>From a very young age, (I can't even remember an exact age) I had always wanted my navel pierced. But no way in hell did I expect to get it done before at least the legal age of 16 without parental consent.
At A Glance Author Carls Contact lil_buggie@hotmail.com IAM Carls When Two years ago Artist Liam Studio Liam's Piercing Studio Location Toowoomba, Australia Then my stepdad came along. My 13th birthday was coming up and he knew how badly I wanted this piercing as I was always talking about it. Now let me just fill you in on my stepdad. Him and my mother are very different. My mother is your typical, not exactly old fashioned person but not exactly what you would call the most modern either. So no way did she approve of body piercings or tattoos, having herself only one hole in each ear. So I see it as rather strange that she ended up with this amazing guy covered in tattoos with ear and nipple piercings.
So as my birthday drew nearer my stepdad came to me one day and told me he had something to tell me that he thought would make me really happy. He then proceeded to tell me that he had talked with my mum and he and her would be going halves in the cost of a navel piercing for me as part of my birthday present. Well I practically jumped for joy!
I couldn't believe it at first! No way would mother have agreed to this! When i asked her she did seem less than happy about it but none the less, it was true! She had agreed!
An appointment was made for the Saturday morning of my birthday and mum waited in the car while Shayne (my stepdad) took me upstairs to Liam's Piercing Studio. I picked out my jewellery from the selection they had. I knew I deffinately wanted a barbel and not a ring. After looking at them for a while I chose a surgical steel barbel with a purple stone in it that had a sort of blue tinge to it.
Liam ushered us into the piercing room pretty much straight after this. I was very nervous. This was my first piercing other than the 3 standard lobe piercing I had in each ear. Liam showed me all the sterile signs on the packagings and then told me to stand up so he could mark me up. He took out the pen and marked to dots. One on top of my navel and the other on the skin that was underneath the top of my navel.
Then I was instructed to lye down on the bench. This is the part where I started squeezing Shayne's hand so tight I must have nearly cut his circulation off!
Liam pushed the needle through me and I was surprised that it didn't hurt at all! It just felt like a blood test! When he pushed the jewellery through I squeezed Shayne's hand even harder I had no idea what was happening as my eyes were squeezed so tightly shut! Then I heard Liam's voice telling me he was just screwing the ball on the barbel.
It was all over before I knew it. I looked at it in the mirror and then went back to the bench so Liam could put a clear patch over it. This had to stay on for 2 days and then I could start cleaning it twice a day with anti-bacterial soap after it's removal.
Shayne paid for it at the front desk and then we went home.
Needless to say my mother didn't have too much to say about it (except all the risks and bad things she had heard about body piercings)! I looked after it extremely well, as I didn't really fancy getting an infection. My ear piercings had been pure hell. But my excellent aftercare must have payed off because I didn't have so much as a wink of trouble with it. I didn't even bother to go back for a checkup it was looking so good! Probably a dumb move though. I would never get a piercing now without going for at least one checkup.
Many more piercing followed this one, the stories for some of these can be found on this site and the others, well, I am getting there. Hopefully by the time I am done all my body piercing experiences will be on here. My hands probably will have cramped up by then!
As for mum, well. she still gets angry for a while when I come home with a new piercing but then she seems to get over it after a while. It doesn't matter to me what she thinks though. It's my body after all and if I want to cover it in metal then I will. There's nothing she, or anybody else for that matter, can do to stop me, really. I am of the legal age now so I no longer need her consent.
Happy piercings people!