After a long and tedious story that boiled down to my right nipple stubbornly refusing to heal a piercing, I decided to go get it re-pierced for the third time.
At A Glance Author Alena Contact Alena@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Mike Studio Andy Jays Location Chatham, Kent As decisions go, this one was pretty spontaneous. It was the day after my nineteenth birthday (April the sixth), and I met up with my friend Aley for a spot of civilised pub lunch, as she was unable to attend my birthday celebrations.
The steak and chips at Wetherspoons (a pub chain) took the hangover away as well as giving me some energy to carry on with the day. And then the thought popped into my head; why not get my nipple re-pierced? I've eaten a meal, I haven't been drinking apart from a pint of cider and I had birthday money to burn. Ready, set, go.
After lunch, we headed off to Andy Jays Tattoo and Piercing, which was just down the road. It's a studio with an ill-fated reputation, mainly because of the tattoo artist's limited (to say the least) tattoo skills and their lax attitude towards ID. However, Mike, the piercer, has done numerous piercings on me, including my lip, my tongue, my navel, my tragus, my scaffold and others, and I knew from experience that he could, and did, do a good job.
We arrived to encounter a queue of girls in tracksuits and heavy gold earrings, waiting to get various ear and tongue piercings done. I was surprised that Mike recognised me, considering I last visited the studio when I was about sixteen. However, he greeted me warmly and acknowledged that it's been a while, and I joined the queue to get my nipple (or so I thought at the time) pierced.
As much as I disliked the girls sitting in chairs in front of me, I did sincerely hope that this would start them off on the path to getting more piercings done. I love piercings, I always have done and I always will do. I have a vertical and a side lip piercing that I've been trying to convince myself for ages to take out, in order to get a job more easily and to look less of an 'alternative' stereotype, but it is difficult because I do have a genuine emotional attachment to them. However, I do hope that piercings will become more acceptable and more people will feel encouraged to get them done.
Eventually, it was my turn, and then it was time for another spontaneous decision. I changed my mind. Maybe it was a subconscious thing, because I do love oral piercings, I love the way they feel, and maybe it was a way of preparing myself to take out my lip piercings. I decided to get my tongue web pierced instead. It was a relatively unusual piercing and it wouldn't be visible. Besides, all my oral piercings were relatively painless and I just didn't feel like handling the pain of a nipple piercing just yet.
However, Mike checked my tongue web and decided it was anatomically unsuitable to get pierced. I was disappointed to say the least, I have always loved that piercing and I was used to getting my own way. But alas, c'est la vie. My alternative idea was to get a smiley piercing done.
I really like smileys, my friend Kim has one and I think it is adorable; the BCR is so dinky and covert, you can only see it when she smiles, and the flash of metal above the teeth is startling to those who don't know about it. I knew for a fact that my mother would like me to take the more visible piercings out of my mouth also, and after years of teenage rebellion, I was feeling a bit more considerate towards her feelings.
Also, in a way, Aley inspired me to think that way. When I was younger, I wanted the world to know what I was like. Now, I wanted to be more subtle. I wanted to surprise people. The days of wearing baggy jeans and Nirvana hoodies and listening to only rock and metal music were over. Aley has naturally blonde hair, she wears hardly any make-up and looks angelic, but she has a tattoo of a Jack Skellington-like creature on her arm, both her nipples pierced (we got them done at the same time) and a huge tattoo on her hip, going up towards her ribs. I think it looks much better than someone who is trying hard to be alternative.
Mike checked my mouth to see whether I was suitable for a smiley, which involved me having to manually curl my top lip up in a rather unattractive face, and decided that indeed I could get one done. He debated between a bar closure ring and a ball closure ring, and I decided on the ball one as it does look better aesthetically.
I sat down on the piercing chair, the one that always reminded me of a dentist one. He put some numbing cream on a cotton wool stick and rubbed it on both sides of the frenulum. It tasted disgusting! After a while it started to make my gum and part of my lip go numb in a way not entirely dissimilar to cocaine. He took the needle out of the packet and arranged the tools on the table. Aley was sitting on a row of chairs behind me, reading a magazine and the three of us joked about throughout the procedure.
Mike explained that I was going to have to help him out, because although an extra pair of hands would be extremely helpful, he wasn't an octopus and therefore I would have to hold my lip up for him. I did so, and it was slightly uncomfortable because my lip was wet on the inside and kept sliding out of my fingers. Nevertheless, I did the best I could while Mike clamped the frenulum and began lining up the needle. I braced myself for the worst, as I was expecting it to hurt a lot.
All of a sudden, Mike said, "That's the piercing done, well done." I was quite shocked – I didn't even feel the needle go through. I felt something, but I assumed it was the clamps being moved about or something like that. It was a relief though, because I was quite apprehensive about it to the point of being a bit shaky.
Mike cut the bits of plastic away from the needle and allowed me to have a rest. Then he put the ring into the plastic tube and pushed it through. Next it was time for the fiddly bit; putting the ball onto the ring. However, he managed that without problems (but with my help) and admitted that the smiley wasn't his favourite piercing to do.
I sat around on the chair for a while, careful not to repeat the much earlier mistake of passing out after jumping up straight away after getting my vertical lip done a few months earlier. In the meantime, Mike cleared away all the equipment, disposing of everything in the according containers and putting the clamps etc into the autoclave. Eventually, I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. I loved it, even though it did look pretty unusual and would probably take some getting used to.
Mike gave me the aftercare instructions and I asked how much I owed him. Although all the prices on the pricelist were at least £30, he charged me £25 for allegedly being helpful and maybe I guess for being a repeat customer. With that, Aley and I were off to have a night out on town.
As the numbing cream wore off, the piercing felt quite sore. I was also apprehensive about drinking alcohol but it did not seem to exacerbate the problem, so I carried on as usual. My reasoning is that our mouths are more tolerant to pain and infection than other body parts; they are constantly being bitten, kissed and fed food of questionable origin. Besides, I try not to baby my piercings. I did try to smoke less though.
The next day, the feeling of a new piercing immediately brought a smile to my face. It did feel quite sore but I already feel like it is beginning to settle in, and maybe it is. There was a sting when I brushed my teeth, but I soothed the area with salt water. Mike told me to rinse the area with salt water, but although I can handle having needles poked in my body, I cannot handle the taste of salt water, so I settled for wiping the area with cotton wool sticks dipped in the stuff.
It has only been a day since I have had this piercing done, and already I can rotate it no problem. The ball on the BCR keeps turning to the left for some reason, so I keep having to turn it back towards the middle. It is a great feeling though, and this piercing is going to be fun to play with!