Progress of my ears over the past 2 years and 3 ‘operations’. I first had my ears pointed in November 2011, then re-done in October 2012, and most recently touched up a month or so ago. There is still a bit more work to be done - I especially want to round out the inner skin on my right ear because it’s rather straight (where the incision was).
They’re awesome =)
omg this has been sitting in my box for… months? Sometimes I’m horrible at responding :-|
For about the first 3 weeks to a month I couldn’t type on it and compensated by shifting my right hand one row to the right on the keyboard. Some people say they can feel magnetic fields around individual computer components, but I can only feel it around high-voltage transformers like the microwave where there is a high step radio (my WaterPik feels almost as strong as the microwave, I think because it steps the wall voltage down so much).
It hasn’t affected my job at all, besides the 1 month healing. It is mostly a novelty, and tho it is cool to be able to sense magnetic fields and feel what they feel like (basically, like a strobe light, but feel instead of see)
I hear of these fabled IT ladies, but I haven’t seen many! Please, come work here in NYC =) I give you guys a lot of props though - the women who stick around in this sausage-fest industry *really* know their shit. Yes, they make us feel inadequate and inspires competition… and that’s how you get the IT department to get shit done ;-)
I absolutely hate tumblr’s communication/messaging system! I can’t pull up a list of old messages and responses that I’ve sent - arghh!! Anyway to the person who messaged me last night I wanted to write a follow-up message but couldn’t recall your username. Anyway I just wanted to say this: it seems to be becoming more common knowledge, and I didn’t give any specifics ;-) But I do agree and did take your advice, as you can see ^_^
So, I had originally written this back in November 2011 when I first had my ears pointed, and was trying to keep two different blogs… well some posts ended up not being transcribed, and this is probably the most important one. This was my very first list, and I’ve posted many more tidbits of wisdom since then. The only thing I really want to change here is about getting the stitches wet. After 5 or 6 days I got them wet really quickly to rinse my hair out (I’m a guy with short hair so it’s quick and easy) and there was no problem. I think this is mostly advised to minimize risk of infection, and possibly with dissolvable stitches to keep their strength. But if your hair gets funky after 5 or 6 days, I don’t think there is anything wrong with getting them wet quick as long as they’re healing well. Dab lightly with a soft dry towel, don’t tap or rub - or better yet let them air dry. Don’t spray water directly on your ears, it’ll hurt and could cause it to bleed.
So without further ado, here is my original post from November 19th, 2011, two days after having my ears pointed.
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Ear Pointing Aftercare
One very important topic is aftercare. There is a lot of conflicting information out there on the internet, and I want to condense { what I think } are the best aftercare methods.
The obvious one is to WASH WELL before the procedure. You won’t be able to wash your hair for at least a week to come. If you’re thinking of getting dreadlocks, now is the time to do it!
Take a daily multivitamin for at least a few weeks before and after
Drink lots of water
DO not get the stitches wet (besides the occasional spritz of saline)
Many resources on the internet recommend against putting any ointment on the incisions, and to leave them dry. Medical [hospital] procedures which require sutures usually recommend to apply ointment for the initial healing period, so I was skeptical about this. I asked Brian and he recommended that I apply a little Neosporin to the incisions each day, for the first 3 days, to help minimize scarring and protect against infection. I think the pictures tell the results.
After 2 days he recommends 5 minute dry-heat compresses to help circulation and rigidity.
To clean, I filled an empty aftercare spritz bottle with sterile saline (available at pharmacy) and misted my ears; I cleaned good inside the ear and on the outsides, just to get the most visible blood off. I didn’t touch the incisions themselves, as the saline helped to wash away anything that didn’t need to be there.
Do not poke at / scrub anywhere near the incision. Do not use ANY soaps, alcohol or peroxide. Saline only.
I have been bandaging them with ‘Hypofix’ dressing tape. It is a cloth-like tape that adheres well, but removes easily without needing to pull too hard. Because my ear cartilige apparently is quite firm, there is more pressure on the incision to pull apart; bandaging helps to take some of that pressure off. However, I have seen a few before/afters where it seemed that the pressure exerted by the bandage was reflected in the healed ear - a small part at the tip bent slightly off to a different angle.
Also, it is good to keep the incisions as open to air as possible, so I have been alternating the bandages on and off every 8-12 hours hours. I also sleep with them bandaged.
To minimize scarring, he says to remove the stitches at 10-12 days; I am seeing him again next Saturday to get the first batch taken out… the rest will come out around 18 days.
Most important of all: LEAVE THEM ALONE!
Hiya =) Some people say that they are extremely painful, but I found it comparable to not wearing a hat in winter (even just up here in NYC). Uncomfortable but definitely bearable - a few ibuprofen are helpful for the first day or two, but the pain is minimal after 4 or 5 days. Ibuprofen is the most effective thing I’ve found for healing mods - tylenol is useless, and even percocet seems to do no good. But ibuprofen reduces swelling so takes some pressure off the incisions. Stitches were left in for 12 days, and after about 17 days they were looking great (check my archive). It took about 2 months until they weren’t sore to touch, and another 6 months or so before I could bend them and push on them and they wouldn’t hurt (for the most part, but probably not any more than before having them pointed).
As for aftercare, I wrote several detailed posts early in my blog so check the archive again (I don’t have that many posts so they’re ez to find), but I’m posting my original aftercare tips that I’d posted to a different blog and forgot to copy here :-S
Any other questions, please ask :-)
Rocking my fabulous tights this weekend - so much fun!
Somehow, this 15-16ish year old kid noticed my split tongue in Times Square and asked about it. How the fuck did he see it?!! I talk with my mouth closed, and could he really have noticed if I even had licked my lips? This is bugging the shit out of me :-P Ah either way, he clearly was familiar with tongue splitting. As usual, the first question was a stupid one: “did it hurt?” Then, “how do the ladies like it?” Oh they love it =)
I wonder how long it is until he gets his done.
omg 59 minutes until my ears get sliced open for the 3rd time, and a piece of metal gets pushed all the way through my dick. Yum. Well, it’s an excuse to get out of work early… I like to schedule these things when my boss will be out of the office so that I have a few days to heal and things arent so obvious. Ah anyways, gotta run! 57 minutes now!
Why thank you very much :-) People never seem to notice them in public, and 99.999% of people don’t say anything… I’ve had fewer than 10 people remark on them in 18 months. So, it’s nice to see a reaction, and especially a positive one :-) I swear I love my ears so much, I’m thrilled that I had it done and have no regrets!
My artist is Brian Decker who owns Pure Body Arts in Brooklyn, New York. He is one of the 5 best in the world, super-duper clean, patient, professional - really knows his shit, he’s the only mod artist I’ve gone to for the past 3 years. I’m going back in tomorrow to have my ears finished up and an apadravya pierced ;-S Glowing recommendation! =)
Think long and hard and long and long and hard about whether you really want to do this - I took 18 months. Consider what you’ll look like at 70 :p What if you have kids? How could if impact a job (hasn’t impacted my white-collar office job one single bit; had a sweeeet job offer a few months ago…)? What will family say? Why do you want to do it? What do you expect it to be like, to have and live with pointy ears? How will the public react?
I can only share my own experience, and I suppose I should answer your question in greater depth in a separate post, but briefly, in my mind and in my opinion, I think I’ll look damn fucking cute when I’m 70! It’s all in the mindset :-) My mother took 9 months to notice; my aunt over a year (when she saw said “I noticed something was different. I see these things you know.” She didn’t respond when I told her it was more than a year ago :p ) My mother just looked at them and said “what are you doing to yourself?” … I just said “I like them and I think they look nice”, and nothing more has ever been said since - or with my aunt. My step father is a Vietnam Marine combat veteran, and MUST have noticed, but he hasn’t said a word. My uncle doesn’t seem to have noticed either.
I wonder, do they also maybe think that I look good with pointed ears? :-)
The process of deciding to get your ears pointed - or any other body mod - is an opportunity for reflection, to think about why you want it, how you think your life will change because of it, what you are looking for in life, who you want to be… It was more than just an external change, at least for me.
Woo! I’m eagerly awaiting the third round of work on my ears - little more than 24 hours away. Tomorrow. Friday. 1 pee emm. Brooklyn. omg.
The work is going to be relatively minor this time. There are a few nubs of cartilage that I want snipped off, so that it doesn’t look like I have a bump on the top of my left ear, and an overhanging piece of cartilage on the right ear. Then they’ll be *perfect*! I figure I’ll probably need to get them touched up again in a few years once things stretch out more, but I think that this will be the last work done on my ears for a long while.
He’s also piercing a 6g apadravya for just the cost of jewelry - I’ve given him lots of business :-) He did my PA a few years ago and it is 0G, but he suggested I take it out and heal with a barbell. I don’t think I could ever stretch the reverse-PA part, it must be so painful! I hope to god that he uses anasthetic - I’m a wimp - I don’t do this shit because I like the pain!
Judging by tumblr, quite a few more people have gotten their ears pointed in the past 6 months, especially with the new method pioneered by Samppa. Some of us have also returned for touch-ups :-) I’d be interested to know what region people live in - most seem to be in the UK, Russia, or Australia, and a couple in South America. I’m not sure how its popularity in America stacks up to those other countries.
Anyway…
WOOOOOHOOOOO I can’t wait! :-D :-D
Pics will follow, if and when I get around to it :-)
My second day at our new office, on 42nd street a block from Grand Central Terminal. I lost my private office!! =( This office space is brand new, and cubicle technology sure has come a long way - this thing has a TON of space. And, I have a nice shiny new Dell Optiplex 9010, which looks almost exactly like an iMac. i7 baby yeah! I took this pic on the webcam - its only 1.7MP, but yeah.
So now it seems I’m the only person in the office (eh, office worker within a 5 block radius) not wearing a long-sleeve collared shirt. Top button open. No tie. Brown loafers. Douchy greased hair. Fuck that.
The guy who sits ahead of me is a real weirdo - he has balding grey hair and must be a secretary or personal bitch for this lady who has an office right next to us (the rest of my team sits to my right). The partitions are fairly high, but this guy is like a prissy gay dude or something - very uptight and snooty. And he must be a chain smoker, because when he returned from lunch he REEKED of cigarettes. I was getting sick from 10 feet away. How fucking disgusting! Ugh. Keep that shit at home. Now, 420 on the other hand… is always a good thing :-)
Woo - so here I go again ^_^ I booked the afternoon of April 26th with Brian, to have a few little bits of cartilage sliced off to make my ears nice and even. I’ll also be getting a ‘reverse prince albert’ pierced at 6g, to complete an apadravya piercing. Judging by the videos on Youtube, this seems to be the single most horrifically painful (routine) modification out there. But judging by all the written accounts, once it’s healed it more than makes up for the pain :-}
And so, the excitement of waiting returns once more… counting down the days… 22 to go…
“Why I Modify My Body” video series
With my first video being way too long at 46 minutes, I took people’s advice and made 3 separate videos in which I talk specifically about my mods. The tattoo/piercing and implant videos are about 7 mins each, but the ear pointing/tongue split video is 17… I suppose it is the most interesting to people, and there is so much to say that I couldn’t possibly make it any shorter :-S
Anyway, check em out.
Yay I actually did it! What I thought would be 30 minutes ended up being 46 :-} I introduce myself and talk about what brought me into body modification, my philosophy on it, explain each of my mods and the meaning behind them, and…um… say lots of “ums” and look retarded quite a bit. But anyway, enjoy (and reblog, so that I didn’t talk to myself for an hour!)
I’m working on a ~30 minute video self-interview… but it’s taking a little extra time because I look so retarded through a camera lens. And I thought I looked horrible in photographs! On video I look like a psychotic version of that banjo-playing kid in Deliverance. Should be posting it by the end of the weekend.
