Elephant's Graveyard: Blood and Metal

DANIELLE GORE
Sep 16
8 min read

⊹ ˚₊ ♪ ˚₊‧꧁ 𓆩༺ 𝄞 ༻𓆪 ꧂‧₊˚♪ ₊˚⊹

Friendly Hello and Introduction

Hello, hello angels!! I hope you're all enjoying the last day of your weekend, and doing something nice for yourselves. I had recently gotten a new tattoo and a new piercing within the past month, and I thought it would be super fun to write about all of the body modifications I've done over the years, whether or not I would recommend them, their pain level, and I'll include pictures!! If anybody is curious--I have a super low pain tolerance and I handle pain relatively poorly.. I just adore the look of body mods, and I go through with it anyway bahaha :p #painistemporary #swagisforever ALSO!! Fake blood warning, one of the photos was me in my Halloween costume last year LOL

⊱𝄞⊰ Madonna

Madonna and Monroe are often used interchangeably, so most people don't really care what you call it; however, I got a Madonna, which is on the right side of my face. :-) I got this about three and a half weeks ago, and I'm head over heels for it!! It's so fashionable, and it's giving Amy Winehouse realness. I may or may not get a Monroe in the future--which would make them angel bites! Who knows, I'm still feeling out the waters. I will say, though, it's super important that you have the correct size bar in order to prevent irritation and skin/gum embedding, which I began to experience..I had to switch to a longer bar this week. <3

Madonna, Vertical Labret, & Stretched Septum (6G) depicted

Pain: 2/10

Healing: 9/10 Pros: Sexy, Awesome, Cool, doesn't interfere with anything Cons: Hits your teeth and gums.. Recommendation: Go for it, but only if you aren't super sensitive to feeling something hitting your gums all the time. If you have preexisting dental issues, I'd advise against any lip piercings unless you're getting vertical piercings like a vertical labret, angel fangs, or a vertical philtrum.

⊱𝄞⊰ Septum

Absolutely 1000% Yes. This is a staple in my look, I used to have a 4G, but I downsized...Lately, I've been wanting to go back to 4G again and just pay the

The expensive price of custom Jewelry. My only reason for downsizing was that I wanted jewelry with a smaller diameter, and everything in 4G would hit my top lip. I miss the largeness, though...that was the best, and I feel like it emphasized one of my favorite features about myself--my nose.

I used to be deeply insecure about my nose because I was picked on for it being larger than normal, and now I'm obsessed with accentuating the size and look of my nose. <3 beautiful, wonderful, amazing. I pierced this myself at 16, and I began stretching my septum when I was 18 :) I can totally see myself being 70 and having this in my nose still <3 Piercing Pain: 2/10 Stretching Pain: 3-7/10 (depends on the gauge, 6g was the worst for me

Piercing Healing: 1/10 Stretching Healing: 10/10 AWFUL once you get to 8g and beyond, it feels like you broke your nose and your front teeth HURT Pros: Super easy to heal, not a super noticeable scar if you change your mind and remove it, heals easily/not finicky to heal, doesn't get in the way of anything, half the time you forget it even exists. Cons: When you have a cold or a runny nose, it gets in the way. If it's stretched, biting things like apples get in the way sometimes. During the winter, your metal septum ring adapts to the temperature outside, so you're guaranteed to have a freezing cold nose and a runny nose anytime you step outside. Recommendation: If you're indecisive, I'd suggest getting the standard septum because if you change your mind, you won't be able to have a visible scar. I wouldn't recommend a stretched septum, though, because if you change your mind, it WILL change the shape of your nose permanently, and you will have a drooping septum.

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Vertical Labret

I find it so funny, considering I removed my vertical labret for five days, and it ended up making me miss it more than ever. I got this done back in 2023 when I turned 18. I will say it hurt so BAD, like OWWW. I heard from so many people that it was their least painful piercing; however, I think what really contributed to it for me was the chapped lips & I was healing my first cold sore ever during the week I got it done. I 100% should've waited to get it later, but...oh well, it's healed perfectly now!! It is another one of my piercings where I can see myself still rocking it over the next few decades. The healing process is worse than the actual piercing itself because it just feels like you have the worst chapped lips for a year, and then it's perfect.

Pain: 7/10

Healing: 9/10

Pros: no teeth or gum damage, you don't feel it at all. Looks like you have two piercings (standard labret and ashley), super fun to fidget with, and the hole isn't super noticeable if you take it out...it's not invisible, but it's not as bad as having a random hole on a flat surface--if you care about that sort of thing. Doesn't get in the way of kissing either!

Cons: Biting apples is hard the first year, biting anything large and hard really. Putting on Chapstick is annoying because you can't do the simple swipe, but over the nearly 3 years I've had it, I've just adapted to going around it--my instinct isn't to swipe it straight across my lips.

Recommendation: If you want a lip piercing without the worry of damaging your gums or teeth, I wholeheartedly recommend this piercing. While it is agonizing to heal, it is worth it for what you're going through.

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Navel/Belly Button

I really like this piercing, although as of recently, I've been debating taking it out. It's not necessarily causing me extreme trouble, but because of my anatomy, I had to get a floating navel, and not a standard navel. My belly folds over and irritates it, so despite it being healed, it's constantly irritated...If I wear dangly jewelry, it cannot be for more than a day because it will be SO upset that anything with relative weight is pulling on it. However, for those two seconds where I wear crop tops or bikinis..It's super fun and sexy. I'm not too sure if it's worth it for me at least, though.

Pain: 2/10

Healing: 4/10

Pros: very cute, you can wear awesome jewelry

Cons: It gets in the way of a lot of stuff if you don't have the perfect anatomy.

Recommendation: Go for it if you have the right anatomy, and if not, weigh the pros and cons and whether or not you're willing to live with it if you want it THAT badly...I'd suggest against it; there are plenty of cute piercings that you can get that will be less of a hassle.

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Eyebrow

AHHHH this is the one that I get so sad about whenever I think about it for too long.. WHY WHY WHY couldn't it have not rejected...My eyebrow piercings were never infected, but the skin was thinning over time, and I just bit the bullet and decided to get rid of them before they caused an even larger indentation scar. The scars on my eyebrows aren't super noticeable now, but when in the right lighting, you can see the indentations and light red scars. Not bad at all, especially considering I really don't care about piercing scars in my face.

One of my eyebrows now..you can barely tell.

Pain: 3/10

Healing: 2/10

Pros: super cute, absolutely adored how it accessorized my eyebrows even when I wasn't wearing makeup.

Cons: prone to rejection due to it being a surface piercing

Recommendation: I would recommend this piercing, considering it's not easily agitated (in my experience), however, if you are someone who thinks they may care about having piercing scars in their face, I wouldn't suggest this piercing just due to the fact that it has a high rejection rate, and it would suck if you had to take it out.

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Smiley

SO! I actually ended up disliking this piercing over the years... I pierced it myself in high school, and I thought it was the coolest thing at the time. It did give me some gum recession within just a year, and because I played with it so much, I ended up stretching my pierced frenulum to the point where it almost snapped. I had to take it out because if I had it in for any longer, I'm pretty sure I would've done permanent gum damage.

It's a cool party trick, especially because it's not as common as a septum or an eyebrow piercing, and I got a lot of attention in high school when I was rocking it, but due to how damaging it is, I've just begun to dislike it. I can't help but think about how my gums felt whenever I see photos of them.

Pain: 1/10

Healing: 0/10

Pros: cute up close

Cons: gum damage, gum recession, tooth damage, tooth sensitivity, looks like you have a piece of food in your mouth from far away.

Recommendation: Do not get this piercing if you care about your smile

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Ear Lobes

My first lobes were pierced with a gun in Claire's when I was 8 years old, and my second ones were done in the early half of 2025, not painful, but just a little annoying to heal. I want to stretch them, but since it's way more permanently noticeable when you stretch your ears, I'm holding off until I'm more cemented in my career after college, considering the work I'm personally wanting to go into.

Pain: 1/10

Healing: 2/10

Pros: cute layering, cute jewelry options, faux stretched jewelry in ears is so cute

Cons: annoying to heal/sleep on the side for the first night

Recommendation: Do it 100%

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My First Tattoo :)

Anybody who knows me, even just a little bit, knows I am very close to my dad. He introduced me to half the music I know, and he's not just a great father and guide; he's one of my greatest friends. Growing up, he had this gecko on the inseam of his foot; he had a super funny experience getting the thing done, and he's also relatively neutral about the tattoo due to it being blown out. But I adore it so much, so for Father's Day in 2023, I decided to get it as my first tattoo on my back shoulder.

Pain: 3/10

Healing: 1/10

Pros: I keep a piece of my dad with me forever, it's cute when it peaks out during the summer, and I can keep a relatively professional appearance if I choose to.

Cons: Itchy when healing :p

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My recent tattoo!!

Shelley Duvall not pictured by me obviously LOL

Most people who know me also know I am head over heels for Shelley Duvall's work, and I have been wanting to get her tattooed on my body for the longest time. I got this done last Sunday, September 7th. She's been super itchy, but that's to be expected. My tattoo session ran from 10 A.M. to 5:30 P.M., and I plan to get border work done on her, including some text above my kneecap, in the future.

Pain: 11/10