I've had my navel pierced twice in the past, both times when I was younger. But due to lack of experience on the piercer's part, they came out badly crooked, which was painful and had to be taken out. I decided to try it one more time before giving up on it completely, my boyfriend also encouraged me to try again. At the time there were only two piercers in my town, and I decided to go to a woman whose daughters I'd come to know. The other piercer had recently set up shop in my town and I wasn't familiar with him. Her daughters had many piercings, which she had done for them, and they all looked fine. She must have used them for practice.
At A Glance Author Katie Contact Katie@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Dana Studio Alchemistress Location Potsdam, NY, USA
I went to her shop the day before to schedule my piercing. I asked about how long she had been piercing for and just general things like that to get to know her. I looked at books of piercings and tattoos that people had gotten there, and felt comfortable having her pierce me. She had time to do it that day, but I had some other errands to run so we planned it for the next day. I wasn't too nervous about it since I knew what to expect. It was more of the fact that I hadn't ever gotten anything done by her. It would cost me $40, which I could definitely handle paying.
I went in to her shop the next day around 4:00 and filled out the paperwork. I brought my mom with me since she had never seen anything relating to piercings and was interested (She has a tattoo). I followed her into a back room and sat in a black, leather chair. I was used to the procedure as she cleaned my navel beforehand. She asked me questions about the earlier navel piercings and where I had gotten them. Probably because I had a permanent lump where the holes had been. She marked the area to be pierced with a marker and applied the clamps. She put a cork into my navel and began to push the needle through.
It stuck for a second which hurt a little, due to the scar tissue from the earlier piercings, and she had to wrench on it for a bit. She was surprised that the scar tissue was so tough. The adrenaline usually takes care of the pain for the most part, and it didn't bleed much. She had done a beautiful job. We went over aftercare and she gave me ointment to protect it from infection and an aftercare card. Lastly, she took a picture of my navel to add to her books.She had put in a CBR. I didn't really like the CBR because it got stuck on everything. I had actually pulled on it a couple of times during sleep because I thought something was on me. Low-waisted pants are a lifesaver since the waistband is less likely to catch on the jewelry. I put in a 14ga-curved barbell about two months later; it had acrylic, pale green balls with sparkles in them. I wouldn't recommend changing jewelry any earlier than that. Little did I know that I was allergic to acrylic and the holes swelled from being touched by the balls. I got a SSS barbell instead for it and that worked fine.
It did take around six months or so to heal, but it didn't migrate as much as I thought it would, I'm sure it was in part to the scar tissue. Overall I was very pleased with it. This is a nice piercing to have since no one can see it unless I want them to, and it's my own little personal adornment to my body. I would recommend it to guys and girls; to me it's not really a gender specific piercing.You shouldn't get it done unless you've informed yourself about the procedure and aftercare beforehand. You can't always trust your piercer to inform you of such things, a lot of the time you won't remember to ask them after you've had such an adrenaline rush. Get to know your piercer before hand and check out the work that they've done to make sure you're not going to a hack. I wouldn't suggest that kids who are underage get piercings. I think their need for them is influenced more by society and is a trend rather than pride in one's body and the personal wish to have it modified, no matter how little it is. Kids are more likely to experience problems with piercings since much of the time they're not informed on how to take care of them and don't take the responsibility to do so. Not that older people wouldn't do the same thing.