Hey everyone :)
At A Glance Author Rachel When Three months ago Artist Dave Studio Flame N' Don's Location Chicago, IL Well, I have been interested in Body Modification for about a 2 years now. It all started about 2 years ago, right before my 13th birthday. My friend, Katie, was spending the night, and she had just recently had her navel pierced, and I thought it looked "cool." This was all before I had done any research on piercings, and had basically no knowledge on the whatsoever. Well, that night, I decide that I wanted my navel pierced too. I went to my Mom, and told her I wanted my "bellybutton" pierced. She replied with a "Hell No!!! Your not even 13. And I don't like the way they look. You can get one when your 18." Well, at this, I was pissed beyond belief, and took to piercing it myself, by any means necessary. So, being the impatient person that I was, I found a safety pin, and pierced it myself, and stuck a lovely earring in it. It got infected a few days later, and so I took it out.But, I do NOT recommend you go and pierce yourself with a safety pin. Its VERY dangerous, and cou ld cause infection and whatnot. Not a good idea!
Well, after that little extravaganza, I decided that if I was actually serious about this whole deal, I needed to get educated about piercings, to show that I just don't want it, and then get sick of it a few days later. So, for about 2 years, I did constant research, mostly done on BME (which I must say, has been a HUGE help regarding experiences and information. I recommend this site to everyone!). Well, since my Mom still was totally against it, I found as much information on it as possible, and printed it out, and delivered it to her. She finally decided that I could get it done for a Christmas present. Well, Christmas rolled around, and I asked her about it again, and she replied with "Well , I think you should wait a little longer, just to make sure you want it. How about for a Confirmation present?" . I was disappointed at not getting it done, but I was still happy that she was still willing to let me get it done. When Confirmation rolled around, she said that I shou ld wait a little while longer.
So, after about 3 months of waiting she finally said she was ready for me to get it pierced. I was so thrilled! But, I had to find a piercer, and take care of everything if I wanted it done. So, I called around to a few shops, and I also went to visit a lot of them. I finally decided on one called "Flame N' Dons." My Mom has known one of the piercers there, Dave, for years. But, she hadn't known he pierced on the side until we saw him in the shop. So, after a lot of talking, he had me lift up my shirt to see if I had a navel suitable to be pierced. He said that I should wait until I am older to get it pierced, because he wasn't sure if I was done growing yet, and that if I grew any taller, it could distort the piercing. So, after hearing that, my Mom said she would wait until after I got my physical, to see if I was done growing, and if I was, I could get it done. And so, two weeks later at my physical, my Doc said that I probably wasn't going to grow anymore. So, a few days later, me and my Mom walked into Flame N' Dons again, But Dave wasn't working there today, but the other piercer there, Christie, said she would do it.
I would have preferred for Dave to pierce me, but he was going to be out for a while, because he had just had knee surgery the day before, and I didn't want to wait that long, so I just had Christie pierce me. Well, she had me pick out my jewelry, and I chose a 12g capitive bead ring. So, she had my Mom pay the $120, and then we went into the back room to finally get pierced. She had be sit in this dentist style chair, and everything was going great. I was pretty calm while she was preparing everything, but I started to get nervous when I saw the needle! She had taken all of the necessary tools out of the autoclave, and changed her gloves repeatedly throughout the whole process. My Mom was with me the whole time, and when she saw the nervous look on my face, and she just kind of laughed and said "Remember... YOU wanted this!" But I tried not to think of it, and just concentrate on the fact that I would have a pierced navel when it was all done. I really had to pee, and being scared that while she was piercing, I would get really nervous, and I would pee all over myself.
So as she was preparing to clamp me, I asked her if she could wait a sec so I could go to the bathroom. So, when I returned, I sat back down in the chair, and she proceeded to clean my navel off (I think she used Iodine, I'm not positive) and then she clamped me. The clamp hurt to me, but I think it was mostly because of the pulling from it. And then she told me to take 3 deep breaths, and that she would pierce on the 3rd one. Well, I took breath one, and then breath 2, and then breath 3...And I didn't feel anything. Then all of a sudden, I felt a really hard pinch. I assumed she was just rearranging the clamp or something, but then she said " Okay! All done!" and I looked down, and there was some blood, but very little, and I looked down and I thought "Finally. I've waited for this for so long". And then, she put the jewelry in, which I must say, is a tad bit uncomfortable.
And then, my Mom looked at it for a while, and seemed to be examining it, and then said "Hmm.. I think it looks kinda funky. A little lopsided on that side," and I know she was just trying to make me feel bad for going through with it, but then has she went to get the car, Christie said "Hey, dont listen to her. She's just trying to scare you and all. It looks great." After that, we went over aftercare directions for a while, and then we just sat and talked about piercings and such for a few minutes. Well, its been about 3 months since I got my first "actual" piercing. Eventually, I plan to get a few more piercings . But I am almost certain it'll be after I'm 18, since my Mom still makes nasty comments about my navel piercing :) But I do want to add again, that BME has been very helpful with everything, and I hope this site is around for years to come!