Forever I wanted my belly button pierced. My parents would have none of it, even though I begged and begged. They wouldn't budge on the issue. Not until I turned 18. After many months of waiting and enviously watching all my friends and classmates get pierced as soon as they hit the magic number, it was FINALLY my birthday.
At A Glance Author star girl When A year ago Artist a normal looking (gasp) lady Studio a body jewelry store in the mall Location washington For my birthday, my friends all bought me various belly rings, because they knew what I was going to do. After an expensive, delicious birthday dinner at McDonalds (ha ha) we headed to the mall, where in the body jewelry store, I nervously got my ID checked, received a nice 'Happy Birthday' from the employees, handed over my money, and signed the paper they gave me to read. Even though people say it is usually a bad idea to get pierced in a mall, I was confident in the piercer because a few of my friends had gotten pierced there, and they had no complaints.
I sat down and waited while the piercer finished up with the guy before me. He had gotten his tongue pierced. Ouch. I knew that there was no way in hell I would ever do that. But I bet he had a happy girlfriend. Haha. I heard from many people that getting your belly button pierced actually hurt less than getting your ears pierced, so I wasn't really nervous at all going in to it. Okay so maybe I was a little bit nervous. But in the end I knew it would be worth any pain that may be inflicted upon me.
It seemed like I had been waiting forever before the guy finally left. When he did leave, that is when I really started to get nervous. The lady who was to be my piercer was a youngish, normal looking lady, with no visible modifications (definitely not what I was expecting) told me to come in. My best friend followed close behind. After commenting that the chair looked like something from the dentists office, I was instructed to sit down. I did, and as I sat down I glanced around the room. Everything looked nice and clean, so that helped to ease my mind a bit. The piercer asked me if I had eaten anything recently, and I told her yes. She said that that was good.
She got out her purple pen and had me stand up so she could mark the proper location on my belly button. The first time she did it, she had me look at it in the mirror to see if it was perfectly centered. Well, it wasn't. I told her, and she fixed it. This time I couldn't really tell if it was perfectly centered or not. I had my friend who was with me check it out, and she said it was a teeny bit off. So the piercer fixed it one last time, and this time it was perfect.
The fact that she couldn't perfectly center the dot kind of freaked me out a bit. But I tried to stay calm. She cleaned off my belly button area with whatever it is they use and asked me if I would rather sit down for the piercing or stand up. I asked her if it wouldn't make a difference and she said it would be easier if I stood up. Since I wasn't THAT nervous, I opted to stand up.
She got the clamp out and put it on my belly. Everyone said this was the worst part about getting pierced but I couldn't figure out why people made such a big deal out of it. To me it didn't hurt at all. She told me she was going to count to 3 and then I would be pierced. Before she even got to 3, she stuck the needle in and I was pierced.
Quickly she put in the round captive ring, and I was done. To me it was nothing, the people who said it hurt less than getting your ears pierced were accurate. It was basically just a little pinch.
I was instructed to leave the ring in for a few weeks. I don't remember exactly how long she told me. But that sort of bummed me out because I wanted to be wearing the cute little barbells that my friends have given me for birthday gifts. So of course I didn't follow the instructions I was given, and the ring ended up staying in only about 2 weeks, when I switched it for a way cute barbell with pink gems. I was really good about keeping it clean, and doing soaks in sea salt, so it healed perfectly without any problems at all.
Over a year and a half later, I still have it and it is as cute as ever. I can't imagine not having it! So to everyone thinking about getting your belly button pierced, I say DO IT, because its hot.