13 December 2012

The story behind my solo ear'ole

This is it. I know there's something you've all been wondering about for months and I can finally announce, friends, that the wait is over. It's time for me to tell you all why I've only got one of my ears pierced (aka How I Basically Became A Pirate). Hold on to your hats!

When I was younger, my parents flat-out refused to let me get my ears pierced. I begged and pleaded because "All the other girls at school have got THEIR ears pierced, Mum!" and there are few things an average nine year old wants more than to be exactly the same as all the other nine year olds. Even when I was a perfectly rational teenager who, like, totally knew her own mind and shit, they still wouldn't allow it (and going against the wishes of my father is definitely not something to be taken lightly). 

I never really understood their hangup about piercings because they're basically impermanent; you just remove the metal and your body will grow back like it was never there. Genius, and a pretty safe choice for someone who changes their mind as often as I do. 

So, after I'd moved out to live with friends in sea-sidey Brighton, when someone suggested a "piercing day" I was all in. In an I'm-only-going-to-get-something-lame-or-my-parents-will-probably-disown-me sort of way. And, as I'd recently spotted this pink Transformer earring in one of my favourite up-cycling boutiques, I figured it was a sign I needed to make a hole in my body to hang it next to my face. 



I accompanied three hardcore friends to our local bad-ass piercing parlour where they became the proud owners of a lip ring, tongue stud, and ear scaffold. I watched each of them get skewered like a kebab, and yet I still wanted to have a go too. However, when I asked the piercing guy if he'd pierce just one of my earlobes he said "This place doesn't do pieces of jewellery; we do wounds". Lovely.... So I dragged my mates up to the main shopping centre and headed into (wait for it- this is pretty rock and roll!)... CLAIRE'S ACCESSORIES.  

When we arrived, I was so irrationally and inexplicably nervous that when the piercing girl (and by that, I don't mean she was qualified- just the member of staff who happened to be nearest to the gun) asked my age I blurted out "sixteen!!" - the legal age for getting your ears pierced without parental consent. I was actually nineteen....

So, there I was, sat in the window of Claire's Accessories, surrounded by nine-year-old girls and listening to S Club 7 on the in-store radio, waiting for Claire (unfortunately not THE Claire's Accessories Claire - I did ask) to shoot me with her magic piercing gun. Claire told me she was going to count to three, to which I replied "Don't be daft- I know you're going to do it on 'two'!". So Claire, the wiley minx, decided she was going to count to five. Damn it. 

After my initial nervousness, it didn't actually hurt at all. Nor did it hurt the day after it was pierced, so I completely ignored the advice of both Claire and my housemates and decided to immediately change the earring for a ridiculously giant faux-diamond bit of bling. I'm pretty sure my housemates chorused "We told you so"; but I couldn't hear them over my own screams whilst attempting to re-pierce my own ear... I mean, there was no way I was going back to Claire's and paying another £8 to have it re-done. 


I love this glow-in-the-dark earring because it reminds me of the stickers I had on my childhood bedroom ceiling

I chose to get only one ear pierced because at the time I had a huuuuge asymmetrical emo fringe and I thought a single earring would balance out my face (and the weight of my fringe, stopping my head from constantly tipping sideways). Now my hair is symmetrical I'm always being told I've lost an earring, but it's very handy to only need one because my friends give me any odd earrings from pairs where one's been lost. And I'd worry about the weight on my neck if I started hanging two lots of random plastic crap off of my earlobes.... Haha


My bat stud is certainly not just for Halloween!
Lego Riddler earring, made from a keyring
Have you got any piercings with a story behind them?

Katie xxx

11 comments:

  1. I LOVE this story - you are too funny! I begged my parents to get my belly button pierced when I was 15 and they wouldn't let me. I was very naughty and went and had it done anyway (pretending I was old enough) and it got infected in the end - karma!!

    I like your lego man earring :-)

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    1. Mine got infected to after I re-pierced it; but I thought I'd best censor that from the story in case anyone was reading this whilst eating their tea :p

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  2. I love this story!! And your earrings are amazing! The Lego Riddler is great!

    I don't have any great piercing stories. I do have two holes in one ear and just one in the other. My brother got one of his ears pierced when we were teenagers and since you're technically paying for 2 piercings, I got the second hole in one of my ears.

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    1. That's totally a piercing story! Very thrifty sharing them between you :) xx

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  3. Love this! I went through a phase of been really into surface piercings and stupidly spent £40 to get one side of my hip done...it took ages to "heal" and when it did it was only for a couple of days before my body started to reject it and you could see the piercing through the skin...yuck!

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    1. Oh no- that doesn't sound very pleasant! Surface piercings freak me out a little- they look so worryingly fragile, and I'm clumsy enough with the bits of my body that are actually attached :p

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  4. Ha ha!!! I didn't even realise you only had one pierced! I love novelty earrings! I'd totally wear all your earrings!

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    1. I normally wear relatively small hoops, so it's hard to spot I've got either done. There's certainly no missing the earrings above though :p

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  5. Brilliant story! I have one deformed nipple from a piercing I used to have, really don't know what I was thinking that day!

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  6. Great story!! I've had loads of piercings, in unusal place too like wrist and colarbones and I have a few in each ear, if various places too. I used to do work experience with by body piercer, every Saturday. I never wanted a career in it really, but I like learning and I liked that I got pierced for just the price of the needle (£8 a go!). I haven't had any since he stopped piercing as last time I looked, it was around £60 per piercing and I was having them regularly so it was too expensive! I often think about having something else, but it'll have to wait at least until I have a job again!

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    1. I had no idea you'd had so many piercings! I'm a bit scared of getting anything more adventurous than my ear done- I imagine some places would require a lot more post-gun anaesthetic cider! xxx

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