Earrings
I put my earrings back in a couple of days ago. I had taken them out before my surgery in April, and decided to just leave them out until after the final surgery. So I've had naked ears for just over three months and it was starting to feel too weird. Anyway, I didn't want to wait too long to put them back in, because the longer you wait, the more the holes start to grow back together, and the harder it is to get the earrings back in. They had just started to close up, but I got all of them back in relatively easily. They are a bit sore now, so I'm turning them regularly and cleaning them with alcohol, but they'll be back to normal in a couple of days.
I have seven ear piercings all together: two in the right ear and five in the left.
I got the first two piercings in high school, the usual one in each lobe, and that was it until my punk days, when I started adding earrings. I got another piercing in my left lobe done at a mall, I think. After that, I just started doing them myself. It was a bit nerve-wracking the first time I pierced my own ear, but after the first one, it got pretty easy. Numb it with an ice cube, jab a needle through, stick the earring in, and there you go! Turn it while it heals and clean it with alcohol a couple of times a day. The only other thing is to use good metal for your initial earring -- stainless steel or gold -- and usually a stud with a relatively thick post so the hole heals large enough to get an assortment of earrings in. (Once I tried using a safety pin for the first earring, it was cheap metal and the piercing got really sore, so I took it out and put a good earring in.) My punk friends used to ask me to pierce their ears for them. Sometimes I did, but I didn't really like to. I didn't mind stabbing my own ears but it freaked me out to stab somebody else's.
I used to have a huge collection of dangle earrings and loops back in the day, and changed out the lower pairs regularly, but eventually just started using small loops in each piercing and leaving them in all the time. I've lost various of them over the years -- they get hooked in stuff and pulled out and sometimes I can't find them -- and somehow it's become harder and harder to find small plain loops to replace them. The bonefish earcuffs I now wear in my second pair of piercings are the newest additions. The top two are original punk loops. The lowest pair are titanium loops that were acquired a bit later than the originals but still pretty old. The gold hoop in the middle is a more recent replacement; I think I still have the other hoop from the pair stashed away somewhere in case I need it, although I have serious doubts about being able to find it. That was the last time I was able to find plain loops that consist of a simple wire that hooks onto itself. Maybe by the time I need one again, they'll have come back in style.
Feels good to have them back. Hoping I won't have to take them out again, at least not for surgery.
I have seven ear piercings all together: two in the right ear and five in the left.
I got the first two piercings in high school, the usual one in each lobe, and that was it until my punk days, when I started adding earrings. I got another piercing in my left lobe done at a mall, I think. After that, I just started doing them myself. It was a bit nerve-wracking the first time I pierced my own ear, but after the first one, it got pretty easy. Numb it with an ice cube, jab a needle through, stick the earring in, and there you go! Turn it while it heals and clean it with alcohol a couple of times a day. The only other thing is to use good metal for your initial earring -- stainless steel or gold -- and usually a stud with a relatively thick post so the hole heals large enough to get an assortment of earrings in. (Once I tried using a safety pin for the first earring, it was cheap metal and the piercing got really sore, so I took it out and put a good earring in.) My punk friends used to ask me to pierce their ears for them. Sometimes I did, but I didn't really like to. I didn't mind stabbing my own ears but it freaked me out to stab somebody else's.
I used to have a huge collection of dangle earrings and loops back in the day, and changed out the lower pairs regularly, but eventually just started using small loops in each piercing and leaving them in all the time. I've lost various of them over the years -- they get hooked in stuff and pulled out and sometimes I can't find them -- and somehow it's become harder and harder to find small plain loops to replace them. The bonefish earcuffs I now wear in my second pair of piercings are the newest additions. The top two are original punk loops. The lowest pair are titanium loops that were acquired a bit later than the originals but still pretty old. The gold hoop in the middle is a more recent replacement; I think I still have the other hoop from the pair stashed away somewhere in case I need it, although I have serious doubts about being able to find it. That was the last time I was able to find plain loops that consist of a simple wire that hooks onto itself. Maybe by the time I need one again, they'll have come back in style.
Feels good to have them back. Hoping I won't have to take them out again, at least not for surgery.