All About My Industrial Piercing
- amberwallace0520
- Jun 11, 2017
- 8 min read
When: September 20, 2013
Price: $30 plus tip.
What is an Industrial Piercing (Scaffold Piercing for other places in the world) ? Technically any two point piercing that is connected with a barbell. The stereotypical industrial piercing is like you see below; a piercing in the forward helix and one on the helix or where you would see a traditional "cartilage piercing" except it is oriented forward to align with the forward helix piercing. There are also "Vertical Industrial" piercings, this is where one piercing is located vertically though the top portion of the your ear and it is connected with a barbell with a vertically placed conch piercing. However if someones anatomy isn't suitable an experienced and talented piercer will be able to crate something for you that creates a similar look. For example a "floating" industrial or with a creative costume jewelry. Moving on...
Piercing Experience: I have been obsessed with industrial piercings since the first time I saw one, some where around 2006, a kid in my art class in high school had one. On my 18th birthday in 2008 I had planned to get an industrial piercing when I had my first tattoo done. But my best friend who went with me got her industrial piercing done then, and my mother talked me out of it. She was concerned that it may be too taxing on my body to heal a tattoo and technically two new piercings.
My desire to get an industrial piercing died down, and I didn’t get any more body mods after 2008. That changed when I lost the last end for my tragus. I went to Hot Topic and gazed longingly at the beautiful industrial bar bells and this reignited my desire for this piercing.
So, something very important to keep in mind is unlike buying store brands as opposed to name brands, cheap body modification is NOT the same as higher priced body modification. This is truly you get what you pay for sort of thing.
Being a poor college student I started to look around at tattoo and piercing shops around campus and for industrial piercings they were all ranging from $70 to $85. So I was little discouraged. I knew I would be making a trip to Amish Country for the weekend and I knew that a small city near my home town could easily be on our way. They quoted me $30 and how could I argue with that? And now you are wondering about my hypocrisy about getting what you pay for. That shop was the closet and most reputable place to the small rural area where I grew up in the county to the south. So the pricing difference made sense considering it wasn’t on a college campus where kids are paying for things with mommy and daddy’s credit cards.
I had also been tattooed and pierced there before and I had gone with my friends to be tattooed and pierced there. The shop is clean and tidy I mean being located in a mall with large windows, they have to be. So I felt safe being pierced there. So on Friday my boyfriend and I stopped in on our way up to Amish country. It was a Friday afternoon before school had let out so the mall was still pretty empty. I walked right in, told them what I wanted. I filled out the paperwork let them scan my drivers license. The piercer Okayed everything and with out a wait he led us back to a private room to be pierced. Like I said all things were sanitary and clean and I watched him open all the tools he would be using. Had I felt for one second that they were doing something unsanitary I would have stopped him and left. I encourage anyone who ever feels like something isn’t quite right to do the same. Listen to your gut it might save you from the pain and suffering of an infected piercing or tattoo.
It was then when I noticed that instead of a barbell on the tray there were 2 CBRs. So I asked him about it and he said that it was the technique that from his experience healed the best. He said that I could come back in about 8 weeks and he would change the 2 16 gauge CBRs for a 14 gauge barbell.
The piercer doodled on my ear after he cleaned it. He was careful to line up and make sure the angles would be correct showed it to me in the mirror and I approved and then it was time for the actual piercing part. I had heard how painful getting an industrial piercing was. It was not the most painful thing I have ever experienced. It wasn’t pleasant but lets just say stepping on a Lego hurts worse. Two breaths in and out and the needle through on the third for the bottom point of the piercing. Then the same with the top. The piercer told me that he was amazed at how little I bled. He cleaned me up and I followed him to the lobby paid, and he told me typical after care sterile saline solutions or sea salt soaks 2 times a day blah blah blah don’t touch it… yada yada yada… and he sent me on my way with two new holes in my head.
So of course I want to show it off even though I didn’t have the barbell in it yet , and that’s when my negative Nancy friends started coming out of the wood work saying how the piercer had lied to me and how my ear wasn’t going to line up. And how I shouldn’t have gone to that shop to get pierced because, so and so did and her industrial didn’t line up. I was like ‘gee thanks guys. You couldn’t have made these comments 10 minutes earlier when I was posting about going there and getting it done.’ So needless to say my excitement turned to absolute fear and dread.
That’s when I started googling like crazy. I found very little on my situation. There was next to no info on industrial piercings done with CBRs as the initial jewelry. No blogs, no YouTube videos. I could only find some forum posts that were either telling me I was screwed or telling me not to worry about it. Some telling me that I was an idiot for letting a hack pierce me. I was not happy.
It was then when I decided that I wasn’t going to go back to that shop in 8 weeks to have the jewelry changed. I was livid. So I made the plan to buy a titanium 16 gauge internally threaded bar bell and in 6 months I was going to change it. That was probably too early to have done it safely but I couldn’t wait.
Those first 6 months weren’t too horrible. One night I made the mistake of sleeping on my right side. From that point on I had to fight the dreaded, “Bump”. Please excuse my side rant. The bump is not a keloid. Keloids are an over growth of cells in response to a trauma. You can’t make a keloid go away with tea tree oil, or aspirin; surgery is one of the only ways. And keloids are not the tiny and unsightly bump that forms around the out side of a piercing. Keloids tend to grow to be huge. Besides lighter completed people are less likely to get them. Its all about genetics. I’m not saying people who glow in the dark are immune because you can get them but it’s less likely to happen to them than it is for those who’s complexions are darker.
Anyways, fighting the bump… sea salt soaks. It was like a dreadful cycle. I would get a bump and I would fight it and get it to go away and then a week would pass and it would come back. It was hell.
Then the 6 month milestone arrived. I hadn’t had a bump in a bit so I thought it would be okay to switch the jewelry. So I had my boyfriend switch it out. And yes we did our best to keep everything as sanitary as possible. It didn’t hurt and it aligned and I was so happy. My happiness however was short lived. I woke up the next morning and the forward helix point of the piercing had swollen horribly on the top exit of the hole and had a pretty bad bump on it. But that didn’t compare to the horror of the inside exit of that top piercing. This huge bump looked as though it was eating the barbell.
I kept cleaning it and it kept getting bigger. It was at the point were it was extending past the curl of my ear. When I examined the bump the best I could I could see smaller white nodules in side. And then I laughed at something… and it burst, what I’m fairly certain was lymph and serum ran down my ear. What we believe caused this was since the piercing was close but not perfectly aligned and being forced to aligned for the first time it put pressure on that piercing. And essentially it created a blister not unlike when you wear a blister on the back of your heels when you wear new shoes. Your upper layers of skin detach from the lower one and to protect those lower layers of skin it fills with serum to provide a cushion.
Well after that nightmare it was a back to the annoying cycle I had before. Bump, sea salt, bump disappears, I have a happy ear for a week…then hello bump. And that was the case for a year and a half. Then one day I realized that my ear hadn’t been angry in a while, maybe my industrial misery was done.
Still every once in a while if I sleep on it wrong or hit it hard it will ache but no bumps thankfully. I tired to stretch it to accommodate 14 gauge (the standard size for industrial jewelry) not too long ago. I know its hard to stretch cartilage and even with the taper and ear stretching lube it was too painful so I chose not to push the matter. Maybe I’ll try again another day.
So was it worth it? No. Its my favorite piercing but the hell I went through to get it healed wasn’t worth it. Was it that shop's fault? No. Was I pierced by a hack? I don’t think so. I learned a lot about the differing opinions and methods when it comes to piercing. He was just doing the method he was taught and believed worked the best. If I could get it pierced there again would I? No, I’m a worrier. I worried my self-sick constantly about the possibility that it wouldn’t line up for those 6 months. If I had known what I know now would I get an industrial piercing? Probably not. Advice for those contemplating getting an industrial piercing? Do your homework. Know that you are in for a long healing time. And industrials are notoriously cranky piercings. But if you go to a reputable shop, that uses high quality jewelry, you clean it and are patient you might end up with a bad ass piercing that isn’t constantly painful.
DISCLAIMER: This is ONLY my personal experience. I am NOT a professional piercer or health care provider.
Do you have an industrial piercing? What was your experience? Any more questions about industrial piercings? Let me know I’ll be happy to answer them the best I can! Wondering about the jewelry? Ask and I'll send you in its direction. Don't be shy! Thanks for reading, I hope it was entertaining and infromite and helpful.
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