off to Claire’s to get it re-pierced, left it in the recommended amount of time, finally took the dorky looking thing out and sure enough a week later, it had closed. Sophomore year, was shopping with a different friend when she decided that she needed to get a fourth hole in her left ear, but really just felt like getting the one - so I got the other half of the free piercing (same spot on the right ear.) Once again, it failed to work. At various times for the next three years (usually for theater) would re-pierce the damn thing, knowing it would close eventually.
Finally, three years ago, I decided to give it one last chance. And it stuck. And I now have pierced ears.
Oooh! Thanks for starting this thread - reminded me to jam earrings in for the semi-annual “Do they still go through?” test …
The first time I got my ears pierced they used some kind of low-grade gold posts, my ears got infected horribly, and I had to let my ears grow shut and start over.
After they had sufficiently healed I went to a different place and sprang (sprung? springed?) for the high-test, 18k gold studs. Turns out I can wear nothing but gold in then thar lobes.
Ike’s method sounds like fun - well, except for the unsterilized bit - but I don’t think we could do without you here for five months, so I hope you’ll go with the Claire’s plan.
I got mine done at the tender age of 14. The only guy in town who pierced ears was an ob/gyn, so my best friend and I made appointments and got her mother to drop us off. We walked into a waiting room full of pregnant ladies who, to a woman, looked up and positively glared at us. We couldn’t think why they were all goggling at us until it slowly dawned - they thought one of us (and possibly both) had a bun in the oven! We were horribly shocked (this was 1970, when 14-year-olds girls could still be shocked) and completely mortified, so we slunk to some corner chairs and hoped that when the nurse announced our names she would add, “who are here to get their ears pierced.”
After what seemed like hours, my friend and I were shown into an examining room to await the doctor. We sat down, giggled and talked about the women in the waiting room and then we began to look at the pictures on the walls. “Oh my God!” my friend Paula shrieked, “Is that what I think it is?!” By the time the doc arrived, we had laughed ourselves to the point of exhaustion and didn’t feel a thing when the earrings went in.
And I second the advice of StGermain - leave the damned things in, no matter what the provocation to pull them out. I just had to do it. I pulled off the back piece and started to draw the post out of my ear - and then I had to get my brother’s girlfriend to line up the earring and push it back through the back of my ear because the hole had instantly closed. I actually swooned - but not the “fall back on the fainting couch with an artfully raised arm” kind - more of a “hit my head on the sink as I went down” kind.
“On a related note, don’t get your ears pierced in Germany.”
—Don’t worry—as a Jew, I am NOT apt to go to Germany and ask someone with a gun to pierce me.
“Get a simple stud.”
—Yes. I have always found this to be good advice.
“What you need is a big, muscular, hairy-legged, African-American member of the Cornell Women’s Crew to pierce your ear for you, late at night, after you’re both been smoking huge amounts of Jamaican marijuana, awkwardly shoving an unsterilized needle through your lobe. Bonus points if she’s the heterosexual partner of the guy you’ve been having a homosexual affair with (switch genders to suit personal experience).”
—Just when I was thinking, “I know WAY too much about Ukelele Ike,” he comes along and proves me wrong. NOW I know way too much about Ukelele Ike. Forget the piercing, now I need a lobotomy, too. Ick.
I was a wuss and I cried [sub]I was only 13[/sub]. No problems with the earrings though.
My niece got hers pierced at 4. We were at the mall and she is begging my sister to let her get them pierced. I’m against it. I mean, I had to wait until I was 13, for pete’s sake. So I tell her, “it’s going to hurt” and try to scare her into waiting until puberty hits at least. My sister is considering it. I tell her not to, but hey, who am I? I’m only the older sister, only the aunt, only full of 4 more years of wisdom and knowledge than she is.
Shelby’s not having any of my fear-mongering; she’s full of the hubris of the young “I don’t care. I want my ears pierced. Pleasepleasepleaseplease? I want pretty earrings”, whining like only a 4-year old can. My sister relents. The piercing goes fine.
2 weeks later she has an infection in one ear, so my sister take the earring out to clean it. Shelby won’t let her put it back in. She is now a 5-year old pirate, with one hoop earring.
“Now, now, there are those of us who are dying to know All About Eve.”
—You’ll just have to read the exposé in Vanity Fair, like everyone else . . . Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to see Dr. Cukrowicz about that lobotomy.
OK, well, I finally had it done, at Claire’s, on Friday. The girl who did the piercing asked me for ID and I told her, “honey, if I look under eighteen to you, I don’t want you going anywhere near me with that piercing gun!”
Owie. It hurt a little; I got white-gold studs. Also some antiseptic (I’m supposed to wash with water, dab with antiseptic and twirl the earrings 3x a day).
So, my question: my ears don’t really seem red or swollen (though, really, I’d never looked at them before). But they do hurt like a sonofabitch this morning. I’m hoping that’s just 'cause I sleep on my side and kept waking up and going OUCH all night when I rolled over on an earring. How can I tell if they’re really getting infected?
substitute Vodka for Tequila, and that’s EXACTLY my story!!!
Of course, I did this after watching Maryland whip the baggy shorts off Duke at Cole Field House. I was also smarter :rolleyes: and filed my earring into a point before I pushed it through.
<< Umm, so should my earlobes hurt like a sonofabitch on Monday if I had 'em pierced on Friday?>>
If they are really red, and feel hot to the touch, they may have gotten infected. If not, you just slept on them hard. Try this: place your hands palm side against your head, with your first finger knuckle right in front of your ear, and your thumb behind it. That position, on whichever side you sleep on, should provide enough “blocking” to keep you from lying right straight on the earrings, and it should get more comfortable.
I got the cartilege of my left ear pierced twice (trying to deal with some ear sizing/ugly ear self esteem issues, and it worked) and only THEN discovered that I always sleep on my left. Sleeping with my hand up there gave me ring prints on my cheek, but saved my sanity.
got mine done when i was 8. no pain, no infection, no problems.
i was jealous because my lebanese friend had hers done when she was 12 hours old, and i wanted mine done too. so we went to a jewellers after i persuaded my mother (who was 33 when she had hers done) that i knew what i was doing.
now i wear the same pair of tiny silver hoops ALL the time.
sentimental reasons.
You’re going to be sleeping with earrings in for 6 months to a year. Unless, of course, you want to deal with your holes closing up on you.
And your ears will probably be sore for another few days. I never had a problem with infection; just wash your hands before touching/cleaning/twirling, and you shouldn’t have any problems.
