Well, after leaving school I managed to talk my mum into letting me have my nose pierced, which was cool, but it kind of defeated the object. Although I had the piercing done because I wanted it, I still had the permission of someone else.
At A Glance Author Cali Contact calihannan@hotmail.com Artist To nervous to ask Studio Ackers Location Leigh, Lancashire, UK A year later and I started on a rebellious road. I saw people with their navels pierced and thought that it was a cool mix between sexy and outrageous!! That was it, mind made up, I am having it done. I worked at the weekend collecting glasses in a pub and saved my money so that I could afford a nice gold ring with a stone in it.
Although I had decided I was definitely having the piercing, I could not find the guts to go in and get it done by myself. Then as if by fate, my boyfriend out of the blue decided he wanted a tattoo on his shoulder. He asked me if I minded and after having seeing his design found the whole thing quite sexy. So, (sorry about the rambling, but I do have to find eight hundred words from somewhere!!) one afternoon we decided to go along to the tattooist's Andy, my boyfriend, went in first. There was a really strong, almost overpowering smell of disinfectant and bleach, worse than a hospital. In the back of my mind I began to wonder why I was sat in a waiting room, and about to voluntarily ask someone ( and pay them no less) to shove a bloody needle through my belly button. Here I was.
Andy came out looking rather pale, he'd been in there for an hour and fainted four times.. this didn't make me feel any better. There was no going back once I went throught The Doors. I sat in the chair and the guy started chatting and trying to put me at ease. I had to fill in a form and then choose my ring, I knew exactly what I wanted and picked it out straight away. He asked me to lift up my T-shirt, which I did and then began to think Oh Shit, what am I doing, and why? He sprayed the area with something and wiped it, when he sprayed something else. I couldn't tell you much after that because I had my hands clamped firmly over my eyes. WIMP I know I know. I had heard that it took about 30 seconds so I started to count backwards from 30 when I got to around 19, a voice said, all done. All done?? Couldn't be I didn't feel it and it was so fast. At this point I thought I was being tricked, I thought he was trying to make me take my hands away from my eyes so that I would see the piercing take place. He asked me if I wanted to see it. I said, no ta mate, just put the plaster on I'll look in my own time. So that was it, I shuffled off the chair, paid him the £45 and off I went to see Andy in the waiting room. He was still looking very ill clutching a bottle of Lucozade. (he'd been to the shop to buy it to try and stop him feeling sick)
"Well?" he said, "let's ave a look then"
I couldn't bring myself to take off the plaster and just shook my head. Later that evening I ran a bath. As I slowly peeled back the plaster, my new piercing was revealed to me, I couldn't have been more thrilled!!! I just kept looking at it all night. Sure it was a bit tender at first but nothing serious, I would say it hurts more when you fall over and graze your knee.
Its been 3 years since I had my navel pierced and I am still proud to show it to everyone. Although it is more common now, I try to make mine individual by wearing strange designs and shields in it. Bloody hell its hard to write eight hundred words without babbling!!!!
I now want my tongue pierced. I have decided to defiantly go ahead with it, but I have to wait a couple of months to take a week off work to let the initial swelling go down. I don't think answering the phone with the worlds worst lishp is gonna be a good idea.
Come on you gotta give me membership now, my fingers are dropping of man!!
OK quickly, people ask me if having your nose pierced hurts, I asked em to pluck a hair from their nostril, sure they do it, sure they wince but its not exactly agonising now is it, well that is about as much, if not more pain than you get when you have your nose pierced.!
Thanks for listening