I never really liked navel piercings. Two of my friends had ripped theirs out, and I had read a lot of horror stories about rejection. Besides, I didn't want my first real body piercing to be something so common. As soon as I saw a picture of a 6g navel, though, I was in love. After much negotiation, my parents agreed to let me get my navel pierced. However, I didn't mention the fact that I wanted it pierced at a larger gauge than normal.
At A Glance Author Afton Contact Afton@bme.anon IAM ciniron When Six months ago Artist Jessika Simmons Studio River City Tattoo Location Richmond, VA When we arrived, I filled out the paperwork and sat down in the waiting area. My mom signed the paper, and then went to go wait in the car. When Jessika sat down beside me and asked what I was having done, I said "6 gauge navel!" without any hesitation. She told me that that was pretty intense, and that she was going to pierce it at 8g and then stretch it to 6g. I was a little bit nervous about the stretching. Then, she asked me if I wanted a CBR or a barbell, and I said I wanted a barbell so it wouldn't be as heavy. The price was more than I was originally quoted over the phone, but luckily I had enough money.
I went back into the piercing room, where one of the apprentices put the marks on. I said they looked good, and then I sat on the bench to wait for Jessika again. Her other apprentice came and set up everything. The needle, taper, and jewelry looked HUGE! Jessika came in and told me about aftercare, and then had me lay down. She asked if I would let the apprentice take pictures, and I said yes. She then cleaned off my stomach and put the clamps on. Before the feeling of the clamps really registered, she was putting the needle through. I could feel it going through every layer of my skin. It was really strange, and not as painful as I would have thought. Then came the taper. It was a burning, pulling sensation. It was a lot more painful than the needle, but still bearable. Then, I heard her saying that my skin was sticking to the taper! She was having problems getting the jewelry in, and she said she might have to stretch it to 4g. I was trying not to panic while she tried again to get the jewelry in. Luckily, it worked that time. She finished putting the barbell in, and I awkwardly sat up and looked at it. It looked so great! I slid off the table, trying not to bend my stomach, and looked in the mirror. I had a gigantic smile on my face. When my mother saw it, she did not.
It was too sore to clean that night, so I left it alone until the next night. It felt like I had a big bruise on my stomach, and it was bright red. The jewelry was stuck in a somewhat odd position for a few days. Instead of the extra part of the barbell hanging down into the navel, it was sticking out the top of the piercing. This meant I got it caught on EVERYTHING. After the swelling went down a few days later, however, I was able to move it into a normal position.
H2Ocean really helped during the first few weeks of healing, because I had so many crusties! They would get really hard and stick the jewelry in odd positions during the day. Then when I would move, it would really hurt. I used H2Ocean to soften the crusties during the day (when I couldn't do sea salt soaks), so they wouldn't keep cracking. Also, the smell was completely horrible because there was so much goo, and it would get trapped in my navel. The healing phase really disgusted my parents, and they told me I shouldn't have gotten it done in the first place. They kept telling me it was infected, even though it was clearly just healing.
After a week or so, I developed granulomas on the top and the bottom of the piercing. They looked absolutely disgusting, and bled whenever I would bump them. They didn't hurt, but they were a pain in the ass. After a few months, I decided I wanted a lighter weight barbell. Changing it from a 1" steel barbell with 8mm steel balls to a 1/2" steel barbell with 6mm titanium balls really helped. (I strongly recommend Industrial Strength jewelry. The quality is amazing!) The top granuloma went away within two days, and the bottom one got smaller. It's still there today, but it's much smaller than it was. After I stopped trying different methods to get it to go away and just left it completely alone, it started to shrink. Also, it's not crusting much at all anymore and doesn't smell. Now that it doesn't look so strange, my parents have gotten used to it.
All in all, the pain of the piercing and the annoyances of healing were very much worth it, and I would go back and do it again in a heartbeat. It's a wonderful piercing, and Jessika did a great job on it!