I had always been interested in Body Modification Culture, from the time I was a little girl and got my ears pierced at three years of age. I became more and more interested, which exploded after seeing my cousin's tongue piercing at the age of twelve.
At A Glance Author Amanda Contact Amanda@bme.anon IAM masks_that_cover When A year ago Artist can't remember Studio can't remeber Location Ottawa, Ontario However, since I came from a fairly conservative family, I was not allowed to get anything that extreme (and for some reason, my mom finds them absolutely vile and trashy – her words, not mine).
But they conceded when I turned 13, and I was allowed to get a second set of holes. Now this in itself was definitely not the best experience in the world – it was done with a gun (*insert shaking head of shame*) and took months and months to heal. But that in no way dissuaded me from the piercing world.
However, due to family views and what was going on in my life at the time, I sort of forgot about piercing for a while and it took a back burner in my mind, only to resurface whenever I would see a flash of a bellybutton ring here, or a glimpse of metal between teeth there. I was definitely hooked.
So flash forward to 2005, and I am 18 years old. A bunch of friends and I went to Ottawa to go shopping, and a few of the girls wanted to get some work done. We went downtown to Universal to get it done, but their piercer was gone for the night. We were all really disappointed, but where there's a will there's a way, right? So we up and hopped across the street to the next one that was open. Mistake number one.
So we're all in the shop, and one of my friends is getting her bellybutton done. Now this is something that I've wanted for years. I just never took the plunge because I've never been comfortable with that part of my body. Now I'm not fat by any means, I'm just not a rail either.
But Natalie, my friend getting the belly button ring, looked me square in the face and told me "It's for you, not anyone else, so if you're not comfortable showing it to people, don't. But you'll always know it's there. And who knows," she added with a grin, "maybe it'll make you want to show it off."
So I decided she was right, and took the plunge. I paid the $60 dollars to get it done with a gem barbell, filled out the paperwork, and sat to wait.
Natalie was the first to go in, followed by Jennalee getting her second lobes and Jenna getting a tragus. So I'm waiting in the lobby, getting more and more nervous, and finally Natalie comes out, looks at me, grins and lifts her shirt.
It was gorgeous. I won't lie. I fell in love. And I knew it would be worth it. Plus, Nat assured me it didn't even hurt, only pinched a little. So I got much, much less twitchy.
Finally my turn came, and the girl came out to get me. I was starting to shake. So I go into the little cubby room by myself (she wouldn't let other people accompany us into the room – she said it made people more nervous and it was just too cramped a space). I lifted my shirt, she wiped it down with iodine and marked it with a purple sharpie. I checked the placement in the mirror, it looked good to me, so I laid down in the gyno-like chair and held my breath.
I watched as she took all the instruments out of their packaging, and laid them down on a tray (covered with that blue papery wrap stuff that they have in the dentists office), and got ready. Now everything was sterilized, and she even changed her gloves a few times. Well, I guess there is such a thing as a false sense of security.
The girl (I can't remember her name for the life of me, I feel bad) put on the clamps, lined everything up, and then started to pierce.
I go the "deep breath in, breathe out" instructions, and felt a burning jab in my tummy. Then, it was followed by a "...oh....uh...keep breathing, just one more". Now as you can imagine – this scared the hell out of me. So I breathed again, and after what seemed like an eternity, the needle finally went through.
I won't lie. I was in agony. It hurt so bad I thought I was going to cry, and I have a really elevated pain threshold. "Huh," she said "you girls from Renfrew have really thick skin, the same thing happened with your friend." So not only did it hurt like hell, Natalie lied though her teeth. I made a mental note to beat her ass when I got out, but when I got up and saw it, I absolutely loved it. It was perfect, better than I imagined. So I decided to forgive. The girl gave me some aftercare instructions, a pamphlet incase I forgot anything, and a number to call for questions. I left, showed my friends, and off we went.
Now I know it all looks like roses from here, but if can azure you that wasn't the case. The next day I noticed that is was a little off center, and sat kind of weird. Turned out the same thing happened to Nat. But I guess I can live with that, I still love it. However, the problems didn't end there. The saline soaks and spectro gel wasn't making it any less red, and it still hurt to move it at all after two months. I was starting to get a little worried. Fast forward to catching it on the edge of my binder once or twice, and it hurt like hell. But it finally seemed to be fine after about five moths, so I changed it a few weeks later. I bought this cute dangly heart barbell form a piercing shop when I got my rook done, and charged it that night. It looked awesome, I was so happy. But a few weeks later, my boyfriend and I were wrestling and it got pulled hard enough for the dangly part to snap off. I was heartbroken (no pun intended).
But then it started to get redder, and swell a little, and finally ooze this gross pussy stuff. I tried everything to fix it, but nothing work. Well, having found BME a few months enforce, I knew what was happening as the skin between the bells became less and less. It was rejecting, and there was nothing I could do. So, sad and ready to cry, I took it out.
I was really upset because I loved the ting, and Nat was right – it made me feel a lot better about myself. But after I took it out, I became less sad, and more heavily pissed. Now I could see why it never really healed, and why it always sat funny. It was pierced improperly in the first place.
Instead of lying in the belly button pierced on the edge, she just grabbed skin and pierced it above the hole, making it a really taut surface piercing (well more so than the average newel peering anyway). There was constant pressure on the skin, making it virtually impossible to heal comfortable. So I felt a little better knowing that it wasn't my fault that I lost it, it was out of my control.
The moral of the story – just because someone looks like they know what their doing, doesn't mean they actually do. Don't just settle for a place because it's the only way you can get it done – a little patience could make a world of difference. And I know it wasn't a fluke, because the same thing happened to my friend. Now we're both out $60 for a few months of pain.
All that said, it didn't turn me off piercings either. Yes it was my most painful at the time, but would I do it again? Of course. In fact, I'm getting in redone at the end of the month. Standard and inverse, actually. So just because you have one bad experience doesn't mean they'll all be that way. There's such a thing as second chances for a reason, right?