00:00So a surface bar piercing is a piercing that goes under the skin layer and in the fatty tissue, the
00:05subcutaneous layer.
00:06People have been trying to get them all over, but the places where they've been the most successful anyways for
00:10a surface bar
00:11have been the sideburn area, also the chest, which is really great.
00:19I'm Michelle and I'm getting a surface bar piercing done today.
00:22I have not gotten this piercing before. I've only seen it become popular recently.
00:27I have thought about getting this piercing, but because of the placement and the kind of piercing it is,
00:34it took me a while to kind of look up who and where to go to.
00:38So I've been getting pierced since I was 12 years old, and a lot of it was rebelling against my
00:43mom.
00:45I liked getting piercings and I liked the thought of getting tattoos and just adding a little bit of personality
00:50to who I am.
00:51So I feel like this will give me a slight boost of confidence just because that's what all my piercings
00:58are meant to do.
00:59Although for work purposes, I'm not really allowed to show that flair, but outside of work, it's more or less
01:05what my friends expect of me.
01:07My dream outcome would be exactly what I've seen on Pinterest.
01:13So just like a nice, dainty, flat piercing that I can easily hide or show off on my day-to
01:20-day basis.
01:22I'm Thomas and I'm owner and head piercer of Aesthetic Ambition in Marina Del Rey, California.
01:27I started piercing about 12 years ago when I started college.
01:30I was able to pay my way through college as a body piercer.
01:33I opened this place up about four and a half years ago.
01:36So a surface bar piercing is a piercing that goes under the skin layer and in the fatty tissue or
01:41the subcutaneous layer.
01:42Nowadays, anyways, it has two 90-degree posts that go up from underneath the skin,
01:46and that way you can thread in two tops into those ends.
01:49Hi, I'm Thomas. How are you doing today?
01:51Hi, I'm good. My name is Rochelle. Nice to meet you.
01:52Hi, Rochelle. What are we doing for you for piercing-wise?
01:54I would like to get the surface bar piercing right here on the outside of my right ear.
02:00So here we have some to choose from.
02:02So the best options are about this size or this size.
02:05That's four or five millimeter.
02:06And these options are all very flat to the skin, which is great for healing.
02:09Do any of those speak to you?
02:11Yeah, I'd like to go with the turquoise, if that's okay.
02:14Okay, yeah, I think that would be a fun look.
02:16Okay, cool.
02:17Awesome.
02:17Let's go with that.
02:18Let's go set it up.
02:18Yeah.
02:20I'm a little nervous, not for the outcome, but for the pain-wise.
02:24I'm not really sure what that's going to be like,
02:26but I feel like I have a pretty good high pain tolerance.
02:30So first, I will clean the area with sterile alcohol wipes.
02:35This will remove any oil or debris from the work area,
02:38which I'm going to be marking first and then eventually piercing.
02:42After the area is clean and dry,
02:44I will then use a non-sterile marker to make the initial point.
02:48I will then measure the distance for my particular surface bar
02:52using a non-sterile or sterile toothpick.
02:55And then I will use that to make my secondary mark.
02:58After I'm happy with those marks,
03:00I'll show the client the mirror and make sure that they agree with me.
03:03After that, we will apply iodine, which is the actual skin prep.
03:07And I will make sure that I apply it in enough area
03:10so that my entire possible area of touching
03:13is all going to be disinfected for the procedure.
03:17For the actual procedure, I'll begin by using an O-needle
03:20to make a little round hole basically through the skin,
03:24remove a little bit of the dermis
03:25and remove a little bit of the subcontaneous tissue beneath.
03:28And this really makes those 90-degree holes for my surface bar later on.
03:33We make the first hole, nice deep breath in.
03:35It's very quick, just a few twists of the O-needle
03:38and that little tubule of tissue is removed.
03:41So when we use the O-needles,
03:43we do remove a little tubule of skin
03:45and a little bit of fatty tissue underneath.
03:47And that's a little bit of white tissue
03:49that you saw removed after each of those.
03:54After we make the second incision,
03:56I then compress the area with some gauze
03:58to eliminate any bleeding.
04:03And then I will go under the skin with a needle,
04:06in this case a 14-gauge needle,
04:08and I will travel under the skin at the appropriate depth
04:10that matches the surface bar rise.
04:14And then once I reach the other side, I'll pop out.
04:24And then transfer the jewelry in.
04:26And that'll be using a taper.
04:28Of course, getting over those 90-degree bends
04:30is a bit of a fun part.
04:31So we do that quite quickly
04:32and then massage it back into place.
04:37Once the bar is through,
04:38I have to remove the taper on the other end,
04:40secure my grip on the jewelry,
04:42and then carefully thread on the other end
04:44without dropping it.
04:53And then once that's done,
04:54it's just cleaning up the area,
04:56removing the iodine
04:57and any residual blood or marker.
05:02Now, time for the mirror reveal.
05:06All right, take a look.
05:07It looks so cool.
05:10I love it.
05:11I was very impressed.
05:13It's definitely what I thought it would look like.
05:16All right, so to take care of a surface bar piercing,
05:18just like your other piercings,
05:19you're just going to be using a sterile saving rinse.
05:21At least once a day after shower,
05:22that's the most important time.
05:24A surface bar piercing will take
05:25about three to four months to heal on average,
05:27given that it's soft tissue
05:28and not through cartilage,
05:29but it can take longer in some cases.
05:31You certainly want to see your piercer first
05:33to make sure it's fully healed
05:34to change at the three to four month mark.
05:36I thought the piercing would be a lot more painful
05:39than it actually was.
05:41During the process,
05:42there was, I just felt like a pinch of the skin.
05:44I like going through the process with the client
05:46where they think that they're going to be going through
05:48this like very intense invasive thing,
05:50but then to have them be pleasantly surprised
05:53that the procedure was very easy afterwards.
05:55And then they still have the look of something
05:56that's very intense or extreme aesthetically.
05:59Needles get a really bad rap.
06:00Needles are scary because they're really sharp,
06:02but the reason why they do less damage to the tissue
06:05is also because they're so sharp.
06:07My initial reaction to my piercing
06:10was just pretty amazed
06:12just because it looks like it would hurt a lot more
06:15than it actually did.
06:16But the end results were totally worth it.
06:19Working with Thomas was really great.
06:21He explained everything thoroughly
06:22and walked me through the process.
06:24Michelle was fantastic.
06:25Very calm energy, very good taste in jewelry.
06:28I love turquoise.
06:29So this piercing,
06:30I'm definitely going to take a lot more care of.
06:33Not that the others aren't important,
06:34but just because of the placement of it.
06:36I'm going to leave the jewelry on for as long as I need to,
06:40but I'm definitely going to be excited
06:42to show my friends my new piercing.
06:44Hopefully, I don't encourage them
06:45to want to get something new, too.
06:47So anybody that thinks about getting this piercing,
06:50it's less painful than I thought it would be.
06:54Maybe just coming here with Thomas
06:56and his expertise made it a lot more simpler.
06:59Come prepared for the worse
07:01because it probably more likely than not
07:04will be less than you expected it to be.
07:07This new piercing is just going to continue
07:10to like add to my future collection of piercings.
07:13So it's definitely something else
07:14to add on to who I am as a person.
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