It all started about a year and a half ago. One of my closest friends came down from Dallas and paid for me to get my inverse navel pierced as a Christmas present. It was my first navel piercing and I got it done at 14 gauge. Healing went smoothly and you can read about it here. After a while, though, my navel seemed a little bare. I had never liked the look of regular (top) navels pierced at 14 gauge, so I decided to get it pierced at a larger gauge.
At A Glance Author DarkSideVegan Contact DarkSideVegan@bme.anon IAM DarkSideVegan When Six months ago Artist Miro Studio Dandyland Location San Antonio, Tx
I talked to my regular piercer, Miro, and decided to order a 6 g. 3/8" curved glass piece from Glasswear Studios. I have ordered many jewelry pieces from them in the past and am very happy with the quality. When it arrived I was very excited, but I decided to wait a couple weeks before getting it pierced because I was planning on spending time in a Jacuzzi and I didn't want a new piercing to interfere with that or get it and risk an infection from the water.
Okay, on to the day of the procedure. That day I had class and I normally get pretty nervous, so I tried to just put it out of my mind. When dinner came along I was still managing to not think about it and was able to eat a good meal. After that my boyfriend, Jason and I headed to Dandyland, the piercing shop I normally go to. When we got there I gave Miro the jewelry to autoclave. Some girls came in so one could get their nostril pierced so she went ahead of me while Jason and I looked at the jewelry, flash, and talked. The wait seemed forever, but it only took about 20 minutes. It was a little harder to not think about being pierced when I was right there waiting to get it done.
Once Miro had cleaned up from the nostril piercing he led us to the back and set up the room. When he was done I stood up and Miro cleaned the area and carefully marked where he would pierce. After I okayed the marks, I laid down and tried to not look at the needle as Miro was lubricating it and getting ready to pierce me. Usually I don't have a problem seeing the needle, but I figured its better safe than sorry so I didn't want to look at it and freak out. 6 gauge is pretty big compared to 14 gauge after all.
Now it was time. I started taking deep breaths, Miro lined up the needle and receiving tube and started pushing the needle through. Since my navel skin is kind of tough and the needle was 6 gauge, it took a couple strong pushes from Miro to get the end of the needle completely through. I could obviously feel the pain but it wasn't too bad. There was a quick break after the needle was through, then onto the jewelry. It slipped in easily, but the o-ring was kind of hard to get on. Miro was trying to be careful and not move the piercing around too much so it took a little while.
Miro asked if putting the o-ring on was the most uncomfortable part of the procedure, but for me it was waiting for the jewelry to be autoclaved! Afterwards there was a small amount of blood, about the same as my inverse navel or less.
I checked it out in the mirror, it looked great! We headed back to the front and I paid, tipped, and left a very happy girl. I kept the aftercare pretty simple. My inverse navel healed very easily and I figured this one would too. At first the o-ring was a little tight and the top hole wasn't getting enough air, so I pulled it out a little bit and it was good to go. Other than that it was a breeze to heal. I used Provon soap in the shower and used a q-tip with water to carefully remove any crusties that built up during the day. Lately it hasn't been crusting much and I just wash it with the Provon soap. Occasionally I use a saline solution to help it along if it gets sore or red.
The first month or so I wasn't able to sleep on my stomach at all. This was probably the most annoying part for me because I normally sleep that way at least part of the night. I got used to it after a couple days, but was relieved when it didn't feel sore anymore. Now it has been 7 months and it's totally healed. I took the jewelry out for the first time a few days ago and it was pretty interesting/neat to see the big hole through my navel. I am still very happy with this piercing and I plan on stretching my inverse navel now so it matches the top.