At A Glance Author Jackie Contact Jackie@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Bolie Studio His House Location ChicagO I grew up being an only child which means my parents are pretty strict, not too strict but they have rules and opinions. I guess it has to do also with their generation, everyone that had tattoos and piercing was a whacked out hippy on drugs so they always thought tattoos and piercing, besides those in the ears for girls, were out of the question and said God put all the holes I needed, yeah my parents are crazy. So all I had for 14 years of my life was my standard ear piercing. I really wanted something else done and wanted to be rebellious of their rule and opinion.
Well enter the wonderful world of high school! I was exposed to so many new things and one of which was the navel piercing which seemed to be very popular at my school, it seemed like pretty much every girl had one, so I wondered about getting it done. I knew my parents would flip out if I asked them for permission to get it done so there went that idea. I even thought about having another relative sign for me but it did not seem like a good idea because they might snitch me out, so I thought that I would just have to forget about it. My mom always talked about how it looks so cheap and what not for a girl to have it but that's total opposite of what I thought. Because number one I had to hide it from my parents and number two I'm not the type to parade around in little belly shirts to show it off, to me the piercing would be something more for myself.
A couple months after thinking about getting my navel pierced, and looking up information on the internet about it, a friend of mine told me that she had knew a guy that does piercing and tattoo at his house for anyone of any age. Now I don't think that this is a very good idea to do something like this, but hey I figured I would take a chance, be rebellious right? Yup! And I didn't need permission from my parents was even better, I was in heaven.
I waited a few weeks before my piercing to see how my friends would turn out because she was getting her tongue and navel pierced with the guy that I would eventually go to; after I saw that it looked good I figured what the heck and decided to go for it. My boyfriend and my friend took me to the piercer's house on day after school. He was busy with a client when we arrived so he told us to sit down and look at a photo album of piercing and tattoos he's done, which were very good by the way. He looked very into what he did; he himself was tattooed and pierced. Once he was ready for me he asked me what I wanted and told me all I needed to know about it and how to care for it and what to do when I wanted to change the jewelry...I also made sure he was clean as in taking out a new needle and everything was sterile which he was. He opened everything up right in front of me to insure it was new and 100% clean. He had actually worked for a famous tattoo and piercing shop here in Chicago and was in the process of opening up or moving to a new shop, anyways he told me to role up my top and he placed the clamps on my navel and in like a second he was done. It didn't hurt AT ALL! I was shocked. The clamps hurt more then the needle piercing my skin did. He put a CBR (captive ball ring) in my navel because he said it would be easier to clean because there was more jewelry to turn and move. Oh yeah...my boyfriend even got his nipple pierced there the same day and it turned out great as well, although I think his hurt way more then mine!
Well this was my sophomore year in high school and now I'm a college freshman and I have had no problems with the piercing what so ever. It healed a lot quicker then the time he told me it would but I guess it's because I really made sure I was cleaning and taking care of it. Although the only problem I encountered was removing the darn CBR...it was hard to do on my own and had to get help from my boyfriend, I guess when he put the ring on he really really squished it tight so that was hard but I successfully changed it.
Oh and about my parents not knowing well, I've managed to hide it from my parents for 3 years! After getting it, I found my self wanting more, nothing extreme or visible, so I just got a double piercing on my ears now which I did my self no problems there either, which I know is visible and risked the chances of my parents seeing it which they did but I just told them Hey its only a whole and can close up if I decide to take them off and that its not as permanent as a tattoo (even though I want a tattoo, I had to make a good argument) and now I'm thinking about betting a vertical hood piercing, kind of extreme but to me it would be like a personal piercing for myself and boyfriend almost like I have a piercing that no one can see or even knows about, I like that idea.
All in all it turned out great and I love my piercing!