It all started the day after I turned fourteen years old. I remember being in a class at school and a girl had "pierced" her navel herself with a safety pin (bad idea) and for some reason that fascinated me. I became fixated on having piercings other than the double pierced lobes I had acquired from Claire's (with much opposition from my mother.) Anyway, the day after I turned fourteen I attempted to pierce my own navel. Being a stupid kid, and knowing absolutely nothing about proper care, I took a sewing needle that I rubbed in Claire's ear care solution and with no thought to placement, stuck it through a pathetically little amount of skin by my belly button. After that, I added another piercing on the bottom part of my navel, also horribly done, and these would both work themselves out of my skin in a matter of days. Not dismayed yet (I was young, okay) I proceeded to pierce my navel again, only on top this time, and again the piercing worked its way out pretty fast . Over the years until I turned 18 and became legal (yay) I attempted a few more times until I came to terms with the fact that I had no idea how to perform a navel piercing. So...
At A Glance Author anonymous When Two years ago Artist can't remember Studio New Moon Tattoo Location Boise, ID A few months after I turned 18, I had a colossal fight with my serious boyfriend (who is now my husband, but that's another story) and a friend of mine, who became my bridesmaid, called me up and told me she would buy me a piercing or tattoo to cheer me up. Having not been ready to commit to a tattoo yet (I now have 2), I decided to go for a professionally done navel piercing. I'm not the kind of girl who walks around in belly shirts, I have just always liked the way piercings look, and I think I must attribute Fiona Apple for first turning me on to how hot she looked with her navel pierced. Anyway, on to my piercing story.
This story takes place about three years ago now, at New Moon Tattoo (which is now under different management than when I went there). The place looked like a dump from the outside, but on the inside it smelled like a hospital. We wanted to see if they could pierce me right away instead of coming back for an appointment, and they were able to squeeze me in between two tattoo appointments they already had lined up. I was a bit nervous, but by this time I had eleven ear piercings, all done by me (and much better than my navel attempts) and I had grown quite fond of the feelings piercings gave me.
I lifted up my shirt just enough to expose my belly button, and stood up while my piercer marked the spot and asked me if it was ok. I wish I could remember how many times he washed his hands/changed gloves, but having been a few years ago, my memory id fuzzy on that part. It doesn't seem like he did that much, but I do remember he wore gloves (after being pierced there, I learned they didn't have the best reputation, but I learned this too late. At least my experience went okay.)
After he marked the spot, he asked me to lie back in a chair. He put the clamp on, which didn't bother me much, and said "ok" and pierced me. To me, it just felt like a big pinch, but not too painful really. He did tell me he had to push harder than normal to get the needle through because of all the scar tissue that had built up from my pathetic self-piercing attempts. While he threaded the jewelry through I was a bit uncomfortable when he was trying to close the 14 ga ring enough to keep the bead in. I wish they would have let me pick out jewelry, but they said their piercings only come with standard surgical steel captive bead rings and a matching steel bead. I complained about this a little bit, so they at least let me pick out a different bead, which was blue goldstone. To me this stone looks like the starry night sky, which I liked the idea of, so I picked that one.
My piercer told me to do salt soaks and even provided me with a small bag of sea salt that came with my piercing price (which I thought was kind of funny). He also said to wash the piercing regularly with antibacterial soap. My friend paid the forty dollars for me, and we left.
Over all, it took about six months to completely heal, because I definitely should have cleaned it more regularly. A co-worker of mine who also had her navel pierced told me she had put Neosporin on her navel piercing and that had healed it up right away. (I have since heard this is not a good idea, but it has always worked on my piercings) and it in fact healed up my navel within a couple weeks of using it everyday (too bad I didn't hear that six months earlier). Anyway, that is my story, I've had it about three years and still love it, even though it is no longer my favorite piercing(s), but that will have to be another story!