I actually wrote a HUGE post about it somewhere on some blog ages ago, but I can’t find it!  Forgive me for not being perfectly thorough (and perhaps not precise about the order of each step…it was a year and a half ago!).  If I can, I’ll post that, but for now:

First off:
Where?  Scarab Body Arts in Syracuse, NY
By whom? John Joyce, the one and only
Price? Approximately $220 including tip
How long? About 2 hours 

I used to want a white tattoo, but upon further research realized that, while they look wonderful initially, they almost always turn a bit gray or a weird beige because your skin’s cells are not clear and therefore do not heal transparently after your tattoo is a few weeks old.  So, instead, I got scarification!

John Joyce is one of the most incredible piercers and scarification artists, hands down, flat-out, period.  He’s done almost all of my piercings (except one when I was 17 and, uh, went to a hella sketchy place…ugh).  All of them have turned out wonderfully and he is remarkably patient, calm, and always makes me and my best friend Manda (also a Scarab devotee) feel 800x better about the impending pain of whatever we’re having done.

He explained exactly what he was going to do, step by step—something I personally believe to be very important.  He did a stencil of the design, placed it on me, and we figured out exactly where we wanted it to be through a few different trials of placing it, then washing it off, then placing it again.

After deciding on that and cleaning my skin very thoroughly, he had me lay down.  I was super excited but incredibly nervous, but he managed to calm me down very well through speaking to me and helping me breathe well.

He then began to cut my skin with a brand new, completely sterile scalpel blade.  It definitely stung quite a bit, I won’t lie.  I cringed often and breathed sharply quite a bit, buuut I can say with 100% certainty that being tattooed (for me, at least—and, admittedly, I have odd pain tolerances to random things).  I hate getting tattoos and really can’t ever relax while having them done, but while he was cutting my side, I was relaxed sometimes.

After doing the outline, he had to widen the cuts and remove the skin at the center of the feather (which is the widest part of it), so for that part, he rubbed a topical anesthetic into my skin (he could not put it on for the initial cutting because it needs to put into the actually wound to do anything).  It numbed my skin and the next part didn’t hurt whatsoever, it just felt like pressure but no sting.

It took around 2 hours, but he spoke to me the entire time and it made the process so much easier.  I was thrilled the first time I saw it in the mirror!  He then covered it with plastic wrap, gave me a very thorough explanation on how to care for it, and we all went home.

It started throbbing about an hour later, and then it just stung quite a bit.  For me, the process was not too painful (I’d definitely take it over being tattooed ANY day) buuut the aftercare…oh dear.  I hate to say it, but the first 5 days after getting it will make me reallllly need to think long and hard about ever getting another scarification piece.

First of all, if you’ve ever had a bad cut and then taken a shower, you know how it stings a bit?  Yeah, imagine that, but deeper and in a large area.  The cuts have to be deep-ish because otherwise they won’t scar, and though I did not have too much skin removed, the center part of the feather had enough skin that it stung especially terribly there.  So John told me that I would probably want to hold a washcloth over the cut and sit down in the shower just in case it hurt too much.  I took his advice, but didn’t think that I would actually get so sick that I almost passed out, which is exactly what happened: I stepped into the shower with a washcloth over the cut and sat down, and the second even a LITTLE water hit it, my ears started ringing so loudly that I couldn’t hear anything and I got incredibly dizzy and just sat there, crying.  Then again, I do have a fairly low pain tolerance, so don’t assume that this is a universal reaction!

Every 4-6 hours, I would remove the previous piece of plastic wrap, then wash it with antibacterial soap (massaging it gently into the wound).  After rinsing that off, I would irritate the wound with hydrogenic peroxide, which I sprayed.  The idea is to keep the wound extremely clean while still irritating it enough that it won’t heal quickly and to ensure that it will scar more significantly.  Some people irritate theirs with other things like scrubs and such, but I didn’t want my scar to not be totally precise still.  The only thing that I did do was, after the hydrogen peroxide, I once poured a certain kind of red vinegar into the wound, as that was something John said his apprentice had been experimenting with in order to make the scar more red, ultimately.  But usually, I did not do this, and instead would just skip that step and go straight to putting a very thin layer of Vaseline on the cutting and then put a new sheet of plastic wrap over it, taping the sides to my skin.  This sealed out the oxygen to make sure the wound would, again, be prevented from healing as quickly while still maintaining cleanliness.

In conclusion, I strongly recommend that if you want a scarification piece (or any sort of body modification; tattoos and piercings certainly included), the most important thing is to do your research.  Read people’s experiences all over the internet, look at photos, consider your options, make sure you choose a time when you’ll be able to relax for a few days (at the very least) because, believe me, it is unfun to walk around and do when you’re throbbing from a wound.  If you are anywhere near New York (especially Syracuse!), go to John Joyce.  If not, look for somebody of the same caliber and be SURE to get lots of reviews from other people, check out their studio beforehand, and ensure they have proper credentials, and that they make you feel at ease and in good hands.

So yeah, that’s the overall experience.  Sorry it took me forever to respond!  Y’know how finals week can be. :P

And tadaaa, here are a few process pictures:

What is looked like most days (except this time was the first day so there was a lot more blood and paper towels were involved, too)

After taking the plastic wrap off for the first time

And about a day later!

And here is a much more recent picture where you can see it.  It’s fairly light now.

P.S. You can post non-anonymously!  Haha. :)