A week before Christmas I go and visit my friend, Steve, at Cape Fear in Greenville, North Carolina. Steve is also the studio's piercer and the best one I have seen or been pierced by. We got to talking and thinking of something cool we could do and I brought up the idea of doing a big navel. He thought it was a great idea. He told me that he had a big navel but had to take it out. He said he loved his and I thought that I would like it too. I love big gauges as does he. He said he could do it. All he needed to do was make an incision and put a taper through it. I didn't think that would be too bad but didn't have the cash on me at the time. So I told Steve I would have to come back in a week or so and talk to him about doing it then. He said come in whenever and we can do it. So I had to leave without a new hole.
At A Glance Author Matt Contact Matt@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Steve Studio Cape Fear Location Greenville, NC Well about a week went by and on Jan. 1st I was back at the shop. I told Steve to get ready its time to do the navel. He said his normal response of "Cool man". And with that I went to his booth and got ready to be pierced.
He washed his hands and put on some gloves. Then he took out all the tools. We talked about where to place it and decided on the bottom since I had more skin to pierce with. He made some marks and decided on the right placement.
We had some trouble clamping it though. It took us a few minutes but he finally got up enough skin to clamp it down. And once he did we were ready to go. "You ready" he said. I said "Yeah go ahead." And right through the navel it went. Next came the taper, followed by a 2 gauge clear glass navel curve. The scalpel went in real fast and wasn't painful at all. The taper just felt like someone was pushing on your stomach. So in all it didn't hurt much. It was a lot less painful then I had thought it would be.
As we sat and waited for my head to calm down, I looked at the piercing and loved it!! It looked so cool having a big piece of glass in my stomach. You could see right through it. Steve did a great job and I thanked him for it. Steve was also happy with the piercing and seemed to have enjoyed getting to do a big navel for once instead of the common 14 gauge. Not knocking anyone with a 14 though.
After I left the shop, it didn't bleed much more. However every time I hit it for the first month or so it would bleed some but not too bad. And it was sore for a week or two. I couldn't sleep on my stomach or lay on it for a long time. It crusted a lot. And still does crust up some. The soreness is gone though and it doesn't bleed. I have even changed the curve, with no promblem. I forgot to add that for the first two months it did go through phases where it would look good and then look bad but it never got infected.
To care for it all I did pretty much was use the spray sea salts I got from Steve. They did a very good job. SEA SALTS WORK! I did use some mild liquid soap and cleaned it once a day in the shower but stopped that after a week or so since the irritation was bothering the piercing. I instead changed to just letting water rinse through it while I was showering. But other then that I left it alone. I think that is the key to healing pretty much any piercing. Spray it with sea salt and leave it alone. All the extra cleaning and touching just seems to piss the piercing off.
Now its been about 4 months since I got it down and I still love it. I get a lot of attention from this one. Probably more then any other piercing I have. And it looks great. Its still not fully healed though and wont be for a while. I plan on stretching it to 0 gauge once it has completely healed.
If you are in the Greenville area and are thinking of getting something pierced stop by Cape Fear and let Steve do it. He is the best. Tell him Matt sent you. And if you are thinking of getting a big navel, DO IT! They are awesome. And the pain isn't anywhere near where you would think it would be.