When I go through and read other BME member experiences, I especially look for stories with RISK or regrets. Unfortunately, mine is a story of both. It started in November of 2005. It was a crispy-cold night, and I was in the mood for a new mod. At that point, I had cartilage piercings, an industrial, tragus, and a tattoo on my leg. I wanted a piercing that wasn't on my ear. My poor ears had been through enough. Piercing for me is like therapy. It gives me something to take care of, a story to tell strangers. It also makes me responsible and develops my wisdom in the mod department, not to mention getting me free memberships on BME through my tales of happiness or woes. That's the best part.
At A Glance Author Jenna Lynne Contact Jenna Lynne@bme.anon When N/A Artist Jorian Trowbridge Studio Metamorphosis Location Kingston NY Being overweight, I should have waited until I lost weight before getting my navel done. But I was impatient and needed something easy to hide from my mom. She always said she would kill me if I got my belly button pierced. I did a lot of research online, especially BMEzine, to see how big girls heal with navel mods. I read a few regret stories, but the majority of the experiences were positive. So I went down to Metamorphosis with my friend, and I bought her a tragus piercing because she was kind enough to drive me to the shop. Metamorphosis was where I got all my mods done because the owners are very thorough and professional, always giving the best aftercare advice and jewelry options. So my friend did great with her new tragus, I did well with my tragus too a few months earlier. Now its my turn for a hole. I wasn't really nervous or scared, just excited. A little apprehensive because of my being overweight. My piercer doesn't use clamps unless they're absolutely necessary, like the tongue or genitals. I asked him if I was a good candidate for the mod, and he said yes, but recommended that I buy lower cut jeans.
I picked out an externally threaded barbell because it was $20 cheaper than the internal. It had pink jewels on the top and bottom. Took me forever to pick out because the choices were all gorgeous. He marked me up and asked me to look in the mirror. I agreed that it was good placement. I lied down in the denist style chair, holding on to the handles on the side. He asked me to take a deep breath and to let it out. Even though it was 7 months ago, I don't recall it hurting all that much. My industrial was HELL, but this wasn't too bad, seeing as that there wasn't any cartilage. I was scared to sit up and walk, mostly because I had high cut jeans on. Getting back into the car was a challenge, but the crisp air and endorphines were making me feel a little better. Later that night, I went to a restaurant with my friends and had a hard time sitting. I was starting to regret my decision already. I should have waited until I lost weight.
My biggest problem was that I was a stomach sleeper, mainly because thats how my back is comfortable. It was difficult trying to sleep on my back, so I put a pillow under my knees. For the first month I tolerated that position, but started getting impatient and tried to carefully sleep on my belly. My piercing didn't appreciate that much, and started to reject, no matter how correctly I did the cleanings. This was the beginning of the end. I had a keloid bump on each hole, and my skin was pink around the holes.
In January I flipped out because my mom still didn't know about my navel, and I had to go through Airport security to get on a plane to Florida, I was so scared the metal detector would go off. Luckily, it didn't. In Florida, my piercing went from being normal spacing between the holes, to half the size because of rejection. I was so upset. My skin was all pink, not just on the holes. I had to lose my mod.
It's now June, and I have noticable scarring where the piercing was. I will never be able to wear a middrift when I lose weight because I was too impatient to wait. The only way I can have an attractive belly button is to get a tummy tuck and have a new navel made, but who has the money for that? If I can help anyone through this story these are my main points: 1-Overweight girls, you are beautiful but don't get a piercing that compromises you. 2-Don't sleep on your stomach, if you cannot adjust, don't get this mod done, period. You must wait until it is healed to put any pressure on it. 3-Buy pants accordingly, don't wear high waisted attire.
Good luck with your mod, and always take best of care. Listen to your body, respect it.