My latest addition: a 4g conch punch

Squeamish folks, thou should probably read no further.

I have gone under the needle many times (both for piercings and for tattoos), but on Saturday I finally went under the punch. My left ear has been looking empty to me for awhile now (especially compared to my right ear), and I finally decided on something to help fill the empty space. Brian Decker, who usually works out of Pure Body Arts in Brooklyn, New York, is doing a brief stint at Industrial Tattoo in Berkeley. I made an appointment to have my left conch dermal punched.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term dermal punch, BMEzine Encyclopedia defines it as such:

A dermal punch is like a round needle – think of it as a sharp, round cookie-cutter for skin. The medical industry uses them to take biopsy samples, but piercers use them to make round piercings which remove an actual piece of flesh.

Sounds scary, right? To preface this, I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to tattoos (which is ironic considering I have 5 of them), but I am a champ at piercings. That didn’t stop me from being scared out of my MIND.

I had been debating between 2g and 4g. If I went for the 2g hole, Brian would use the dermal punch and then stitch around the hole, allowing the hole to heal naked (without jewelry). He says this method makes for a much faster healing process. Unfortunately, my ear is pretty small, and we decided that 4g might be a better choice. Since 4g is slightly too small to stitch, Brian would use a different method: the punch & taper method. He would dermal punch the ear at 6g and immediately taper the hole to 4g to help stanch the bleeding (oh yes, there would be blood).

Corner helped document the process:

He also took some video footage, which I edited to make this short movie (again, probably not for the faint of heart):

I cut the sound out and put it to music because all you can hear is the awful sound of a tattoo gun in the next room. Enjoy!

Tagged as dayzero, pictures, piercings, plugs, videos