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The peircing in my ear was still giving me grief. Joel dragged me off to his
tattoo shop as they also do peircings to get some advice. First of all, I
got my ear pierced in a 'difficult' place (there are many 'standard'
non-lobe peircing places on the ear. Mine isn't one of the standard places.
Closest it is is to a 'forward pinna' peircing, but it isn't). And instead
of being pierced properly, they used the sort of gun used for piercing
lobes, which is *not* what you are supposed to use for anything else except
for lobes. Third, the pierced me with soemthing realtively blunt (the stud
itself) causing large amounts of trauma to the cartiledge. Fourth, because
of the limitations of the lobe piercing gun, the percing was actually
misaligned and so its at a silly angle (whilst the front of the stud looks
right, the back sits almost above the ear, rather than directly at the back
of the stud). Fourth (and probably the worst) they had used a standard stud
with a ginormous butterfly clip at the back which is good for lobe piercing
but not much else. The butterfly clip meant it was a great place for
bacteria to breed, but the main problem was that it was large and stuck up
above the ear so I kept knocking it and it pressed into my head when I tried
to sleep - one is not supposed to knock or otherwise move piercings when
they are healing, especially cartiledge piercings (fleshy piercings are much
easier, apprantly).

The girl with the multiple piercings at Joel's tattoo place was very nice
and sympathetic, said it was an unfortuantely common mistake and really
wished that the "earlobe gun" folk got trained in piercings so that they
knew that anything other than lobes wouldn't work and would turn those who
requested any other place than lobes away to a *proffessional* and
*qualified* peircer. She said that when most folks get their first non-lob
ear piercing, it goes bad for all the above reasons and they just give up.

Asking what I could do to try and save the day, she recommended a labret.
Not having any clue about 'body jewellry' she showed me - a labret is
usually worn in the lips, either in the position in the middle under the
bottom lip or inthe 'monroe' position to the left (or right) of the top lip
in the place where Marilyn Monroe had her mole. Since no-one would want a
great fat butterfly clip in their mouths, the back of a labret is just a
flat disk and is designed to be snug against the flesh to avoid knocking the
teeth or gums.

So in the last week I have learnt more about piercing and body jewellry than
I ever intended to know, and have surfed many an on-line shop looking for a
cat-related labret (and looking at alot of body jewellry and thinking
'ouch'!). There are lots labrets out there, but not many in something cat
related, and only very few in a very small gauge (gauge is the thickness of
the post. Piercing studs are 16 guage, but most normal lobe earrings are 18
or even 20 gauge. Most labrets were in 14 gauge or even thicker - why I
don't know)

I found one that had a cats eye as the jewel and had the right gauge, but
they wouldn't ship to Australia (I really don't understand that, if I'm
willing to pay the extra postage, what difference does it make whether they
send it to some where int he USA or somewhere overseas, its still an
enevelope and a trip to the post office?). With alot more searching and
e-bay browsing, I found one similar to the original that would ship to
Australia - a gold plated 8mm long stud in 16 gauge (the thinnest they had)
with a small peridot as the jewel. It cost me all of $2 to 'buy right now'
and another $8.50 to send via registered post, but it eventually got here.

I got out the disinfectant and doused the new labret, my fingers, and the
old stud. Then I tried to remove the butterfly clip fromthe back of my ear.
It didn't want to move. I pulled, tugged, prised and otherwise wrestled with
it, all the whilst trying not to cry from he pain. It did eventually come
loose with a large 'pop' but I had really traumatised my ear by that time
and it was red, swollen and bleeding.

What I hadn't realised about labrets is that that they are 'backwards'
compared to standard ear-lobe studs. Ear lobe studs have the jewel on the
post, and the back is seperate, sorta like @-- B whereas labrets are the
opposite - the back and hte post are together and the jewel is seperate like
@  --|. Which meant i had to put in the post from the *back* of my ear.

If you've read this far, you'll know that the piercing was misaligned,
meaning that the hole at the back of my ear is not where you'd think it
should be, when looking at the hole in the front of my ear. I couldn't see
the hole at the back fo myear by looking inth mirror, and the more I poked,
the worse my ear was starting to look.

Eventually i just had to face the fact that unless I wanted to put the
original butterfly clipped stud back in and continue to endure the
difficulties with it, I wasn't going to be wearing an appropriate body
jewellry piece in that part of my ear any time soon.

Since Shmogg's ashes are back with me, it felt less important to have a
peircing to remind me of him. I made the decision to let the original hole
heal up, and if I still feel the need to have a memorial earring for Shmogg
once its better, I'll go and get it done by someone who knows wha thtey are
doing and can fit the appropriate peace of body jewelly there and then.

Whilst still tender, there is nothing in there now to get caught, press or
twist if I sleep on my left side at night and make me bite my lip lest I cry
out and wake Joel or Cary up. Last night was the best night's sleep I've had
since Shmogg died.

I probaly won't get it re-done, so thus ends my journey into the world of
body peircing. My street cred goes down and I lose my 'cool' status at work,
but the better sleep will make up for it. At my age, i have no business
being 'cool' anyway :-)

Yowie