As many people well know, one piercing leads to another, and another, and another, and so on. Also, one piercing leads to bigger and bigger gauges, along with more daring attempts at different sorts of piercings. Well, that's true at least in my case, and probably lots of others.
At A Glance Author Lisa Contact Lisa@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Justin Studio Urban XChange Location Chesapeake, Virginia Eventually I ran out of things I really wanted pierced. The septum was done, the lip, the tongue (many times). So I looked down. There stood my navel, ripe for the picking. Of course, who wants such a common piercing? So I decided to spice it up. I went to my friend and piercer, Justin, and we talked about me getting it pierced at a large gauge. He suggested we pierce it at an 8g and immediately stretch to a 6. I'm tough, I said "sure!"
A couple days later I showed up for the procedure to be done. We selected a rather heavy 6g CBR to use as jewelry and headed into the piercing room. After marking me and making sure he did so far enough back that it wouldn't be likely to reject (insert bad foreshadowing music here), I sat in the chair and steeled myself.
I've never passed out from a piercing. Hardly even felt woozy really. But this one made me nervous. An 8g needle is a lot bigger when you actually see it about to go into your flesh than when you think about it in passing. But in reality I was far more afraid of how bad it would hurt to stretch it right after it was pierced than actually being pierced in and of itself. So I breathed deep, held on to the chair for dear life, and off he went. He gave me the 1, 2, 3 count and then pierced me. It didn't feel good, but it wasn't as bad as I feared. Yes, it stung, and yes, I definitely felt it, but it was no worse than any other piercing really. Now I was really afraid though; the stretching was about to commence.
Justin told me to relax because he could tell I was definitely terrified. I tried, to no avail. Then he pushed the taper through and I hardly felt it. What a nice feeling, to be so sure something's going to hurt and have it not even make you say "ouch." He put the jewelry in after the taper and I was pierced. Large-gauge pierced nonetheless.
And I bled. Boy oh boy did I bleed. My entire stomach was smeared with blood. We used q-tips at first, then moved on to paper towels. I must have sat in that chair for 20 minutes after the piercing was actually done, just bleeding. When it finally slowed down enough (or Justin just got tired of sopping up my blood, either way) I stood up and took a look. I almost didn't make it to the full upright position. All the adrenaline that was in my body, along with the blood loss made me really light-headed. I sat back down pretty quickly. The moment of most weakness, my tough facade tossed right out the window. But after a minute I felt better. I looked in the mirror at my navel and was really impressed by the size of the ring. I also noted that it was still bleeding.
I bled for at least the next two days, nonstop. It wasn't a steady pumping of blood or anything, but I did have to wear dark shirts because there was always a bloodstain on the inside against my navel. The next week was the most painful week ever. Now that I look back at it, the ring we used was just much too large of a diameter for where the piercing was. When I would sit, the ring would turn sideways and be pulled away from my skin – never good. So not only did it bleed, hurt like crazy, and try to heal all at the same time, but it began rejecting.
I noticed at the end of the first week that it looked much more shallow than it had before. Not only that, but the skin in front of the ring was a really scary white color and looked very stressed. I know it was a new piercing trying to heal, but it just didn't look healthy. Also, all around the area was quite bruised, from the pressure of the piercing actually being done I suppose. It wasn't pretty. I didn't want to show anyone; mainly because it looked so gross, but it also hurt to move anywhere around my navel, just lifting my shirt brought tears to my eyes.
We (Justin and I) decided I should try changing the jewelry to take some of the pressure off the piercing. So I acquired a 6g curved barbell. Changing the jewelry was quite the painful experience. Once it was changed there was a bit of relief from the pain, and the bruising went away. However, that piece of white skin seemed to get more and more thin as the days went by. By the end of the second week I had the piercing, I was still in pain when I touched anywhere around my navel, and the piece of skin holding the barbell in could have been measured in nanometers. I opted to give it up and take it out.
I went through all that pain and trying so hard to heal it, for nothing. It rejected very far and just wasn't right for me. Now that I look back I realize my anatomy just didn't work with a piercing like that. The large gauge actually worked at a disadvantage for me because the ring was so big it pulled itself out. Perhaps if I had tried to start off like a normal person, instead of having to be different, I would still have a navel piercing now. But hey, you win some, you lose some. I chalk it all up to another piercing experience. One which I have a big, red, angry scar on my navel to prove.