This is about my navel piercing. I have to tell it in two parts because I got it pierced twice. I was 15 years old and my high school was offering a trip to Athens, Greece. I live in NY and I have a fascination with Greek history and art so I had to go. I convinced my parent to give me the money to go to Greece and around the end of March I was on my way to Greece. At this point I had no idea that I would be leaving Greece with a shiny new addition to my body. Before this, all I had was ear piercing but I had wanted my belly button pierced for a while.
At A Glance Author Subliminal Girl Contact kselg02@gmail.com IAM Subliminal Girl When Five years ago Artist Unknown Studio Unknown Location Athen, Greece I was lucky to be going with a few friends on this trip and I don't quite remember when the topic of piercing came up but it did. I mentioned that I wanted a belly button ring for the longest time and another friend said she wanted a tattoo. In the US you have to be at least 18 to get a piercing without parental consent but in Greece there was no age limit. We decided to keep an eye out for tattoo places. But by the last few days of out trip we still had not seen any. So we had a few hours to kill before dinner and decided to go hunting for a tattoo joint. We asked around and got lost in an unknown city, luckily most people speak English. Somehow, we found the studio, if you can call it that. We did not know much, we just wanted to surprise out friends back home with some body mods. Thinking back, it wasn't clean at all, and I have no idea if he used clean needles.
I went first so my friend could decide on a tattoo from a book. I sat down in the piercing chair and lifted my shirt a little. He got his supplies ready and I was so nervous that I wasn't paying any attention to him or if anything was sterilized, I was so stupid. He told me to take a deep breath in and on the count of 3 he would pierce me, but as it goes with every piercer, they pierce on 2 and its over. I had really psyched myself out thinking it would be so painful, this was my very first body piercing and I did not know what to expect. It hardly hurt at all and it looked great. I got a cute little hoop and went out to show my friend. She got a tattoo of a tribal dragon that looked awesome on her dark black skin. I don't even really remember if he told me any aftercare instructions to do or anything. But we went back to our hotel and showed everyone we could find. I never had any problems with it and I loved it more than anything. I flew home with my class and I never thought my mom would approve of the idea so I tried to hide it from here for a while, but moms know everything and she eventually found out. Even my mom thought it looked good.
Now speed ahead a few years, I'm 17 and pregnant, I had to take my belly ring out. I hated doing it but I vowed to get it re-pierced someday. I had my beautiful baby girl on June 25, 2000 and about a year later I decided to get my belly pierced again. I should tell you that it never fully healed. I waited to far along in my pregnancy when I took it out so it ended up stretching before it healed all the way so there was always a half hole there. So when I went to get it re-pierced the piercer did not have any trouble. There was already a dimple for him to start with and you could clearly see the dimple on the underside of my belly button too. This time I stayed in NY and went to a reputable place to get it done. City Lights in Middletown, NY. He was able to follow the previous hole and make it in the same exact place as before. Now I knew the last time did not hurt, but I had made myself believe that because of the scar tissue that built up when it healed, it would hurt more this time. It didn't. He used the same 1...2...OUCH...3 technique and it was done. He gave me good aftercare instructions and I followed them religiously and I have not had any problems with it since.
I love my belly ring and I would suggest anyone get one, they are such a great way to adorn your body with any style you are into, especially since there are so many styles of belly jewelry to choose from these days.