I meant to get my ears pierced when I was ten. My mom and I were already at the mall looking at starter earrings when she talked me out of it.

I didn’t try again for over a decade and a half, thanks mostly to a dreadful fear of needles.

But Groom gifted me with a pair of pierced earrings last spring, and what else could I do but get my ears pierced? And even then, I dawdled for six months before I finally worked up the courage.

I once again opted for mall gun-based piercing. I much preferred the idea of being quickly shot through to watching a piercing professional come at me with a needle. I figured earlobes aren’t that fragile compared to some other body parts people pierce.

The piercing itself was uneventful, despite my nervous babbling and the death grip I kept on the chair. The first six weeks of aftercare were also uneventful. I cleaned the piercings and rotated my new earrings faithfully.

I saw the first sign of trouble after I had changed my earrings a few times. I often have trouble working the earrings through the back of the hole, which I guess is pretty typical for newly-pierced ears. But the process of trying to push the earring through often draws blood, which is probably not typical. The holes are also oozing some white discharge, and I’m afraid this is a sign of bad things to come.

I did some more reading on piercing aftercare and have decided to ditch the rubbing alcohol for a salt-and-baking-soda solution. I hope my ears settle down soon, because I really, really want to wear earrings like this at my wedding:

They are the Crystal and Pearl Vine Drop Earrings by Carolee, and I think they would look smashing with my wedding dress.