At A Glance
Author	anonymous
When	Three months ago
Artist	Creature
Studio	My bedroom
Location	Alabama

I knew I wanted a new piercing and wasn't sure where. The guy I was dating at the time was a piercer so we sat down and talked about where I wanted to go next. I knew that facial was not the way I wanted to go yet so I decided on the navel. I am very small and had surgery right above my navel five years before, so I decided on a reverse. The jewerly seemed to lay there much more nicely. I had always been pierced or tattooed in a studio so I was very nervous about having this done in my apartment.He assured me that this would be safe and I should have no worries at all about infection.

He got his case out and unloaded his equipment on my bed. He let me look through the jewerly he had and I picked a 14ga captive bead. I didn't want to go all Brittney Spears and get some jeweled something or other.The stainless steal seemed like the way to go. He set the ring next to my navel and measured for what seemed like forever.I was still uneasy about all this being done in my house, but many of my friends had got pierced outside of a shop and had done just fine. He told me over and over not to worry that he had done this a millon times in other peoples homes.

I lay back on my bed and waited for him to get to work.I'm not sure if I was more nervous about the piercing or the fact that I was lying on my bed and not my piercers table. And with my friends looking on he cleaned my navel just as my piercer would have, and clamped me off. It was over before I knew it and there sat my new navel ring. Bad thing was that he pierced me crooked. So he opened a new set of clamps,cleaned me once again,and pierced me a second time before I knew it. We decided that we would tell everyone I wanted a double reverse. And my friends were warned to back my story up. It looked as though he meant to do it the way they sat so perfectly next to one another. I went to my bathroom and cleaned my belly up, and went in search of my daughter.She quickly informed me that she had the coolest mom in the world.

Almost a month had went by and my navel was healing quite wonderful.The rings were turning easy enough and I had no redness at all. The boyfriend left but my rings stayed. I had decided to maybe stretch them in a few months but knew I needed to get my healing process over first. But just like any new toy, I couldn't wait to play.

On the last couple of days completing my first week with my new piercing, I started having a burning in my stomach. I thought that maybe I had pulled something inside my peircing while turning the rings. I couldn't go to my piercer. I felt like I had cheated on her in a way. So the next step was BME chat. I asked a couple people but my most information came from the op's. They told me what to get to maybe get the infection out. I never once felt like my questions were stupid or they were not listening or I was being made fun of. Honestly I received more help from them than I would have from my piercer.

That afternoon I went out to the local petshop. The looks on their faces when I told them what I needed the seasalt for. They could not grasp the concept that I was going to use this on my belly and not a fishtank. After each employee came and looked and my navel I was finally allowed to leave with my seasalt and go home to start my soaks. I did my soaks three times a day and slowly but surely the swelling went down. BY the second day I was oozing something seriously nasty. By the third day all the swelling was gone and the oozing had almost stopped.

I have had my rings for almost four months now and I am almost completly healed.I couldn't be any happier that I decided to get it done. Even though experience is key here...I learned my lesson. To each his own but I will be getting pierced in a shop from here on out. I feel more comfortable in a shop setting with people I trust. Don't get me wrong, the ex did a beautiful job and is in no way the cause of any infection I had. But it is safe to say that I feel more comfortable in the hands of my piercer from now on. Like I said..to each his own..but I would advise everyone using a piercer in a clean shop to get any new piercing.