I moved to Regina, Saskatchewan just before I turned 14. Before moving my mother told me that her close friend had let her daughter get her navel pierced. Her friend is extremely conservative and it was rather out of nowhere that she let this radical thing happen. Keep in mind that her daughter is about a year or so younger than I am and that in our community this was very uncommon.
At A Glance Author Violetsoda Contact webmaster@psychobabble.i-p.com IAM Violetsoda Artist Chris Studio Inkognito Location Regina, SK I was jealous, no doubt about it. Although I bugged my mum about it, she never let me do it. I decided quite quickly that perhaps it would be better if I waited until I could make these rather permanent decisions about my body for myself. I wasn't even content to wait until I was sixteen, as many girls I know did. I waited until I was eighteen and could use my own money.
I had just moved back to Regina and had made strange new friends. One of these friends introduced me to Inkognito. She'd had a large snake tattoo done there by Tree. She introduced me to another girl who had gotten her tongue pierced there and some ink done as well. After hearing several decent reviews I went with her and got my first professional piercing, a vertical hood piercing. That is a whole different experience though, and I've already written about it!
I had long toyed with the idea of a navel piercing (obviously) but didn't like how trendy it had become. I didn't like the look as much anymore. After perusing a few photos on www.bmezine.com I decided that maybe I'd do a small project and get two. So I called Inkognito and made the appointment.
Erin (above mentioned friend) came with me. Chris, the apprentice who does most of the piercing there now, was to do the piercing. We discussed placement and I chose two 14ga cbrs and 2 cube beads, one green and one purple (who knew how significant these colours would become to me??). We brought in a tape recorder as well so we could record the conversation during the piercing to possibly use during a performance piece.
Chris got set up, I got prepared, Erin cued the tape. The placement wasn't straight up and down parallel, but rather at a slight angle in towards each other. As soon as I walk into a studio knowing I'm to get work done I start doing vague breathing exercises, so I continued this in a more focussed manner. I suppose I sometimes appear abnormally calm because of this, I get asked if I'm alright a lot! So I was breathing carefully and we talked the whole way through. Chris did the left side first and it was a hot shoot of pain, but not terrible. I looked down at the cbr with the purple cube and loved it. I thought I was ready for the second.
Double piercings are always a little different because you've got all the endorphins and other chemicals running through your veins AND you've started to swell a bit. The second piercing was much more painful. I would have to say that out of all my current piercings (that number being fourteen including retired ones and my double navel) my double navel was the most painful. This doesn't mean it hurt a lot, but it was a purer pain than the others. The others all seemed to have an aspect of eroticism, this one was just a piercing. A double piercing to be exact!
We left and walked home to my house (a mere five blocks I believe, I'm lazy). The right side bled some and being proud of the blood, I showed my mum. She wasn't shocked, she just thought the blood was gross. Which is why I showed her.
I have used almost every form of aftercare on this piercing and it still leaks a good amount of lymph and has a slight keloid on the right side. I've babied it, I've mutilated it, I've ignored it. It likes everything for a period of time before it goes through a short angry phase at which point I change the aftercare and it loves me again. Sea salt soaks help, but the only thing it really likes is a daily sea salt bath. And by that I mean I take a bath with sea salt and don't just soak the area around it. All my piercings prefer this method, actually. For the most part I try to ignore it and keep it clean by rinsing it in the shower. I got it pierced in December 2000 and now it's November 2001, so that should give you an idea of how difficult some navels can be.
I've still got it though, and am hoping one day to be proud of it. It matches the tattoo on my stomach which is mostly in tones of green and purple and this was by accident. The keloid is mostly gone but is still slightly discoloured from being so bitchy for so long. It's getting slowly better though.
For a piercing that is so popular, it's a hard one to heal and I wouldn't recommend it as a first piercing unless you are very dedicated. But I'm glad I got two, except one day I might change to curved barbells... How long can I last with these two getting tangled in each other? Hahaha!
Oh, and we never used the tape we made. Erin claimed we weren't loud enough. I listened to it though and it was kind of interesting, having only an audio of it.