This is now totally my favourite piercing ever. I’ve had a fairly close-knit run of colds the last week and I think my body has stepped up its healing game. After a pretty long 9ish months, this is all-but healed. It still aches a little bit, and I don’t think this will ever be my natural sleep side again, but there (gross alert!) is no leakage of any kind from it now. Just a smooth, perfect little hole (8mm).
I just wanted to take a little bit of time to confirm to anyone who also read Conch Stretching; not for the faint-hearted that you should not stretch your conch (or any other part of your body that’s made of cartilage). You shouldn’t really go see a guy and get him to punch a hole in it either, but if you must have holes, go for a dermal punch. It’s gross, it hurts like fuck and it bleeds like crazy for about a week. You seriously might think you’re going to die, but it is so worth it. I wouldn’t trade this piercing for all battered Mars Bars in Scotland now.
People have started asking me how I did it now, as well, so hopefully that will continue and I can actually take it out and show them!
One of the reservations I originally had about getting pierced (and the subsequent inclination to stretch even the most innapropriate piercings. No, not that one) was that it might, in some way, decrease my chances of getting a job. I have since realised that the decent companies hire on enthusiasm, talent and personality (not necessarily in that order) and not personal appearance. Obviously if you’ve got poor personal hygiene then it’s going to affect you wherever you go, but if you choose to dye/dread your hair or get piercings or tattoos, does that really say anything about you as a professional?
Since I dreaded my hair and got pierced, I’ve worked for a FTSE Top 100 company, an HR and Payroll software provider and now a fast-growing creative agency. None of these companies even mentioned my piercings or dreads, and there were people at the former two who were obsessed with how you dread hair and how you stretch piercings. Why is it, then, that when I speak to people about work the first thing the majority ask is if I find it difficult to get work looking the way I look? If I were more self-conscious, this might have started to get to me but I always assume they’re talking about the hair and ears. I guess we’re in pretty radically changing times right now with regard to body mods. I see so many people around with pretty large stretches (I would say that my lobe is above average, but I’ve seen some people in the street with at least 35mm) and this is indicative to me of a wider acceptance of body modifications and a general ability to separate an individual’s personality and the trinkets with which they choose to adorn themselves (thanks, Howard). …
