At Justice Street Elementary, we culminated from sixth grade into junior high (seventh grade). All I cared about that summer was getting my ears pierced. My closest friend, Lisa, already had hers pierced (in a doctor’s office with a needle).
My parents gave me a pair of self-piercing earrings. They were small hoops with a needle-like tip at one end and a small loop on the other. The idea was that every day I would squeeze the earrings. Little by little the needle end of the hoop would eventually pierce all the way through the lob.
Eventually, the ears were pierced. It was a rite of passage. Today, most women I talk to about getting their ears pierced have a story to go with it. When I smell rubbing alcohol, it takes me back to the summer of 1973.
During my senior year in high school, I decided to double-pierce my left lob. I can’t remember what possessed me to do it. It wasn’t as though, “Everyone is doing it.” I didn’t ask permission. I just did it, with a needle. It hurt. What hurt more was trying to get an earring through the hole. It was a struggle! (My parents never knew.)
Fast-forward twenty years, summer of 2008. I decided, after a major personal achievement in my life, it was time for another piercing in left lob. This time it was done with a piercing gun. It didn’t hurt but felt like a big tug.
I’m done with piercing my ears. I can’t explain why I have 3 holes in one ear and only one in the other. Yet, getting them pierced has had significant meaning in my life. For gals my age, we all have our ear piercing stories to share.
2 comments:
ahhh! my mom and i were JUST talking about this. :) she had her ears pierced by her sorority sisters with ice and a needle in college.
when i was finally allowed to get mine pierced (i can't remember the age), i went to the Earring Tree store at the mall, at least five times and chickened out each time. i'm sure that the lady who worked there cringed each time she saw me coming, knowing that she'd only get as far as drawing the dots on my ears before i'd freak and leave!
anyway, i finally went through with it and now have three holes in my left ear and two in my right!
if i didn't work for "the mouse" (disney), interpreting six months out of the year, i'd get my tragus pierced too. oh well!
I had my first piercing at 1 year old...I have decided to wait to pierce my daughters ears until she asks for it. That way she can learn to take care of them and one day have her own ear piercing story. I have had more piercings since then, bellybutton once (a nightmare.), a second hole in each earlobe, one on each side of my ear cartlidge (closed up), ear nubbin thing (which I love) and my nose twice. I think I am okay with no more piercings. btw, the word verification below is "outch". funny coincidence.
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