Back when I was about 15, I made the brave (for me) step of having my navel pierced. I loved it back then, and I still do now, I don't care how 'mainstream' they are now, it is mine, and I love it. However, since those days, I've got considerably more into the piercing thing, and decided I wanted my navel piercing again.
At A Glance Author BloodDoll Contact BloodDoll@bme.anon When Three months ago Studio Shiva Body Piercing, Affleck's Palace Location Manchester, UK I waited for quite a while between deciding to do it, and actually doing it, partly due to lack of money, and party due to having a number of still-healing piercings. Anyway, after a little while, I finally had the money together, and my other piercings all seemed to be fairly under control, so I made plans with my friend to go into Manchester, so I could finally get my lower navel piercing. I'd been to Shiva Body Piercing in Affleck's Palace once before, a number of years earlier, to have my eyebrow pierced, and it hadn't been a very successful piercing. They put too short a bar in, and even after having the bar changed for a longer one, the initial problems caused it to migrate pretty quickly. However, I had that piercing done by a trainee at a discount price (I was 16 years old and relatively inexperienced when it came to piercing), and I knew of other people who had been pierced there by the actual piercers with no problems, so I decided to give them another go.
After a day of wandering round shopping, we went to get some food (got to boost those blood sugar levels, especially because I have low blood pressure and get light headed when being pierced, and have been known to faint if I've not eaten first), and then headed to Affleck's so I could go get my piercing.
I spoke to the man at the counter in Shiva, and asked if I'd be able to get it done then. It turned out that this man was actually the piercer (though I didn't get his name). With it being small shop, they seem to just have the artists doing the counter work too. He told me that I would be able to, told me the price, and got me to sign the obligatory forms. They prefer to be paid upfront, so I paid my £25 and took a seat while he set up in the small room where they do the actual piercing (I prefer to be in the room while they set up, but if they prefer to do things that way, then I don't mind).
So we sat on a bench down the side of the room while I got myself all nervous, like I always do in the build-up to a piercing, asking myself "why do I do this to myself??". Of course, the answer is fairly simple; "because I love it". After a few minutes he called me in. I asked if my friend could come in with me, because I prefer to have someone there when I'm being pierced; just makes me feel a little more secure, somehow. He asked me to lift my t-shirt so he could numb it (I know a lot of people don't approve of anaesthetics on piercings, but I prefer it, and I've never had a problem so far) and mark it up. Of course, marking was especially important with this, to make sure it was in line with my existing piercing.
That done, he had me lie down on the bed-type thing, and he got the clamps out. When he clamped my navel, he used an elastic band to hold them together so he could let go, which I wasn't too happy with, as it hurt, and caused bruising. Anyway, he got a needle and inserted it through my lower navel, which felt slightly strange (I'd forgotten about that feeling), but not too uncomfortable. He put a plain curved barbell through it, and removed the clamps and had me stand up so he could straighten the jewellery.
He then simply told me to "treat it like you did the other one" and told me I could leave. Walking into the studio to walking out took roughly ten minutes. My friend and I headed to the cafe in Afflecks to get some sugar for me, and to allow me to sit down, seeing as I hadn't been given that option in the piercers.
For my aftercare, I began with regular salt water soaks, but it seemed to be irritating the piercing, so I moved to the LITHA technique, just using the soaks if it was feeling sore. A few months later, it's mostly doing ok; a little red around the ends, but on the whole fine.
I don't, however, think I'll be returning to Shiva. With the apparent disregard for their client's welfare, both including their eagerness to get them out of the room and get the next one in, and the unnecessarily hard clamping, combined with my previous experience of the place, it's not somewhere I would recommend at all. I have a regular piercer at the Dragon's Den in Bangor (where I go to university), so I think I'll stick to him in future and just wait it out over summer and get my piercings done during the colder months. I prefer a piercer who notices when their client is a little dizzy and allows them time to recuperate from something that is in some ways quite traumatic to the body before asking them to leave.