I'd wanted a navel piercing for a while, but I never thought I'd go through with it, partly because I was worried about how much it would hurt, and partly because I'm pretty self-conscious and thought it wouldn't look right. I'd been reading loads of experiences on BME though, as well as looking at photos people had submitted, and I couldn't stop thinking about having it done (getting pierced is far too addictive!). I mentioned it to my friend Felicity and as soon as I'd mentioned it, Felicity said she wanted her navel pierced too. This pretty much made the decision for me - we decided to get it done together. We chose to go to PX Piercing, because I'd been before and it's not only super-clean, but the people there are really friendly and make you feel totally comfortable. I'd also heard nothing but good things about it from friends who had been there. It helps a lot to be sure of where to go, if you're not comfortable with a particular piercing place, it'll make the experience a lot more difficult.
At A Glance Author jen Contact jen@bme.anon When A year ago Studio PX Piercing Location Newcastle upon Tyne, UK Eventually the day came for us to go and get pierced, and we were both terrified! When we got there, we both told the piercer (can't remember his name, sorry!) what we wanted, and because there was another person waiting to go in before us, we had to sit in the waiting room for a while. I can safely say that this was the worst part, although the girl waiting to go before us had a navel piercing, and reassured us that it wouldn't hurt at all. Finally, it was our turn, and we both went into the room together. We both filled in forms with our name, address, date of birth etc, and then we had to decide who would go first. Felicity ended up going first, because I wanted to see what happened before I actually had the piercing done (I'm a bit weird like that). She didn't seem to be in too much pain, so that made me a bit less nervous, plus she had a huge grin on her face afterwards and I knew any pain would be worth it :)
I picked out the jewellery I wanted (I settled on a plain barbell) and was told to lie on the dentist chair type thing, which was covered with paper. By this point, I was really nervous, but pretty excited too! The procedure was explained to me, and I'd just seen Felicity having it done, so I knew exactly what would be happening. I could see the needle and all the equipment was brand new and in packets, lined up on the bench. 2 dots were marked on my skin with a new purple pen (I'm sure they have a special name) and I checked the placement. When I'd said everything was ok, some cold spray (I'm not sure what this was, possibly to make it less painful) the clamp was put on. I have to admit, I was kind of dreading that part because I'd heard it could hurt , but it was just uncomfortable really, not painful at all. Then the needle was lined up, and I was pierced! It seemed to happen a lot quicker than I expected, I thought it might take ages to get the needle through. And even better, it didn't hurt at all! I couldn't believe it, I felt the needle go through, but no pain at all. Next, the jewellery was threaded through, which didn't hurt either, and I'd definitely expected it to - I know when I got my ear (cartilage) pierced, that was the most painful part. I was so happy when I looked down and saw my brand new piercing, and Felicity seemed pretty pleased with hers too! We had to have a kind of bandage thing put over it for the first few hours to keep it clean. We were talked through the aftercare procedure (our piercer recommended Savlon spray), and given little leaflets with all the information in case we forgot, and then we paid, and it was all done!
The healing process was fairly easy, I was worried about rejection because I know navel piercings are at quite a high risk of this, but despite my paranoia, it healed fine... even though I kept nearly convincing myself that it was definitely rejecting! I used the Savlon spray the piercer had recommended to clean the piercing twice a day, and I occasionally used sea salt compresses too. The only bad thing was that the waistband of my jeans seemed to sit right near the piercing, and would occasionally knock it, which hurt for the first few weeks. After that though, it healed really well, and I was excited to wear all the different jewellery I'd been collecting :)
I'd definitely recommend getting your navel pierced, researching beforehand definitely helps, because you know what to expect, which makes the whole experience a lot less scary! Also, taking a friend along helps loads too, it really calms you down! And also, I'd recommend PX Piercing (on Stowell Street in Chinatown) to anyone in the North East, I wouldn't go anywhere else!