Cotton-Pickin’ Days

My ears were pierced when I was 5 and my sister was one. A cultural thing, I think. I hated them. I don’t want them, never did. Don’t know why, piercings are just not my thing. I’d rather get a tatoo, I think. My poor girly-girl daughter is gonna want them so badly, I know! Haven’t dealt with all that, yet. Not looking forward to it! Don’t suppose I can use this article to scare her out if it when them time comes?

Something my friend learned recently: if you get your ears pierced, and especially if you are getting cartilage pierced, don’t have it done with a piercing gun (which is what shops like Claire’s use). Professional piercers use actual needles; piercing guns are “easier” but actually pierce the ear with a specially made pointed stud-earring, which is more likely to lead to infection.

Oh Hsien… *gnrrrrr* Heheh I suppose you can’t please everyone… but as someone involved in piercing for the last 8 years (total of 25, most of which are retired now), I really have to say that I disagree with the scare-tactics employed by the media relating to body-piercing.

http://www.bmezine.com/news/pubring/20060313.html

http://www.bmezine.com/par-faq.html

(the whole of BME is informative but I guess not for those who are freaked by modifications :))

Miriam: Hi!! So nice to see you here. I think I’m too old now to get poked for fun.

Rosie: Awww. Don’t be annoyed at me! I don’t have any problems with body modification but I’m not really into pain and yucky side effects!! Your piercings suit you and you are a beautiful person inside and out.

I appreciate that, and thank you for the sweet compliment!… but the point I’m making is that the yucky side effects are 1 in a million cases… just like people who go for a beauty treatment like a perm or a wax and end up having an allergic reaction or getting burnt! it’s so unfair the way the media portrays us

Rosie: Yes, you’re right. I’ll try to find other yucky stories about more mundane things like…MRSA infections from haircuts!

(I just got your reply but I’d already typed this out so I thought I’d post it anyway :D)

Oh and the reason your ears were allergic is because of the crappy and HIDEOUSLY unhygienic standards allowed in everyday places like Clares. Those guns are a mess of germs and cross-contamination - they don’t sterilise them at all, just wipe them down, and the trauma from having a blunt object smashed into your ear is pretty horrendous.
Earrings from jewellery shops are always of very cheap and shoddy metals, often highly reactive, as well as on display for all to touch (more cross contamination hurtling your way). Quality piercing jewellery (ie that sold in piercing studios, not in Clare’s accessories or on Oxford Street) is surgical steel or titanium, and are such inert metals that your skin is unlikely to react at all.

*squeaks her last line* Or also made of nobium!! even more inert!! :p

You’re awesome, Rosie. I’m so glad I met you. It’s not so easy to make friends with someone who has had such a varied experience with piercings!

And, please, don’t make me relive the trauma of my ear piercings.

I don’t know if I’d get poked for fun either. The reality is that I’ve had my ears pierced since I was 7 but rarely bother to wear earrings Though I have to admit that this is kind of nifty.