For my eighteenth birthday, my boyfriend gave me 100 dollars to get pierced. He normally doesn't think piercings are very cute, but he knows I like them and wanted to surprise me with the chance to get the conches, surface navel, and other work that I'd been wanting done.
At A Glance Author athens Contact athens@bme.anon When A year ago Artist april Studio high priestess piercing Location eugene OR I took the money and a friend to a shop I'd been to before, High Priestess Body Piercing. I'd already been in for a consult about the surface piercing I wanted on my stomach. Originally it was a vertical bar below my navel, but the piercer on site warned me of the sketchy healing history, and told me how they almost never work out. It wasn't hopeless, he said, I could still do a horizontal if I was interested, and that those are usually easier to heal anyway. I had him check to see if I even had enough skin on my belly to do it properly, because I am pretty slender.
Back to my birthday- I went in and they said they would do two conches at 6 gage, surface navel and left tragus for 100, including a "primo" healing kit. I was of course very enthused. My friend and I went into the small room and I waited on the table/bed while my piercer was setting up. One of the fun parts was picking out the jewelry, for my conches I got some cute little purple glass pieces, and my tragus I wanted to get a little barbell, because I have I always thought they were cuter in the tragus than a hoop. Out of the four piercings I was getting done, I decided I wanted to do my navel first. It is essentially two piercings, April said, because it is a two breath count. It was so fast and painless, and she put the flatbacks on so I could sit up and look. It tugged a little bit, but I could tell it was a very comfortable addition to my stomach (which I have never really liked). Very cute, loved it right away.
She then did the other three piercings, which I won't quite discuss but will mention briefly: let's just say they weren't as painless, especially the conches---oooh. The only reason I did the second one immediately after the first was because she gave me even more of a discount, but I ended up being really happy with my decision, and here a year later I still have both conches and love them.
Flash forward three or four weeks, everything was healing perfect and then I went to a rowdy dance party/show. I got pushed in the stomach by a falling person, and when I checked out my tummy piercing later...bloody. Not too bad, but I went to HPP to get it cleaned the next day. A different piercer checked it out, and said it was fine, and that it actually was healing better in general than most he'd seen. I was happy it was going to heal well and excited in general to have it. Also because I had been toying with the idea that if it healed well I would get a second longer surface piercing underneath it, and turn it into a project. Unfortunately those dreams of mine were never realized, because shortly after it just so happened that in a fit of brattiness my friend backhanded my stomach one day, to prove a point or something. I was pissed needless to say and she didn't even apologize! I happened to be wearing a white shirt, and two drips of blood showed a few seconds after the fact, right below my belly button. From then on the piercing was doomed. I had to take it out shortly after, but not without a bloody, kind of graphic mess. Now I have a one and a half inch scar under my belly button, it is thick and purple and grotesque but kind of beautiful. I used to hate the scar at first, and was going to get it tattooed over, but now it has been several months and I am starting to appreciate it. It is cool, though, because even though some people joke that it looks like I had a c-section, I think it looks like I got in a knife fight! Tuff. The really bad thing about it is that I will never be able to have that piercing again, and I only got to have it for two or three months. I would warn anyone who was interested in this piercing (or similar ones) because they are extremely hard to heal and can end very badly. But at the same time, there are tons of people who have had no problem healing the piercing, and alas, I was almost one of them. I guess the surface navel piercing and I just were never meant to be.