About five years ago my mother took me to get my first piercing, my navel. Since then, I've been hooked, and spent much of the past five years paying people to shove surgical steel through various parts of my body. Anyhow, not long after that very first navel piercing, I saw a photo of a navel project on someone and instantly decided I wanted one too. Of course, I put it off, but over the years I never stopped thinking about it. Flash forward about half a decade. I befriended a professional body piercer, and the opportunity to finally finish my navel project arose. I had always felt somewhat incomplete when I thought about the three piercings I felt were missing from my navel, and had often talked to my piercer friend about finishing it up. So on my birthday, we decided that there was no better present he could give me...
At A Glance Author brittney Contact brittney@bme.anon Artist ken Studio the blvd. tattoo parlour Location hollywood, california, usa I went to the shop and he set everything up, standard procedure. The first navel piercing that I had was just a bit crooked, something that people had pointed out to me over and over through the years. Since it had healed long ago, there wasn't much of a choice as to whether to take it out and redo it or just leave it, so he offered to align the other three piercings slightly crooked to make them appear even. I decided to just go ahead and have the other ones done correctly, and live with my one crooked piercing. He made the marks and got the clamps. I started to feel a bit nervous...
He told me he would be doing all three piercings with the same needle. I'm not sure if this is typical when getting multiple piercings, since the only other body parts that I had ever had pierced in pairs was my nipples, and he had used two needles for that. I didn't argue, assuming that he knew what was best. [Besides, he was doing it completely free of charge, so I wasn't really in a position to argue over his tactics.] So, he made the marks and clamped the first area, which would be directly under the first navel ring.
He put the needle through, followed quickly by the 14 gauge captive bead ring. I got an adrenaline rush, and suddenly wasn't so sure I wanted to do the other two right away. But I decided to just go for it, because I knew that now was a better time than ever! So, he cleaned up the first piercing and clamped the other one, which would be to the right side of my top piercing. He pierced that one, cleaned it up, and went immediately to the final piercing, which was to the left of my first one.
After they were all done, he put the beads on the rings and cleaned the entire project. It was beautiful. He had centered all the piercings perfectly, and they hardly bled or hurt at all. I gave him a tip and a hug, and went home to soak them with some warm sea salt.
The initial healing was simple. All I did was warm salt water soaks occasionally. Other than that, I didn't do anything. I got a bit lazy with the aftercare eventually, but it didn't affect me negatively. In fact, I would say that under cleaning was far better than over cleaning them. I have had them for about three months now, and they are doing great. No pain, hardly any crustiness, et cetera. I plan to have the captive bead rings replaced with two curved barbells as soon as the healing is complete, with one going through the top and bottom piercings, and another going through the sides.
I'm so happy that I finally got my navel finished. I feel as if I have always had it, and can't imagine being without it. Unlike my first navel piercing, there was little to zero infection or problems with it. I think when I got my first one, I over cleaned due to my lack of experience and knowledge about piercing. I think that is the biggest mistake that I made with it, because it took over a year before it stopped giving me problems! To anyone getting any piercings done, especially multiple piercings at once, I would reccommend minimum cleaning. It might not work for everyone, but in my experience it has been the best for me. All you really need is sea salt soaks and some antibacterial soap in the shower.
Anyhow, that is my experience with my navel project. Much easier than I had imagined! Feel free to email me if you have any questions, or want to know more about this piercing experience. xo