Wednesday, December 29, 2010

It Could Only Happen To Me

When I was 18 I got a second hole in my earlobes, but for some reason, one side never healed properly and I had to re-open the piercing every time I changed my earrings, so I finally just let it close up. For Christmas my in-laws gave everyone $25 gift cards to Walmart! I wanted to do something completely frivolous that I wouldn't probably use family money to do. I decided I wanted to get my second earlobe piercings reopened with my Christmas money.

It seemed like a really good idea, so I went over to have it done tonight. The girl that was doing the piercings had a real thick accent, making her a little difficult to understand. I also decided to get my right cartilage done, so when she asked me which side needed to be re-pierced, I thought she was asking which side I wanted the cartilage pierced on, and I raised my right hand. So she found the little opening to the hole and re-pierced the right ear.

I remember getting my ears pierced when I was 18, and it hurt. A LOT. So I was pleasantly surprised when the piercing didn't hurt at all. She popped the other earring out for me to put into the other side, and she pierced my cartilage.

While she was cleaning up and getting ready to check me out, I tried to put the earring she gave me into my left ear. And it wouldn't go in. That's right. I had her re-pierce the wrong side!! I told her what happened, and she looked at me and said, "I'm running really low on the earrings you just chose. I don't know if there are any more left. So she searched for another set of the earrings I had just bought, and they were completely out. (Of course.) She looked at me and told me, she didn't know what to do, because there were no more earrings like that.

I looked back at her and I said, "Well, I'M the idiot that had you re-pierce the wrong side. Do you think you could just force the other earring in? It's my own fault."

She said she'd try. So I sat back down in the chair, and she started trying to work the earring in. It hurt. Really bad. She said that she could see it coming through the other side and that if I was okay, she'd keep pushing it through (I do feel at this point that I should clarify that even though it hurt, I was NOT fussing, wincing, whining, or being a baby in any way, but I did have my eyes closed - maybe they were closed really tightly). So I told her to finish the job. When it popped through, it really popped through! It was a very strange feeling. She told me I had to take extra care with that side to make sure it didn't get infected since we had to put it through by hand.

I laughed pretty much the whole way home. You know, people tell me that they admire my ability to laugh at myself, but honestly, if they gave themselves as much material as I give myself, they'd be laughing too! I am the biggest dork on the planet.

So, there you go. I had the wrong ear re-pierced. I am the only person in the world that would forget to check before I had something like that done. Yay me!

5 comments:

lizS said...

okay, i'm totally laughing with you on this one. did the cartiledge peircing hurt? i remember mine was startlingly painful.

Mary said...

It hurt, but it didn't make me want to cry like the last time I had my lobes pierced. I'm thinking that maybe my pain threshold is much stronger than it once was. I am a mother now, after all.

timpani76 said...

I think I might have to get my ears re-pierced if I want to wear earrings. The problem being that I can't wear earrings for more than a few hours without them getting crusty and gross. I tried sterling silver, but they only help a little. I might try gold, when I get a little money to blow 20-30 dollars on a pair of earrings :P

Dana Cheryl said...

That's a great story MC. Thanks for sharing!! :)

I got my ears pierced with I was a very little girl. I remember the sound of the gun but it didn't hurt that much. I only have the one set of holes though so maybe that's why it didn't hurt.

My ears never close up. I can go four years without wearing earrings and they go right through whenever I decide to wear a part.

However, I do have the dreaded silver/nickel/zinc intolerances. My earrings have to be at least 14k gold or one of the rarer hypoallergenic metals like platinum or the uber-expensive palladium.

If I do wear earrings made of anything else I can only stand it for about six hours then I'll have to wait a few days before I can wear earrings again.

Mary said...

My ears are somewhat sensitive, sometimes I can only wear earrings for a few hours before taking them out. I have found that putting a little lotion on my lobes before putting in an earring can make it easier to get earrings in if my lobes are being fussy.

Timpani - Have you tried what DC said?

On a side note: I clean out all my piercings at the same time, all as thoroughly as the others, and it's the one that she had to pierce by hand that feels good. The cartilage and the already healed piercing are the ones hurting me right now. I hope they don't get infected. I'm working really hard to keep them clean.