After having the earring out for about two years, I’ve finally gotten my left daith piercing* redone. I’d had to take the earring out for surgery and didn’t try to replace it soon enough. When I realized I’d need to get it repierced, I decided to wait until Olivia wasn’t nursing any more. I had been hoping to get it done while in Austin, but that hadn’t worked out on our last few visits and the thought kind of faded.
It took a literal smack to the head to get me thinking about it again. The other day I was getting Olivia out of our rental car when I banged my right ear against the inside of the door frame. I caught the top edge of the cartilage perfectly, and the sharpness and amount of pain felt just like the daith piercings I’ve had. In fact, I first thought I’d smashed my right daith piercing. The next day, with my ear still bruised and sore, we went to the State Street (Santa Barbara) Farmers Market and walked right past a tattoo studio. This afternoon, I walked back up State Street and stopped in at Golden Eagle Tattoo and asked about the cost of getting my ear repierced. I was told $50 including jewelry, which sounded reasonable to me, so I thought about it while continuing my errand on State Street (exchanging some clothes I bought for Livi that were the wrong size).
Later, I was back in Golden Eagle and talking to Gauge, the piercer. He was quite friendly and professional, taking the extra time to go through jewelry to find the best match for the curved barbell in my right ear, checking gauge, size, and ball size. He was very thorough in explaining the prep, procedure, and after-care, and discussed the placement with me, making sure the angle matched my right piercing. Even though I’ve been through this piercing before (this would actually be the third time for my left ear), I was still a little jittery, and Gauge did a nice job of being reassuring and calming. Immediately after the piercing, he asked how I felt and I told him I was a bit light-headed. He offered to let me lie down on the bench for as long as I needed, but I told him it was just from the adrenaline rush. He still insisted on getting me a cup of cold water. Gauge also provided me with sea salt to mix up some saline solution, extra Q-tips (I was still bleeding a bit), and even a spare bead. If I had any plans for future piercings, I’d definitely have them done by Gauge, even though it would mean waiting until our next trip to Santa Barbara.
Once the piercing was in place and I got to see it, I was very pleased. I really like these piercings and I’d missed having the left one. Plus the endorphin rush afterwards left me feeling very happy and content.
* Gauge called it a daith, but the BME wiki just calls it a helix or ear head piercing.
