PREAMBLE:
At A Glance Author Jef Contact Jef@bme.anon IAM Jef When A year ago Artist Rick Gilmour Studio Adorned Precision Piercing Location Calgary Alberta I do not know about other cities, but a pierced navel on a male here in cow town (Calgary, Ab) is a relatively rare thing. Perhaps that is one of the reasons I agreed to get it done. It was not my idea to begin with, though. It was my girlfriend at the times flash of genius. She said it would make me look sexy. (Obligatory note: Do these things for yourself, not for others. I experienced a touch of resentment with this piercing.) So after much harping on her part, and a desire to get her to stop talking about it, I decided "What the hell?" and went and got it done.
PROCEDURE:
So, the day I went down started like any other, just a normal wake up, shower, and eat sort of day. Nothing special. That should have been my first warning that I was walking down an iffy path. But whatever. So, like I was saying, I showered (where upon I shaved my belly nice and smooth – I am a hairy guy) and ate a decent hearty, meal, as I do before every piercing, and we headed down to my shop, Adorned, owned and operated by the best piercer ever, Rick Gilmour.
I showed up, and said in a rather passé voice that I wanted my belly button done – I am not sure why, perhaps because I hate the word navel. Anyways, the requisite forms are all filled in, the ID is checked, jewelry selection is covered, and the room is prepared while I sit in the lobby, experiencing none of the enjoyable pre-pierce adrenalin. Finally, the room is ready, and I get called in.
I am told to lift up my shirt, and lay on the table. On go the gloves, out comes the supplies. Packaged needle, packaged jewelry, individual use lubricant, and some dye. A toothpick is grabbed and dipped in the purple dye that I always forget the name of. A few minutes, and a few pairs of gloves in the garbage later, I am all marked up, and we are ready to go. A new pair of gloves on, a dollop of lubricant (good old KY jelly) on the needle, and me lying down, breathing in and out, deeply, as Rick talks me through the procedure. In and out, five or six times, then the penetrative act I am here for. The needle goes in, it stings a little, then a smooth jewelry transition, and a ball tightening. The needle gets thrown immediately into a handy SHARPS container, and before I know it, I have a ten gauge curved barbell in my navel. The girlfriend had accompanied me, and was "ooing" and "aahing" over it for a few minutes, before I decided I felt silly just sitting there. S o I got up, went out and paid my seventy or eighty dollars; and after some chitchat – because talking to Rick is fun – we were on our way.
On the bus back, sitting was not all that fun, because I have a belly of sorts, and I guess sitting was putting a heretofore-unknown amount of pressure on it. But that went away after a few days, and the swelling went down, as it usually will.
AFTERCARE:
My aftercare consisted of my usual (and, I might add, occasionally unsuccessful) routine – a hybridization of Todd Bertrang's Herbal remedies, the traditional Salt Soaks, and my favorite, the Leave It The Hell Alone method. Pretty much, the first week would be Todd's lavender soaks, and nutrient supplements, to help the initial healing. The next week would see Salt Soaks, 2 or 3 times a day, for anywhere between five and twenty minutes. After that, I just leave it alone, and let my body deal with it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not, and I am not recommending this to anyone – it is just how I do things.
HEALING:
So, I followed my after regimen, to the pre-ascribed letter, and was experiencing my usual ups and downs, but I had not counted on two important factors impeding the healing process: 1. Sex, and 2. Stomach hair. As I was saying, my girlfriend thought it was sexy, and she got very amorous every time she saw, and when one thing led to another, it would always get tugged and pulled in most unfortunate ways, which, in retrospect, was not a very good thing. But I am not the kind of man who would turn down sex. The second major irritant turned to be my stomach hair. I have a fairly hairy tummy, as those who know me can attest to. What I had not counted on was the way the hair would get wrapped around the post, get glued into the drying lymph, then tear it away as I moved. A very painful predicament indeed. I tried to deal with it as best I could, but after 2 months, it was angry, sore, and red; and to be honest, it made me feel ugly with it in.
DEATH KNELL:
My navel piercings fate was sealed one day, when I lost a bead to one of the barbells in my nipples. Realizing I did not like having my navel pierced, and realizing that I could not afford a new bead (and like my nipple piercing much more than my navel), I retired the piercing, and cannibalized the barbell. I was not sad to see it go; in fact, I felt better about myself immediately upon removing it. And that is my story. Call it another step in the journey of self-exploration.