New Beginnings: The Piercing

This is a snippet of the write up I did for my HEV 510 assignment, for this week. I felt like it belongs here. Check it out:

Thinking back to my childhood, I can easily remember my mom’s public decent towards young males with earrings. While I can’t say she hated them, she definitely could not stand them. I remember one incident where one of my older cousins got his ear pierced. She said passionately, “Don’t get any ideas, Jamelle! You won’t have any piercings while you’re living in my house. When you get old enough, get a job, and can be independent, you can do whatever you want!” My mother knew me well. While she knew that I would never disobey her, she knew that at that moment I was thinking about getting an earring. When that incident took place I was twelve or thirteen years old, and now as an emerging adult, approaching twenty-one, I’ve still played around with the idea of piercing my ears.

Last week I blogged in my online journal the following:

“I feel myself moving toward a major part of emerging adulthood, and I’m scared shitless about it. I’m freakishly close to the part of adulthood where one has to cut off parental control. The part of life when you sit down and be totally honest with your parents about yourself, your values, and living the life you want to live… My parents aren’t the most open people I’ve known. I’m sure they would be appalled at some of the things I’ve experienced…


When I saw this assignment encouraged me to take a risk and alter my appearance, I had my mind made up almost instantaneously: I was getting an ear piercing! This assignment gave me an opportunity, and excuse, to do something I’ve thought about doing for years, and delivered the option to do something for myself and get credit for it. It was almost the perfect circumstance. As this assignment suggests, one’s physical appearance is directly connected to his or her sense of self. This is why I use the phrase, “almost perfect.” As a pierced individual, I am unsure how my life will change. While I’m still Jamelle on the inside (the me), my outward appearance has changed (the I). What are other’s preconceived notions and how will these notions change how I experience these individuals? Will I experience life differently? Will my friends, family, and co-workers experience me differently? Health wise, is there anything I need to be concerned about? All of these questions have crossed my mind, and I while I am nervous about the outcome, I’m willing to put my sense of self in jeopardy and proceed as planned. As far as my Mom is concerned: I’m old enough, I have two jobs, and I live in my residence hall year round. This assignment is me making my first move toward being completely independent: making the first move toward adulthood.

As a staff member in Celani Hall I am given the opportunity to stay in the building and work during Spring Break. Seeing as it’s a hassle to get to and from Illinois, I choose to stay and work. I figured this would be the perfect time for me to get my ear pierced: in general, our campus is desolate, and I can use the time to heal up before most people see me in person. I did research on piercings the weekend of March 6, 2009. I spent hours looking at different styles of piercings, different pieces of jewelry, the medical aspect of piercings, and looking for the closest, and safest, place to get pierced. As I traversed the Internet in search for material pertaining to piercings, and watched an almost endless amount of Youtube videos, I became more and more comfortable with the idea of having a pierced ear. The procedure is safe, the risk of infection is low as long as an individual cleans the wound, and one can remove the ring if he or she is unhappy. I was sold. On March 9, 2009, at 2:30pm, I walked into Heritage Tattoo and Piercing, ready to embark on my new journey. I nervously waited fifteen minutes or so, after paying, to get the procedure done. Constantly, I tried to accurately hypothesize how much pain I was about to endure. The attendant opened up fresh tools, gave me a run down of the procedure, and clamped my ear. “Three, two, one,” I took a deep breath and the gentleman pierced my ear. My ear bled for about 90 seconds and it was a good. I felt a stinging discomfort, but no pain. The deed was done: my transformation was complete. “Now it’s time for the hard part,” I told myself. Revealing myself to the world will definitely be much more challenging then the actual piercing.