I had been waiting soo long for my navel piercing, and begging my mother for what seemed like forever. And finally, she agreed. I was a measly 11 yrs old, which was my first mistake, since I was and still am growing.
At A Glance Author Sara Contact sarataylorbailey@yahoo.com When Six months ago Artist James Grey Studio Big Daddy's tattoo and piercing Location Elizabethtown, Kentucky The weekend after she had agreed to let me get it done, we headed over to Big Daddy's, once we got there we got out of the car and walked into the shop. My stomach was already churning something awful. We filled out the paper work, showed him my I.D. and went back into the small, clean, doctor's office like room. He had me remain standing up so he could mark the spots in which the jewelry would enter and exit, then I was ready to get pierced. I sat down in the chair and he had me lay on my back, he lowered the back of the chair so I was perfectly flat. And you know the procedure, breath in, breath out...and in the needle goes as you exhale.
The pain was very minimal and I was very relieved whenever I got to stand up and look at my pretty, shiny new hoop in the mirror. Then we thanked him, paid him, and left. I was soo excited on the way home, I simply couldn't stop looking at my pretty hoop with the shiny little black ball. I left it alone that night, since it was pink and sore, and i put off cleaning it until the next morning.
The next morning I woke up, hopped out of bed and walked into the bathroom nervous to clean it, because I was afraid it would hurt and that the antibacterial soap would sting very badly, but of course, it didn't. I continued on with my salt soaks, antibacterial soap and so forth for about five months.
The piercing was still not any where near healed, and it still didn't occur to me that something wasn't right. All I could do was turn it, but not without ugly puss coming out, and both holes were always red. But I just figured that I was a slow healer... but nobody is sapposed to be that slow I DON'T THINK, but then again that's what my dumb ass gets for not doing her research beforehand.
Finally, after having the jewelry in for about a year, and only changing it once, I woke up one morning to get ready for school, raised my shirt up to look at my navel and to my horror, the ONLY thing holding the jewelry in was a small, thin, crusty scab, less than a half an inch in width. I thought that I was diseased because I had no idea that there was even such thing as migration, so i began to ball like a baby, thinking I was abnormal or something, then my mom, the nurse. explained to me what had happened, but even then I was totally bewildered as to how someones body could do that.
Any way, about two months later we got it redone, with a guarantee that the old scar tissue would hold in the jewelry and prevent migration, But it came right out, in about half the time that the first one did, six, seven months. I was stubborn and HAD to get it one more time, and I did. This one was out in about three months, tops.
Now, the point of my story? DO YOUR RESEARCH!! That way if anything does happen, you will not freak out and you will handle it properly, instead of thinking your abnormal and gross, and potentially making it worse, like I did. But now I spend all my time doing research on piercings, risks, infections, etc. So ask me, I proabably know.
Thanks to my own stupididty I am now nearly 14yrs.old and now have a split scar, with a HUGE dipped down groove in the middle. The split scar is from the first migration experience, It now looks like two little arms reaching out for you...the groove in the middle of them is deformed and purple with scar tissue...I have a belly button that I am ashamed to say is mine...And am scared to wear a bikini.
I know your thinking "dumb kid, she doesn't know anything"...you'd be surprised. Even though I've had some bad experiences, I now have a nostril piercing, monroe piercing, two largely gauged lobes, two smaller gauged lobes, and an industrial bar. Next I am going for a vertical tragus...wich will prob. migrate too, but if it does, I guarantee that it will only do it once. Well, take care, and happy piercing. If you have any questions email me at sarataylorbailey@yahoo.com. And by the way, NEVER use Alcohol or Peroxide on a navel piercing, not that it doesn't work for some people, but if it doesn't help...it will majorly screw you up, or at least it did me on my second time around, but it would of popped out anyway. And if it's migrated twice, don't count on EVER keeping it, it's not worth a lifetime of MAJOR yo yo self esteem and embarassement. Any way, good luck..buh bye!