Look at my ear.

I got a helix! My very first piercing by choice. When I was three, my mom had my ears pierced, and she says she did it early so I wouldn't remember the pain and be scared by it. This backfired, as I later became afraid of everything, pain included. So although I admired piercings, I could never bring myself to even consider it. My best friend and former college roommate had plenty of them in her ears, and I admired the helix in particular, but again, I'm a wimp.

Then my mom got her nose pierced.

If my mom can get pierced, it'd be pretty sad if I can't handle it. I did text her and make her encourage me today. She had been trying to get me to get my nose done for years, but I totally saw through that. She just wanted an excuse to get hers done. And I always worked in places where that wouldn't fly.

Then I started working at the shelter.

I fucking love this place. As I said last time, it's just so fun and low-key and awesome. I swear, everyone I work with speaks Spanish (working on it), has tattoos (some day, but I'm prone to sudden loss of interest in passions), and has piercings (ta da). If my boss can have a helix, so can I.

A friend had offered to go with me, but this was one of those "I have to do it right now or I never will" things. So, with the time I had to kill between jobs, I did it! I'm embarrassed that I got woozy, but I suppose that's nothing surprising to them. And honestly, it didn't even hurt. What hurts is when I accidentally touch it or when I'm cleaning it, that's totally nauseating. I'm a little freaked out by this "it takes 6 months to heal" thing and I'm not terribly sure what constitutes healing, since it's not like this is streaming blood or something, but I guess it's strangely reassuring that my ear might be fucked up for a long time. At least I won't assume I'm dying, as I tend to do.

For anyone in Portland, Maine, I got this done by Nate at Hallowed Ground. He was a total sweetheart and got it done super fast.