On a day when the wind was blowing, a few wild hairs got kicked up. I decided before my date that evening I was going to get my navel pierced. I had been considering it for a very long time, and now it seemed the time had finally come.
At A Glance Author Dark_Angel Contact Dark_Angel@bme.anon Artist Joe Studio Hardware Location Albuquerque, New Mexico I had done research online here at BME and on other sites as well. After surfing the web looking at belly rings, belly shields, belly barbells, and other jewelry, I decided the time had come to go ahead with the procedure.
I was scared because I had never had a piercing done before other than my ears. I had gotten tattoos before (I have two of them) on my left shoulder blade and on the back of my neck, so I was hoping that this wouldn't hurt quite as much. I had heard that it did not hurt as much because it happens very quickly, but I still had my doubts.
I drove around the city (as I said, this was on a whim) and looked for the right place. After stopping at Sachs, I was told their piercer was up at Hardware, another studio owned by the same person. I drove up the block to Hardware and entered.
There were forms to fill out, regarding age, etc, and I filled them out quickly, then paid to have the navel piercing done. I figured once I had paid that I could not go back to not getting it done. And it was true.
The piercer's name is Joe. He had just finished his interning (or was it called apprenticeship?) a month or so earlier, so I was kind of concerned he might be lacking in experience. Then he told me that he had been working with piercing for a while, though, so I tried to relax as best I could.
I entered one of the back rooms. The room itself was sterile and reminded me of a doctor's office, which I found comforting. Joe brought out all the instruments and laid them in front of me, still wrapped in plastic. There were clamps, which also worried me, a toothpick and some ink of some kind to mark the piercing, and the horrible needle I was so afraid of.
Joe explained the procedure to me. He would cleanse the area first, then mark it with the ink to show the entry and exit of the piercing. Those went without problem. Then he clamped the area and unwrapped the needle. I stared at the ceiling and talked to him a little more about piercing and stuff. After a few minutes, he told me that he couldn't find some piece of hardware that would transit the needle to the jewelry through the hole and that he would have to insert the jewelry through the hole without benefit of the missing hardware. He asked me if this was okay and I shrugged. Why not, I figured, since I knew it was probably going to hurt anyway.
I laid back, took a few deep breaths and before I knew it, there was a sharp pain to my navel for a few seconds, then it was done. He even got the jewelry in there and I didn't feel a thing! I was totally amazed.
I got the barbell done, then headed to the nearest mirror to look at it. It was pretty impressive, and I could not believe I had just done something that scared me that badly. I was on cloud 9 when I went on my date that night, which turned out to be just a casual hang out time.
Piercing definitely gets me on a high, since it causes an adrenaline rush. It comes with the "I can't believe I just did that" feeling.
Healing was the worst part of getting a navel piercing. Although it looks cool, it's hard to heal. At least it was for me. I wear jeans all day every day, so it kept getting moved and I got lazy for a day or two here and there on cleaning. So it would get better, then it would get worse, then better than worse again.
Finally, after 5 months of healing, it was closed and I was able to get the jewelry changed out. I am so proud of my navel piercing that I went and got my right nipple pierced, too, and am planning to get my hood done some time in the near future.
If you're thinking of getting a navel piercing done, do it! It doesn't hurt all that bad. And the healing time is worth the looks you get from people when you walk around with your pierced navel sticking out.
Oh, and if you are going to get it done, start doing sit ups every day. I went on a diet after I got it done and now it looks sexier..