At the time I got this piercing, it was my first 'real' piercing. I had the standard lobe ones, but nothing special. It took me a lot of convincing to get my Dad to allow me to be pierced at all, but I finally got through to him, and he hasn't said no to a piercing since! I had only recently turned 14 when I decided I wanted my navel pierced. I was one of the first girls in my school to get it done, so I was followed around for several months afterwards with girls asking me to show them.
At A Glance Author Franki Contact Franki@bme.anon When N/A Artist Gary Location Bracknell The day my dad gave the ok, me and my close friend Jess went down to a local piercer (I am not entirely sure of the name of the place, but locally it is known as "Gary's") and sat in the waiting room. Now, two years on I wish I had done the necessary research before diving head first. I didn't really know much about to benefits of good placement, or about the possibility of rejection.
So anyway, I went first, extremely nervous because I had no idea if it would hurt or not. I lay down, he marked the place with a marker pen, and just went straight for it (If he had asked me if I was okay with the place, I would have asked for it further back). The clamps weren't too painful, and the needle felt just like a small pinch. I got up, and checked out my shiny new navel in the mirror: I loved it! I had chosen a 14g bar with a purple gem.
He didn't give me any information on aftercare but I knew, just out of common knowledge, that I had to keep to piercing clean. I was lucky, I only got a small about of discharge during healing, and after about 6 months it was completely healed. I didn't notice at the time how far forward the piercing was compared to my friends, as I was a bit on the "chunky" side. I did however, over the course of that year lose over 2 stone (30 lbs) and the piercing looked even better. Around the one year mark I noticed the beginnings of an infection, but I looked after it well so it cleaned up shortly afterwards.
However, shortly after I had gotten my left lip pierced (I had turned into a bit of a piercing pro at this point and had 10), I noticed that my navel clearly did not have enough skin across the bar. Maybe I didn't notice it before, and it had been going on for a while, but it seemed to me to have happened overnight. My piercing quickly deteriorated over the course of about two/three weeks and got so small that I had to resign to the fact I would have to take it out. This was a shame for me especially, because after losing all that weight, I couldn't show off my piercing. Luckily, I was responsible, took it out and cleaned it and left it to heal. It was very red around the edges for a while after i removed it, and got very swollen at each end. But it has calmed down and soon, I am hoping, that is should be barely noticable!)
By this point I was educated enough in piercing to know about rejection, and thankfully I noticed what was happening in time to save myself from any unnecessary scaring. My navel has been out for over 5 months now, and it has (to my annoyance) still not healed up. But this is understandable, as it was a rejecting piercing and it has a build up of skin inside. It is gradually getting there, and I am left with two dots and either end; It just looks like I am not wearing the bar, So I am lucky not to have a huge scar.
This made me realise the importance of going to a good piercer and good placement. I intend to have my navel redone once this has healed, and I am going to make sure it is done properly. Recently, my friend's navel was migrating but she did not listen to me and now is left with a horrid lump of brown scar tissue where it was. So it Is my advice that if your piercing is rejecting: take it out immediately to minimise scarring!
Since this, my first real experience with piercing, I have gone on to get a further 8 of them (three in each ear, 1 stretched to *mm and one to 4mm in each side, 1 lip, and another more..private one) . And they are all in good nick. I have another 3 planned for an appointment in April (lip on right, navel redone and sternum), and needless to say I wont be returning to "Gary's" to have them done!