It’s been almost 5 months since I got the conchs done. It’s been an interesting experience and not entirely pleasant. I’ve spent most of the 5 months fighting pressure blisters. Until about two weeks ago they were on the back side of my ear. Then they just went away and things were pretty cool. I was sleeping on it some and it looked like they were going to heal. Then a few days ago I noticed that it was kind of red around the lower piercing in front. Now it’s blistered up some. Fuck.

I still have the barbells in and I’m going to keep it that way until I’m sure they’ve healed pretty well. I still think they’ll look bitchin’ when I get the CBRs in but I really don’t recommend a cartilege piercing for the faint of heart or those who aren’t up to constant maintenance for six months or so. I’m really glad I got both done at once because I honestly don’t think I’d have gotten the second one after the PITA of taking care of one.

Can you tell I’m in class again? When I’m not, I blog like a bitch about ever goofy thing I see during the day. When I am, I work and go to class & desperately try to get a few hours of sleep a night.

Anyway, while I’m waiting for the conchs to heal and before I get the septum done, I’m thinking that I haven’t had any needlework done lately. I’m trying to decide what new tat to get since the quarter sleeve that I wanted to get done is not in the budget right now. So I think I’m going to get something small but don’t know what yet. Stay tuned.

I went by Warlock’s yesterday to see when Autumn thought I could change out the barbells for rings and she told me I have to wait at least another month and maybe 2. I have to be able to sleep on it before I can even think about swapping them. *pouts and looks dejected*

It’s been a month since I got the inner conchs done. In all honesty I can’t say I recommend getting 2 done at once for people with low tolerances for pain. I don’t know if mine are because of getting 2 done at once or because mine happens to be through the thickest part of the cartilage or what but my ear is still a little swollen along the outer rim and hurts like a motherfucker. I still can’t sleep directly on it at all and can only fake sleeping on that side for a little while.

I’m going to go by tomorrow and see if Autumn thinks it’s time to swap in the rings yet or if I should wait another couple of weeks. It’s definitely going to be totally sick when I get the rings in.

This article by Stan Schroeder over at Mashable about a guy named Ed Morita who got a tattoo done of a WordPress logo in a sort of biomech background. I thought it was pretty cool although the artwork wasn’t that great.

So it’s been almost a week since I got the conchs done. There was some swelling and it hurt like a bitch every time I banged on my ear or caught one of them with my finger. The barbell in the lower hole is pretty long so it doesn’t look completely goofy until I get the CBRs in but that means it gets knocked around more than if it was short. Last night was the first time I could even come close to sleeping on it. And today was the first day I could move the lower barbell without it feeling like I was getting it pierced again.

No pain no gain, right? It’ll all be worth it once I get the rings in but I’d definitely advise against getting inner conchs on both sides at the same time unless you can sleep on your back for a week or so though.

Fetch, don’t you think?

Last night I finally got around to getting my inner conches done. I got 2 done in my right ear with 14ga barbells for now. Johnson & Tasha came with me to take pictures and we rolled into Warlock’s about 9. There were 2 girls there getting navel rings (at least one was, I guess I’m not sure about the other one) and another girl getting a lobe piercing in front of me. I filled out the forms, ID, yada yada legal stuff. Autumn brought me in and we test fitted some rings then she put all the stuff in [the thing she still doesn't call an autoclave but I can never remember the name of]. I’m starting with barbells and will switch out to CBRs once the piercings are fully healed.

As usual, the actual piercings were pretty anti-climactic. Breath in, breath out,  needle through, jewelry in. She did the bottom first then the top. I will say that cartiledge is clearly tougher than  whatever earlobes are made out of. Autumn had to push pretty hard and where mine are is probably the thickest part of the conch.  As far as I know there wasn’t any blood. There definitely wasn’t any popping sound. There was pain but it was bearable — for the first I’d give it a 2/10 and the 2nd was probably a 2.5/10. As a comparison, I’d say the lobes piercings were 0.5/10 for the first 2 and maybe a 1/10 for the third one. There was a dull ache out of the top one for a while but nothing an ibuprofen didn’t take care of.

I went to bed a couple hours later and did sleep on my right side some during the night by putting the pillow above my ear. I did bang them a couple times during the night and that’ll wake you up. This morning there’s still a little ache from the top one but I can touch them (lightly) without it hurting. I cleaned them this morning and it didn’t make me cry like a little girl or anything.

Here are pictures. I’ll like them better once I get the rings in.

This is after she’d done the first one

And this is from this morning. Looking good so far…

I got an email from Autumn, my piercer, today saying that they were closed yesterday because of the snow and she had just gotten in today, they didn’t get the jewelry shipment yet and that she didn’t want me to think she had forgotten about me.

That’s customer service, Tiger Direct. I don’t expect a company the size of Tiger Direct to email me about little stuff like this (although there’s no reason why they couldn’t) but at least treat me like you care if I exist. But this is the sort of thing I was talking about. There are at least 10 piercing studios in Raleigh. Any of them can run a needle through me. Most of them are probably clean. Customer service is what it’s all about. And that’s why I go there.

I ran across this article in The Guardian about a guy in San Diego that wants to graft tiger fur to his skin to complete his trnasformation into a tiger. I’m not sure why I’m just now running across an article from 2001 but we’ll just go with it, OK? This is pretty extreme but I guess whatever flips your switch, right?

His website is here. It doesn’t say whether he ever got the fur graft but it doesn’t really look like it.

Psych! I went down to get them yesterday but Autumn was out of 14ga barbells in 3/8″ & 1/2″. I didn’t think to ask about 12ga until after we left. I would totally have gone for 12s. She supposed to get some in Monday so maybe next weekend.

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