I pierced my own ear last night.

[El Fuego]

When I was a teenager, my ear got ripped from an earring (don't ask, yes it's what you're thinking) and I just recently had it sewn back together. I had another ear piercing in the ear, and the doctor managed to sew that one up too.

It left me with an unpierced right ear. Last night I stopped by the mall to get it re-pierced, and the girl told me the couldn't do it so close to where it was sewn up because of the scar tissue. She said their gun wouldn't go through the scar tissue. Then she tells me it has to be done with a needle, and that I would have to go to a plastic surgeon or a tattoo place.

I was totally bummed. I didn't want to pay a doctor hundreds of dollars just to pierce my ear, and the thought of a stranger sticking a needle through my ear in a skanky tattoo parlor freaked me out.

So as I'm driving home, I thought, heck, I'll just do it myself. I have a lot less anxiety about plunging a needle through my own ear than letting someone else do it. One the way home I stopped by the beauty supply store and bought a piercing stud, and when I got home I found a needle (an extra sharp sewing machine needle), got some alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, and I went in the bathroom and pierced my own ear.

It didn't even hurt, and there was hardly any blood. Getting the stud through the needle hole was tricky, but I managed.

So far so good. Guess I'm a do-it yourself type. We can only hope I won't need my appendix taken out. :)

[Rising Phoenix]

1. make sure to keep it clean....

watch out for infection and enjoy

[El Fuego]

2. I will!

[skygazer]

3. I pierced my own ears

Back in the 70's there weren't any places (that I know of) that did ear piercing - you just had a friend do it. My friend freaked out when the needle had barely entered the skin so I completed it then did the other ear. And I don't recall it hurting much either.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. It's more like skanky piercing gun.

I wish you the best of luck in healing your ear, but people should read up on piercing guns. They're most trauma-causing and can't be totally sterilized.

You're much better off getting it done with a needle at a tattoo studio. Just go in and see if it's clean. Check for the autoclave. Ask questions. Et cetera. The place I go to is cleaner than my doctor's office.

[no name no slogan]

5. My three ear-piercings were all home-made

I did them all using those "starter" earrings. I've got really soft, fleshy lobes, apparently, and I just pushed those suckers right through. I had stopped wearing earrings for about five years, and just recently reopened one of the holes the same way as I made it.

Of course, I did (and do) keep them clean, too, and soak my earrings in peroxide every week just to make sure the holes don't get infected.

In fact, the only piercing I ever had that got infected was done at a jewelry place in the mall...

[El Fuego]

6. I didn't realize it was so easy

I first got my ears pierced at a mall kiosk when I was a teenager. And it got infected! It was pretty gross.

[no name no slogan]

7. I think i've got big fat lobes, though

so the prong went through them just like butter! :silly:

that's odd that yours got infected from the mall place too. i really don't trust those places. :scared:

[Jamastiene]

8. I put a second hole in my left ear lobe once.

I can't even find it now. I did it wrong and every time I tried to wear an earring in the second place it bled and got infected. I must have hit a vein or something. The first time I got mine pierced was in a jewelry store. I added the second one because I wanted to be able to wear multiple earrings in the left ear only. I thought it would look cool. I wear none now. I am in school for electrical/electronics training. Don't wanna get fried by mistake. It would hoit. Owey.

[El Fuego]

9. ouch! LOL