My experience with navel piercing started about 2 or 3 years ago. I was 14 years old and everywhere I looked I saw girls with bellybutton rings and I wanted one more than anything in the world. I begged my mother for 6 months to let me get mine done for my 15th birthday. ((You have to be 15 at almost any piercing place in my area, or they will not even touch you))
At A Glance Author Kandis Contact Kandis@bme.anon When N/A Studio Urban XChange Location Chesapeake, VA I even asked all of my friends and family members to buy my belly rings for Christmas and my birthday. My mother finally caved in and decided to let me get my navel pierced. She drove me up to the local mall, along with two of my closest friends, and we went straight to our local piercing shop, Urban XChange. I was both really nervous, and really excited. We filled out all the necessary paper work, showed our ID's, and paid our money and finally it was time to go back to the piercing room, where all my wishes would come true.... or so I thought.
The guy that was piercing me was a guy I had seen around the mall a lot, and had even talked to a few times. He sat me back in the dentist chair and told me to relax. Then he cleaned my belly button with iodine, and marked where he would enter and exit my navel. Slightly shaking, and breathing slowly I waited for him to continue. "I'm going to count to 3. When I reach 2, I want you to take in a deep breath, and on 3 I want you to blow it out as hard as you can, okay?" He started counting, when he reached 2 I took in a deep breath, and he pushed the needle through. I was expecting it to happen on 3, but since it didn't I wasn't anticipating pain that much, so that made it a little better. I just sat in the dentist chair still as he looped the jewelry through, closed it with the pliers, and inserted the ball. I got up and looked in the mirror, I was ecstatic.
Afterwards, my friends and I took in a movie. And of course, throughout the entire movie, there I was playing with my new piercing. I went into the restroom after the movie to find out that my belly button was already bleeding. Nice going, Kandis. I cleaned it regularly with H2Ocean, and waited for it to heal so I could put in my very cool, new, dangling rings. Six weeks after I got my belly button pierced a friend of mine got hers pierced as well. Come to find out, she changed her ring after only having it pierced for a week! So I thought to myself, "If she can change hers after only a week, then I should be fine, I've had mine for atleast a month now",. So I took out my starter ring and attempted to put in a much prettier one. The trouble was, it wouldn't go in. It would go halfway in the bottom, but not through the top. After only minutes of trying, it began to gush blood. Terrified I ran downstairs, scared the shit out of my mother, and cried to her that it wouldn't go in. Eventually, I gave up.
The next day I didn't wear it at all. It felt like there was a bouncy ball inside my belly button. When I got home from school that day, I attempted one last time to put my new jewelry in. I put my new ring in through the bottom, and my starter ring in through the top until I felt the 2 meet, I then fed the bottom one up through the top, with a little force, and secured the ball. I was thrilled. I took very good care of it after that. It's been about 2 years since I got it pierced, me being 17 now. And except for the minor infection from cheap jewelry, things were going okay. Until about a month ago.
I lost my belly button ring in my sleep and left it out for a very long time. When I finally forced a ring through it, it became so sore I had to take it out. The ritual of pushing it through and taking it out because of the pain lasted for a few weeks. Since then it has become terribly infected. There is gross stuff all inside it, and it's slightly bruised at the holes. I've decided to leave it out, and let it close. I think my body is rejecting it. Which is okay, because it's really given my a lot more trouble than it's worth. Aside from it looking cute, there's just not anything that makes me want to deal with the hassle anymore. So I'm done. It was fun while it lasted.