Welcome to Gaia! ::

I can also answer questions if anyone has them.
My family owns a tattoo and piercing business, and I was an apprentice piercer for several months.
(:

You should expect a sharp pain where the needle enters your flesh?
I don't really understand what you mean by your question.

I just had two industrials done, but it was with someone in training so generally they would not be as painful as I had experienced.
But I can describe the proceedure to you.

Your piercer will probably have you laying down (I always request it as it makes me calmer) and they'll have you doing breathing excersizes to help you stay calm and to cope with the pain. You will be pierced on an exhale- just push out all of the air in your lungs and it will hurt less. After this your jewelry will be pushed through, which should be uncomfortable, but generally not painful. Then the same proceedure will happen for the second hole.
One of the holes will hurt more then the other, it will vary depending on how worried you are for them. Just try to stay calm, and breath deeply through your nose and out through your mouth. I personally thought the second hole hurt more, because my ear was already tender.

As for the pain itself... everyone has a different pain threshold. You'll just have to find yours on your own. Good luck though, the pain is worth the end results.

(Sorry if this didn't answer your question.)

Well i had mine done, and have since taken the bar out, and now have 2 individual rings.

Sleeping on it hurts, washing your hair hurts, and mine is long - so it got infected easily. Im GREAT with my piercings, but i just couldn't keep it clean, so it was still hurting and oozing crap 1 year later....

Cut your hair away from your ear, have it buzzed from around it. And clean, clean, clean all the points of entry.

(lol @ late reply)
I've recently completed a helix corkscrew industrial (Pretty much two helix piercings one below the other connected by one spiralling bit of jewellery). It's been less than a month since I got the second hole done, the first one was done two months before the second.

The healing has been pretty good so far. It's been two weeks, and the most irritating thing has been the way my hair gets caught on the damn thing every ten minutes. I'm expecting two months total til it's not hurting at all - maybe three until I feel happy changing the jewelry. And with both holes, it's taken less than five days for them to look pretty normal (That is, no swelling, no redness, no oozing mess.) and during those five days it was just red and a little swollen. To be honest it's not that bad.

I will emphasise the goodness that is a salt soak now - it's the most pain-free way to get rid of the crusty lymph fluid that goops out of the pierce (It softens it so much that the gentle cleaning you then give it with a q-tip will get it off without it feeling like it's ripping up your ear.) Also something that's helped tremendously has been b-vitamin supplements, combined with a zinc supplement. (I know it sounds like silliness, but they do actually help with healing. Seriously, try it.) Lastly, I don't know if it's that mine is a corkscrew Industrail, and therefore has a nice hair-collecting curvy bit at the top, but you will learn quickly how to detangle hair from piercings. I suggest tying or clipping any hair away from the piercing constantly for at least the first two weeks,and then easing up on it but still being as gentle as possible for the remainder of the time.

(this is all based on my two helix piercings. They're going well - no infections.)

I got my belly button pierced (top) about a month ago and I am just wondering something.... I was told to expect a lot of a clear whiteish secretion as it heals, but instead of whiteish, mine is more yellowy... I don't believe it is infected because it isn't really that red at all and is itching like a normal healing wound. Is this normal? (the coloration)

All righty thanks. Yea, I am fairly certain that it is just healing but I'll keep an eye on it. ^_^

Okay, I have a serious question... The odd things that I was experiencing previously with my belly button ring have pretty much stopped almost completely except for a little bit.... I clean it 2-3 times a day. Today I just noticed something that kind of is making me nervous. When my ring is out( I WAS going to change it), an odd looking almost fatty piece of something pushes it's way out of the top and bottom holes and starts to bleed a little.... I immediately did another clean on it and put my original ring back in. Now it is sore and swollen and still kind of ooze bleeding. WTF? I never noticed that before! Any ideas of what I should do and/or what that is? Could it just be scar tissue forming inside? Please let me know asap.Thanks guys!

PS) I just did a salt water treatment on it and it seems a little less painful, but still swollen and twingy.