I had wanted a navel piercing for about a year before I actually got it. Me and a friend of mine had agreed to get it done together, but then we both decided we didn't want it anymore. A while afterwards we changed our minds again.
At A Glance Author *JW When Six months ago Artist ??? Studio Body Cult Location Amsterdam, Holland Anyways, sometime last February we (and another friend) went and got it done. Since you have to be 16 to get a piercing done on your own, our mom's brought us there. We got it done at a place called body cult, in Amsterdam. (If anyone reading this actually happens to live there, it's located on the corner by the Munt.) I was really nervous by the time we got there. I had heard all these things like "oh yeah, it hurt so bad" or "don't get it, you'll regret it". We stepped up to the shop and there was a woman standing outside smoking. She stared at us for a minute and then asked what we were there for. We told her that we all wanted our belly buttons pierced, and she rolled her eyes and walked inside. That made my nerves worse. I was just hoping that she wasn't the piercer.
We stepped in and sat down in the waiting area. A man came over and handed the three of us a sheet. We had to fill out details about ourselves like our addresses and names. This was only because we were minors and they're told to keep track of all of the people under 16 that come there. After we were done with that, we still had about 10 minutes to wait. The place was really clean, and it looked pretty new. I watched a lady get a tattoo done, and then a woman came up to me and my friends and told us it was our turn. (Luckily it hadn't been the one from before!) She took us to the basement of the shop, where there were two rooms.
Once we got there we had to wait again, because they were both occupied. We didn't wait for long, but it seemed like hours. I didn't know what to expect, pain wise, and I wasn't looking forward to it. I just wanted it all to be over. Finally, one of the rooms became free and we all went inside. It was really small; we kind of had to squish into it. The lady introduced herself...I can't remember her name now. She had piercings and tattoos all over the place. That made me feel better because she said she had done most of them herself, including her belly button, so there was no doubt she had a lot of experience.
My friend Kelly went first, as we had all agreed before. The lady measured a line on her stomach, and made sure the spot she was about to pierce was centered. Then she told Kelly to lie down, and unpackaged the needle. She sprayed everything she used with disinfectant first, so much that we were all inhaling it. It was kind of gross, but at least we knew everything was really clean. She put a clamp on first, and then counted to three and pushed the needle through. There was a straw type thing attached to the end of the needle, which she left in Kelly's stomach as she got the ring. She attached the ring to the end of the straw, and pulled the straw out of the hole. Then she attached the closure ball onto the ring, and put some stuff on it to stop the bleeding. The whole process took about two minutes. Then it was my turn, and then my other friend's. When she did mine, I put on my headphones and listened to music because I didn't want to hear the countdown. That probably wasn't a very good idea, because it took me by surprise. I thought that it did hurt, but it wasn't bad and it didn't last too long. After a while it just felt a little bit numb. I was really scared to sit down and stuff because I thought if there was pressure put on it, it would start to hurt, but it was fine. After we were all finished, the lady told us all the details. We were meant to clean it twice a day with this anti-bacterial soap she gave us for three months. She also gave us some kind of solution which we were meant to use for two weeks and then throw away. I cleaned it properly and was cautious of it for a while, and it healed up fine. The only annoying thing was not being able to sleep on my stomach for a while.
Two weeks after it was fully healed, I tried to put a new barbell in and ripped it! It was terrible, but also my fault. I was sitting up while doing it, so the hole was all scrunched and I pushed too hard in the wrong direction. I started to clean it twice daily again, and used anti-bacterial creams on it for a few weeks. After that it was fine again.
I'm so happy that I got my belly button pierced! It was definitely worth the money (50 euros) and the pain, which actually wasn't as bad as I had expected. I would definitely recommend getting it done!