At A Glance
Author	DemonVampirePirate
Contact	[email protected]
IAM	DemonVampirePirate
When	Six months ago
Artist	Myself
Studio	In the kitchen

Problem:

This past summer I worked at the San Diego Zoo as an intern for their summer camps. The job was pretty good for someone who is working on a BA in art and hey, I was getting more than minimum wage. Unfortunately, the dress code policy at the SD Zoo is a fairly strict one (as are the dress codes at most places where tourists go so as to not frighten them away). The rules on mods were (and I assume still are) no visible tattoos, no jewelry in piercings that were in places other than ears, and only two pieces of jewelry in each ear with one having to be a "stud" (which I translated to something that doesn't dangle) and both having to be on the outside portion of the ear. There was of course also a rule that mandated hair be a "natural" color ("But peacock feathers are this color blue," didn't really go over well), bright makeup, nail polish that wasn't a "natural" color (a.k.a. no black). As I prepared myself for a summer of being wholesome, teaching 5-8 year old children, and kaki pants I came across one very big problem. I didn't have to worry about the tattoos part of the rules because the only ones I have are on my back but with 13 piercing located in my ears which are quick to close holes even if they've been around for years (including one 5 month old vertical industrial that would probably close up in a day without jewelry) and one in my tongue, what was I to do?

Go fish:

The solution ended up being not only pretty simple, but very cost effective. I looked around for a while for various types of retainers but they were either a) ridiculously expensive for the amount I would need b) not suited for the piercings I had or c) a nice thought, but not really something that looked like it would work. First things first, I got clear balls for my tongue. One problem solved, 9 to go. Next, I decided to think of everything made of clear material that was small, cylindrical, and easy to cut. What I came up with that I thought would work best was fishing line. I had heard various accounts of people in the military using fishing line as piercing retainers, but couldn't quite recall how they went about making them so I made my own plan. I took a 14g barbell to my local sports supply store as something to compare with and got a spool of heavy duty fishing line for deep sea fishing that was almost exactly the same diameter as the 14g barbell and only about $7.00. When I went home I cut the fishing line into small pieces that would barely stick out of the various places I was going to put them in and melted the ends to be flat and wider than the stems (so they wouldn't just pull through) by pressing them down against a hot frying pan. With those easy steps I was able to make retainers for all of my 14g piercings except my vertical industrial.

Industrial Issues:

I was pretty worried that if I used the same method as above to make a retainer for my industrial, it would fall out while I was sleeping or some other time when I wouldn't notice it until it was too late and I'd have to get the holes re-pierced. So I started thinking of what I could use to make more secure ends and thought, "Well if you can just screw balls onto the end of PTFE, why not with this fishing line?" The answer, as it turned out, was no reason at all. The balls stayed nice and snug (though I did tighten them regularly, but mostly out of paranoia) and so my industrial was almost invisible. I used grey acrylic balls that I already had and I'm sure they were visible from behind, but I could have easily bought clear balls to put on the ends.

Too Good To Be True:

All right, so my system wasn't perfect. In the shower and while sleeping the retainers did have a habit of falling out and once they did it was pretty hard to find them again. However, if some small clear acrylic balls or clear O rings were purchased to use as backs for the retainers this problem would be quickly solved. Otherwise, just make sure not to put them in piercings that aren't completely healed. I'm also pretty sure that it'd be a bad idea to use these home made retainers in any sort of vertical facial piercings because the melted ends/balls/O rings would press into the skin and create pressure on the hole, causing irritation and possibly rejection.

Larger Gauge?

So I was lucky in the fact that my (at the time) 2g and 8g piercings were in the first two holes in each ear. This made it so I could still wear jewelry in my bigger than 14g piercings. If I hadn't, how would I make larger gauge retainers? I have no idea. I probably would have purchased the flesh colored dental acrylic plugs that are easily available on the internet if I could find them in a color that looked like it wouldn't stand out as completely different than my actual skin, but hey, maybe you can figure out how to make some of your own.