I initially planned to pierce my navel this summer, after I finished my exams, but a friend of mine was really keen that I should get it done sooner, and she just wouldn't let it drop. Anyway, there was a holiday coming up, so I thought I'd get her off my back and indulge that itch at the same time.
At A Glance Author Lady Stardust Contact missmaggieellis@yahoo.ca When A month ago Studio Scorpion Tattoo and Piercing Studio Location Harrogate Loads of people at school had had there navels pierced at a place called Scorpion Tattoo and Piercing studio in Harrogate, which is close to where I live. I got the number from a girl in my chemistry class and phoned two days before I planned to go to make an appointment. The woman on the phone told me the price (£35) and that I should bring my ID.
The day before I went, I texted my friend to tell her the appointment time, but she'd had a row with her step dad and had gone to stay with her dad for the rest of the week. I really didn't want to go by myself, so I begged my boyfriend to go with me, and he agreed to meet me there.
The next morning, my mum picked me up from my dads house, where I was staying, and dropped me in Harrogate at about 9. With an hour and a half to kill, I wandered round the shops, and made sure my boyfriend knew he was meeting me at the studio.
I arrived there at half past ten. No sign of Jamie. The man at reception gave me some forms to fill out, and checked my ID. This took a while as I used my passport and the picture is about four years old, so looks nothing like me. Next time, I'll take my new drivers licence!
After I filled in all the forms, I chose my jewellery. I got a barbell with a gem in the bottom ball that changes colour depending on how it catches the light. The man took me through into the piercing room and dropped the barbell into some kind of solution. He then asked me to take off my jacket and tuck my shirt up. I leant against the bed, and he sprayed my belly with something really, really cold. He then started chatting to me about nothing in particular, and during the chat, he pierced me. I felt that happen, but I didn't realise the jewellery was in until he told me. He then put a big dressing over the whole thing.
I left the room and went back to the front desk, just as Jamie ran up the stairs. After gently reprimanding him for 'not being here to hold my hand, you idiot' I paid up (£30, as it turned out) and left. We went to find Jamie's mum, and my belly ached a little bit, but it was nowhere near as bad as my friend told me it would be.
My belly was fine all day, but that night, when Mum arrived to pick me up from Jamie's, it started bleeding for some reason. Then I started to feel sick, so I knelt over the toilet, and the next thing I knew I was lying on the floor with Jamie freaking out nearby. I sat up, told him I was fine, and promptly fainted again. Nice.
I took really good care of this piercing. The guy never told me what to do, but I asked around and the general consensus was that sea salt soaks are the way forward. So twice a day, morning and night, I soaked my navel and got jumped on by my two Dalmatian puppies, who thought it was a brilliant new game. If I didn't have time to soak it, I used Savlon wound wash, which I used for my nostril piecing.
However, after about a week, I developed a strange mark between the two balls. I had no idea what it was, so I asked a girl at work, who told me it was like an ice burn from the freeze spray. It eventually went away after a few more weeks.
Unfortunately, I went on a school trip to Greece last week, and as you can't drink the water there, there was no way I was going to use it to soak my piercing. Instead I just used Savlon. I was afraid it would go really nasty, but it seems to have improved it. I nearly had a disaster though. I was in the shower one night when the top ball fell off the barbell. I caught it and tried to screw it back on, but it was really loose. I eventually had to twist really hard to get it back on, and kept a plaster over it for the next couple of days, but it seems to be secure again now.
I've had this piercing for 7 weeks now, and it's a little red around the holes, and a bit of whitish gunk squeezes out when I wash it, but I figure considering I rammed a piece of metal through my body, it's not just going to roll over and accept it straight away. I'm going into Harrogate for my next piercing on Friday, so I'll pop in to Scorpion and ask the guy to check it then.
I love this piercing, the only problem is that I am now well and truly addicted. I decided I would agree to pierce my nipple, like my friend had been begging me to for ages (the same friend as before), but when I told her, she said that she'd decided that I can't do it as it's 'her thing'. Somehow, I don't think that's going to stop me...
Oh, and I said in a previous experience that all my piercing have a meaning. This one celebrates my relationship with Jamie.