I got in the shower and realized I hadn’t taken out my ponytail. I took it out and blindly tossed the ponytail elastic over the top of the shower curtain, aiming in the general direction of the sink. It landed neatly inside the core of the spare toilet paper roll sitting on the counter, with half of it sticking out just as if I’d stuffed it in there on purpose. I have had my finest moment.
My ear is reminding me I have news, which is that I liked my first cartilage piercing so much, I got one in my other ear. It’s in the same position, with the same not-great-but-fine gold stud. If you would like to see it, you can take the picture I posted before and flip it on a vertical axis. To find out how I felt about it, you can re-read that post about the first piercing, but dial back both the anxiety and the exhilaration.
My main dither this time is that eventually I think I would like multiple cartilage piercings in each ear, so I wondered if I should ask about doing two or more at once. I’d half-settled on getting two piercings in the new ear, one with a light green earring and one with a light blue earring—and then, after intending to walk into the piercing store and instead walking right past it and into a neighboring shoe store, took a minute to look at shoes I didn’t want while thinking through the piercing I did want; and as soon as I decided on a matched piercing in all ways (same position, same earring), I felt happy and relieved and walked right in and got it. I got the same nice lab-technician-looking guy as last time, but it appeared that in the interim someone told him he didn’t look like a piercing guy, because this time he had stubble and was wearing distressed jeans and a concert t-shirt.
When I got my first cartilage piercing, the woman at the counter said not to sleep on it. But I’m a side-sleeper, and I switch back and forth between sides all night long, so as soon as it mostly stopped hurting I was sleeping on it. This seems to have mashed it a bit, so that the earring angles upward and nestles into a little indentation it has pressed into my ear. This is non-ideal. I remembered Brenna commented that she has a doughnut-shaped pillow she sleeps on to deal with her piercings, so I tried using a neck pillow as if it were a doughnut pillow—and it is the best idea EVER, thank you Brenna! My new tender piercing was completely protected, and my non-tender piercing is already looking less squashed.
You inspired me to wear earrings again. I thought I was too sensitive to nickel to wear anything I owned, but your last cartilage piercing post, and the comments, made me start researching. It seems my problem was that I was wearing earrings too infrequently, and that’s why my ears were so irritated. So! I dug out some pretty studs and put them in, and also it turned out my old cartilage piercing from 23 years ago was still fine (I thought it would maybe have closed up?) and anyway, it’s all very fun. Now I want more piercings.
PS I didn’t even comment on YOUR new piercing! Congratulations!
Oh good! I just love all the little ear decorations!
You are smart to wait for the first piercing to heal a bit before getting the second one! I got both of my ear cartilages pierced in the same session, and that was not a good idea. I couldn’t sleep on my side for weeks.
Hmmmm… now I’m thinking about getting my cartilage pierced! You may have started a trend.
It tickled me that you noticed the piercing guy changed his look. Maybe he got a girlfriend.
I was hoping for an update: which shower curtain? I can’t be the only one who needs to know.
I’m still dithering! It feels impossible to choose between, say, the flamingos, and the pretty yellow bubbly things, and the fighter cat on the unicorn. WHO CAN CHOOSE
OH my gosh. You know what would be fun? But I can’t picture doing it. But it would be fun: choosing by reader poll.
We would take this responsibility very, very seriously. I promise. Although we would need to see the shade of yellow on the walls first in order to make a well-informed decision.
You could just post the name of the color/brand paint rather than a photo of the bathroom.
You could do a reader poll just to see what folks think- it doesn’t have to be binding
Either way once a decision is made I’m dying to know what you picked.
I must have missed your first cartilage piercing, so I went back and looked at the photo and it’s super cute. Also, I love that you walked past the piercing store into the shoe store. That is SO a thing I would have done.