Is the Occult Tee’ the New White Shirt & Giveaway Update!

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This is just a short post to point out a few things. Firstly, you should all check out my guest post on the totally awesome Rebel Circus blog. The blog is written by lovely alternative bloggers about Pin-up fashion, Punk, music, tattoos and some really great Goth articles (decor anyone?)! At least take a peek at my guest post where I question whether the Occult Tee is the New White Shirt and tell you how to style it for work or play.

Alternatively, don’t forget to sign up for my giveaway to win the chance at fifty dollars worth of piercing jewellery. Link is right here. It ends in one day, so don’t forget!

What’s happening in your own Goth world? Let me know bellow. And don’t forget to tell me what you think of my guest post. Would you wear an occult shirt to your work?

Piercing Jewellery Giveaway! Your Choice of Jewellery for Up to $50

Hey guys! Exciting news. Recently I was contacted by the lovely Bodyjewelrypiercing.com with the idea of a giveaway. They will be sending up to fifty dollars worth of body piercing jewellery (hence the name) to one of you lovely readers for free. 

Piercing Jewelry Images from Bodypiercingjewelry.com

To Enter you MUST

• You MUST fill in the Rafflecopter widget below (otherwise your entry will not count). 
• You MUST be follower of this blog (whether through Bloglovin’ or Google Friend Connect) and let me know your username and the platform in Rafflecopter.
• You MUST reply to my email within a week of the giveaway ending.
• You MUST be at least eighteen or have your parents permission.
  

Other optional entries can be completed through the rafflecopter widget. If you’re having any problems or questions please let me know! The giveaway will be open for two weeks, until the 28th of April.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BAF Labret and Anatometal Circular Barbell Review

Disclaimer: All of the products were bought with my own money, and not provided for me. A lot of other bloggers have been doing piercing and jewellery reviews, but this is not connected with them at all.

For a long time I’ve wanted to try out Anatometal products. Anatometal is a a piercing jewellery brand that is a little more expensive but creates amazing quality pieces. I was on the look out for a titanium septum ring (though I ended up getting one at my piercer instead), so I took this as my one chance to try out the beloved brand from an online store that I’ve bought from before, Body Art Forms.

The Jewellery

I ordered Anatometal’s Internally Threaded Titanium Circular Barbell with the autoclave service. When you spend over a certain amount you get free bits and pieces. I added a steel labret with external threading. Free with every order you can get up to five free gauge cards (which I needed so bad) and a free sticker.

Damn you camera and your blue creating shenanigans.

Titanium Circular Barbell

This was my first time buying something that was internally threaded (if you don’t know what internet and external threading is check here) and, along with captive bead rings, it will be my last. I much prefer external threading, as I can feel my way. With internal threading I can never see past my nails!

The size is a bit wrong but that’s entirely my fault. I initially bought this new ring to downsize from the far-too-large ring that I was given to allow for swelling when I initially had the piercing done. That was over five years ago. Though I found the perfect diameter, at the time I didn’t have a gauge card and under estimated in gauge, buying a sixteen instead of a fourteen. The only problem is that I’ll have to drink carefully with it!

In terms of quality it is as perfect as I had imagined. The balls feel strange but I’m sure I’ll get used to that.

Steel Labret
I’ve received the exact labret before in an earlier order, the difference is the earlier was far too small, and with the cheaper edges cut into the inner flesh of my mouth. This is a size up and much better. Since it’s steel and not titanium I won’t wear it for long periods of time, as I’ve been having problems with other metals. Again, the gauge is a size too small.

In Comparison

Autoclaving Service
The first order I placed I did not use the autoclaving service. For those of you not sure what autoclaving is, an autoclave is a professional machine that goes to very high temperatures in order to clean metals of harmful bacteria. Any good piercer should have one.

Anyway! There was a notable difference in the cleanliness of the materials. The labret is my second of the same type (both were freebies) was the difference piece. On the note of Autoclaving is the packaging, which was in a sterilization pouch instead of the resealable baggies of last time. I really do wish they still included them because all of mine are filled with my old, unautoclaved nose studs.

The old captive ring (minus bead) vs new circular barbell

Shipping

Shipping wasn’t terrible. It took three weeks to get to me in Australia from America (and I noticed it had to go through customs which I’m not used to). I’m not really complaining too much because I’m used to longer shipping times. But I payed twenty-five dollars for global priority shipping (which was the mid option between express and regular) and I really regret wasting so much money.

Have you guys tried Anatometal? And where do you store your piercing jewellery?

On My Septum Piercing Experience

A little note that I kind of screw up a bit. Gmail changed it’s format and I took no notice of it so I haven’t been receiving any emails with comments. I’m going through and reading everything now. I’m not ignoring you! I promise!

If you follow me on Tumblr, you would have already seen that I got my Septum pierced and all of the whining I did about having to change my appointment due to being sick. Plus the bouts of anger every-time Coen slightly hit me in the face and I erupted into a dramatic painful sorrow.

I’ve enjoyed reading and watching tonnes of videos on everyone’s different experience (funnily enough I did absolutely no research before I had it done, which was probably not the best idea). So, here’s my experience so far even though its only been two weeks (if anything drastic happens – oh god, I hope not – I’ll update it or do a part two).

Did it hurt?

Yes, it hurt a lot. I wasn’t too worried about the pain though, since I’ve gotten piercings before I knew what to expect in general, and I’ve wanted this piercing for a few years. In comparison with other piercings, it’s been my most painful piercing. It hurt more than my nostril piercing, ear piercings and surprisingly my lip piercing.

Do they pierce the cartilage?

Sometimes. I asked my piercer this same question. She explained that the section that gets pierced is a kind of skin pocket that can be felt nearer to the tip of the tip of your nose, sometimes referred to as the “sweet spot”. This can be felt if you feel around a bit as it’s a lot more flexible and stretchy than the cartilage.

Though, sometimes people don’t have this pocket, or the pocket is very small (everyone’s bodies are different). Alternatively, some people choose to get it pierced on the cartilage purely for aesthetic reasons (not many people would advise it since it takes a lot longer to heal, is a lot more painful and means you can’t stretch it easily). If your piercer accidentally pierces the cartilage I would prompt you to go back to the piercer as soon as possible and talk to them about re-piercing it.

Did you cry?

Actually I did. Not because I was scared (though there’s nothing wrong if you are) but because, well, they pierced apart of my nose and naturally your eyes water. Now, when I got my nostril pierced my eyes watered but nothing like my septum. I’m thinking it was because of the difference in pain and that I’d been very recently sick that caused me to legitimately tear up – all over my face.

Too small to flip up – but it was custom bent by the piercer so, I’m okay with that.

Did it bleed?

Annoyingly enough my tearing up caused my nose to drip (again I’d been recently sick) to a ridiculous extent. And while it did bleed a little, I think it was mostly because of my dripping nose.

Can you hide it? 

Yes, but my circular barbel is small enough that it can’t currently flip up.

Are you going to stretch it?

Yes, I am. Over the next few years I’m going to be stretching my septum really slowly. I actually didn’t want to before I had gotten it, but my current size (16 gauge) is too small for my liking. I was thinking of going to ten or eight gauge. But that may change.

How do you clean it?

Sea salt soaks twice a day, and I use a tissue to remove any build-up (aka crusties or snot) that gets stuck around it (but only when it became less tender to touch). Int he shower I poke the tip of my nose up to let the water run over it. Other than that I just leave it alone.

You can usually barely see it – it’s so tiny.

What was the heeling like?

The first day was spent sleeping because I just could not bare to deal with it. My sinuses were still being silly and causing my nose to drip down my septum ring. It was too painful to touch, plus I didn’t want to contaminate it too much, so when it got runny (mostly the first two days and part of the third) I just took a nap so that it dried up a bit.

The first three days were very touchy. I couldn’t touch the outside of my nose, let alone the inside. I couldn’t make certain facial expressions since it pulls on the ring hurts me which lead to a ridiculous episode with really nice soup that turned out to be not-so-nice as soup drinking face caused the sharpest pain throughout the whole experience.

Amongst this after sea salt soaks and getting it wet (while washing my face or in the shower) it was extremely itchy.So, very itchy!

Most of the pain was gone in a week. The only pain occurring if I bump my nose or pull extreme facial expressions (rarely) or play with it too much.

What piercings do you have/want and what were they like?

My Goth Maintenance.

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 This is just a list of things I do to maintain my dark appearance. (I know, that sounds terribly, well, terrible but I couldn’t word it any other way). Obviously this list isn’t just “Goth” needs but general needs for those interesting in the same kinds of things.

• One a month I re-dye my hair, mostly the roots. Around the same amount of time I cute and shave my hair. The more often I shave my undercut the easier it is because it doesn’t blend as well with the rest of my hair. (For more in-depth information just check this video here!)
• Every few days I take the time out to clean my boots. Whether that’s between classes while being bored or before school, or such.
• Removing my make up used to be very tedious for me. Some like just to get in the shower and scrub it off but that usually ends up with a big mess of black across, down and around my face and neck, sometimes hands. First I wash my face is wash water. I try to wipe the resulting black mess off a bit more with a dry face-washer. The left overs are removed with make up remover. Lastly I splash some water on my face to get the remover off completely and put some moisturiser over my eyes to help discomfort from all that darn rubbing.
• I usually would go one week on and one off with nail painting as my nails are very temperamental and need re-charging time to regain oxygen and such. Though I don’t have the time lately. That tends to consist of cleaning my nails, cutting, filing, buffing, washing, moisturising and finally painting.
• Three times I day I take the time out to make my salt water mixture (article here explains what I’m talking about) and soak my nose piercing for ten minutes while watching my daily dose of Youtube subs.

This is what I do to maintain my ooky-spooky-ness (I honestly can’t describe this very well!). How about you? Do you take five minutes every morning to rub sun screen on your tattoo’s? Or change your piercing/hair weekly? Let me know, I’d love, love, love to hear about it.

Best wishes,
-SaryWalrus

Dealing With Piercing Infection

While dealing with the infection in my nose for at least six months I think I’ve learnt a bit about how to handle it. I am not a professional and these are not to be used in contradiction or instead of professional help. My biggest advice is to see a professional! Anyway, here are some tips and tricks for when that distressing little bump appears.

How to avoid infection?

• Don’t change jewellery. This is only while your piercing is still healing and while it may look healed (they heal from the outside in) it’s safer to wait it out until you’re completely sure. Changing a healing piercing will aggravate the wound and possibly spread bacterial (this is why you shouldn’t spin s healing piercing. If you need to get the ‘crust’ out just soak it in some hot water (or a sea salt soak, later explained) and it will generally soften and fall out on it’s own.
• Cleaning your piercing everyday is very important, it helps keep the bacterial away and lets the piercing heal. Not to mention keep crust away (generally).
• Let your piercing breath. Yes, I’m on about crust again but for a piercing it’s important to have fresh air flowing. Build up of crust is great for bacterial to build as you clean the ‘dirt’ has no where to go and can result in infection or a bubble, or if you already have an infection for it to worsen.
• Over cleaning your piercing can be just as bad as not cleaning it. While it helps to clean out the crust and to make sure it’s fresh and clean your body has it’s own means of ridding your body of toxins and healing itself and over cleaning may affect this.
• Touching a healing piercing (or generally a healed piercing) may make it aggravated. It can spread bacterial. When touching your piercing wash your hands well.
• Your piercing (especially if it’s a surface bar) WILL get caught on things. Try and be careful around towels, while kissing or generally anything that is made of material that can be easily caught on. Just getting it caught on something and not pulled out can aggravate it and if it does fall out it should be properly cleaned as well as possible.
• Go to a piercer you can trust. I’ve been to all of the piercing places in my town and know the people that know what they’re talking about. I have my favourites and know they’re hours and I know the places that I would only recommend to someone studying bacteria. Looking at your options is great and try to make the appointment yourself and in person. This gives you the time to look around at how they work and how clean they are and take the time to ask them some questions. It’s not difficult to see who has experience and who was taught to pierce from the back of a pamphlet.

Firstly, what is an infection?

Infections are generally noticed as bumps beside or around the piercing. They tend to be attributed with green puss and sometimes bleeding (mostly when popped) and there would be a general redness to the skin around it. Infections aren’t always painful and can come in lots of different appearances – it can sometimes be difficult to tell them apart from hypertrophic scarring.

How did this infection appear?

Infection can be caused by a numerous amount of things and this list is way too short to talk about all of them in detail. Finding the cause is very important to healing the infection. For instance if you have the wrong type of metal, sea salt soaks wont do anything because the metal is still causing the irritation. Common causes are:

• You have the wrong type of metal for a healing piercing.
• You’ve knocked it or it’s been pulled out/changed and aggravated.
• Something caused by your cleaning routine (or lack of).
• You’ve gained or have an allergy from the metal.
• It might not be an infection but a build up of tissue, also known as hypertrophic scarring.
• It could be irritated by hairspray, foundation, etc.

What can I do?

• Stay calm! Personally I’m horrible at staying calm and I can’t sit back and watch while nothing happens. I have to be doing something NOW to fix this problem. This is the worst thing you can do. You tend to make rash decisions and not think or read careful enough into what you’re actually doing.
• Did you bump your piercing this morning and now it’s red and sore? Wash some warm water over it and try not to touch it. Look at what you’ve done recently. If you’ve changed your piercing it’s more than likely the metal?
• Do not take it out! Taking out an infected piercing can cause long term problems. Some say it’ll trap the infection in your nose to cause harsh effects. When getting a piercing you have to understand that it’s a long term decision and you have to be able to care for it. At the first sign of a problem, ripping it out probably means that you didn’t think enough about actually wanting it.

Getting rid of infection:

• Sea salt soaks involves boiling a cup full or water and add natural (not iodised) sea salt. I’ve read 1/2 a tea spoon, which sounds like way too much, and 1/8th which is what I prefer. Adding too much may cause irritation but generally the amount your body reacts to is different for everyone as everyone’s body’s are different.

  I’ve read that some use cotton balls to apply salt soak compresses to their piercing but cotton balls shed and can leave parts around your piercing. A common method is to use the cup filled with boiling water and salt, wait until it cools enough to touch. Find a video or something to watch for five or ten minutes and hold the cup against your piercing.

• Saline solution is basically a premixed salt solution. basically the same method as above.
• Tea tree oil/other oils can help to sooth and dry out an infected piercing.
• The ‘aspirin’ option. The most recent piercer I’ve been to told me about this method. You take an aspirin tablet that is disprovable and wet it and rub it around the infected area. I looked it up online and wasn’t quite sure what to think. Some said that it can be harmful to you etc. I might try it if in great need but I would recommend you read carefully about it first.
• When in doubt go to your piercer. Go to any piercer. If you’ve found that the piercer that you had the piercing done with is not helping or doesn’t know what they’re talking about go to another piercer. Infections are a serious matter and you’ll need someone who can actually help you fix the problem. You might miss something that a professional would probably see and don’t forget to ask them how they think you should clean it and anything you want to know in the slightest.
• Don’t touch the infected piercing with unclean hands and generally try not to play with it. It spreads infection and may aggravate an already infected piercing.
• If all else fails and your piercer isn’t sure what to do, it’s always best to go to your doctor. Antibiotics may be necessary or an allergy could be the cause. Anyway, doctors are professionally trained infections and such.

 Best wishes,
-Sary Walrus

Outfit Post: Faceless and Florals.

Today my main aim was to get to the piercer, any piercer! Preferably with competent. I found one and my day was saved! This is what I wore. I couldn’t get any good pictures of my outfit though. I’m not used to taking pictures of my outfits any-more – after having other people help and generally not doing any outfit posts for a long while. These were also taken after walking about town hanging around thrift stores (I found a new one today!) and shopping.

My nose has been infected for quite some time and after sea salt solutions not working, saline solutions not working, tea tree oil and buying new jewellery for it, I found that it wasn’t healing because the recommended  jewellery (by another piercer) was a combination metal. All in all, I’ve spent over two hundred dollars on this piercing, have been to every piercer in town and I’m not giving up. Heal, dammit!

Anyway, here’s the outfit!

Outfit:
Cardigan: Thrifted.
Dress: Thrifted.
Belt: Second-hand from my mum.
Necklace: Second-hand from my grandmother.
Choker: Bought at Animania.
Stockings: Gift.

I barely if ever wear my hair completely up, I don’t think it suits me but today I just, felt like it. Do you get days where you feel like doing something you usually wouldn’t?

In all honesty this outfit looked so much better than is seems. But, oh well. I try and wear this dress every now and then. I really love it. Mum originally bought it for herself but didn’t like the way it looked on her – which generally means I can have my way with it (that sounds disturbing. Hehehe).

Best wishes,
-Sary

Outfit Post: Lazy Town Day

 Today was spent walking around town looking for piercing places and piercing cleaning product. It was very frustrating as I honestly think the piercer I had my nose done at is completely incompetent.

 I wanted to try something different than the usual high waisted skirt combo. It’s rather casual as today was hot.

Cardigan: Thrifted.
Shirt: EBay.
Skirt: Present.
Sock: Kittys. (I still have to return.)
Ripped stockings: Kmart?

I was so annoyed with my hair by the time I got home I threw it up in a little bun with this little stick thing (that I can’t remember the name) that my mum bought me.

 Best wishes,
-Sary.

Outfit Post: New Piercing

Before!

 Well, I’m getting back into the habit of taking pictures of my outfits though I swear they all are basically the same thing. I wore this to get my nose pierced today; Yay!

Outfit:

Singlet: Supre’ (To be perfectly honest). It’s one of the most mainstream teen girls clothing stores in Australia.

Skirt: Self made.

Stockings: K-mart. They’re just school stockings.

Cardigan: Thrifted.

Short: School shoes, from mum.

Bag: Thrifted! It’s honestly the perfect size and so easy to use! It even has a little lock on the outside.

Gosh, my skin is awful. Obviously, my nose is distorted by the camera angle. I love big noses. :3

They didn’t have any black studs and I thought a ring would clash with my lip ring so red it is! It’s not sitting properly until it heals a bit more and I can clean the blood away. I tried cleaning it away today and it just starting bleeding worse. I can’t wait until I can get a new one! This stud is amazingly small. I can honestly say it hurt like hell. Worse than my lip, if I remember correctly.

I think it’ll be nice to have a piercing that I can change. The only way I can change my lip is if I have reverse blade pliers and even so, I’m horrible with them. I have to get it taken out by my piercer. 

I didn’t get to go my favourite piercer, unfortunately. I really love it there, it’s so comforting for me there.

Anyway, that’s enough rambling for me.
Best wishes,
-SaryWalrus

Day 21 – What body mod do you have or have you considered?

Horrible lip ring photo. But for some reason I really like it.

I absolutely love piercings. This may not be obvious as I only have three and two are my ears though. Obviously I have my lip pierced. I’ve had it pierced for three or four years now and absolutely love it. Though for work placements things I have to go to the piercer to get it taken out as it needs reverse blade pliers to remove and I cannot do it myself what so ever.

As soon as I turn eighteen, in seven months, I will be getting my nose pierced. My parents were fine with me getting my lip pierced, they half paid for it, but as soon as I mentioned a nose piercing they were against it. They continuously say, “When you’re eighteen you can get as many piercings as you want. We have no control over you.” They don’t realise that I will hold them to that. I’m not sure what sort of nose piercing though, but I have seven months to think about it.

Maybe a tattoo is I find something meaningful enough to want to keep forever.

Best Wishes,
-Sary