Kamryn Gudajtes used a piercing gun more than 20 times at home in a bid to save cash, but it went badly wrong when her ears became infected and she needed surgery to remove the ugly scar tissue
A student tried to save money by piercing her ears herself dozens of times at home – only to end up spending thousands to have her infected lobes ‘fixed’.
Kamryn Gudajtes says she first pierced her own ears as a teen schoolgirl with friends in an effort to save money. However, when the now 20-year old continued to use the $8 piercing gun despite advice against self-piercing, she claims her ears started to become red and swollen.
At this point, the waitress was sporting several earrings in each lobe but loved them too much to remove them. It was only when the infection didn’t clear up and the holes began to produce ‘green pus’ that she decided to remove the piercings.
Regrettably, this is when hard ‘tumour-like’ keloids began to form on her lobes over the earring holes. According to the NHS website, a keloid scar is described as a raised scar left on the skin after a wound has healed.
It can occur following any type of injury or damage to your skin such as a cut, burn, surgery, acne or a body piercing. Kamryn says the ‘hard’ scar tissue on her ears made her feel ‘ugly’ and left her too self-conscious to wear her hair up.
So this month she finally spent $1,500 and underwent surgery to have the visible and embedded keloids removed.
Shocking footage from two-and-a-half-hour operation shows in graphic detail how the scar tissue was removed before the the bruised ears were stitched up .
Kamryn, from Grand Forks in North Dakota, US, is now encouraging others to always have their earrings done by professionals, as she’s ultimately spent far more money rectifying the damage in the long term.
She said: “I ended up starting to pierce my ears myself when I got bored. It became a hobby of mine. At our local beauty shop, they had these piercing guns for $8.
“I thought this is cheap and I can pierce my ears whenever. I probably had about 11 piercings on one side and 12 or 13 on the other. A year went by [after doing my last piercing] and they were initially fine but then they started to become red and puffy and it hurt a lot.
“They started to become sore and infected and red and puffy but I loved my earrings so much I thought maybe this would go away. I ignored it because my pride was too big as people had said I probably shouldn’t be piercing my own ears.
“A year and a half after doing my last piercing I decided to remove my earrings. When piercings get infected and you take them out, scar tissue grows over the wound, and this builds up and it causes keloids to grow.
“They were super hard and I had a scar all over my ear. They continued to grow into huge bumps and they were almost tumour-like. My keloids were pea-sized to a little bit bigger. I hated having my back or doing slick backs with my hair and I would always have it down to cover them. They made me feel so gross and ugly and I was very self conscious and insecure about them.”
After arranging a consultation with a dermatologist, Kamryn alleges they advised her to have the keloids removed immediately as they could lead to hearing loss if they became too large.
Now, following surgery and having her stitches taken out, she will receive monthly steroid injections into the scar tissue to prevent the keloids from reappearing.
Kamryn stated: “It ended up being more expensive to get my ears fixed than to have them pierced in the first place. I had so many keloids embedded in my lobes that weren’t completely out that had to be removed. They had to get inside my lobe and to get it out. I was awake for the whole process but I was super numbed up.
“My ears were swollen red and before I took the piercings out, they had a greenish-pus on them. It was terrifying. What sucks is since I have so many [keloids], I have to probably get seven steroid injections on each side and these cost $100 per shot.”
Kamryn is now cautioning others about the risks of piercing their own ears at home and encourages them to seek professional help.
Kamryn added: “It really wasn’t worth doing at-home piercing and I should have just gone to a shop. It was probably one of the stupidest things I did.
“I was a kid and you make those mistakes for sure.
“I would tell people that the safest option is to go to professionals as they have this job for a reason.
“Personally, this has put me off getting my ears pierced again. I feel like people that go through something like this, never want to risk it again especially on how expensive it was [to fix] in the end.
“Looking back, it has actually cost me more in the long run.”
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