Who would have thought?

At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon Artist David Studio Absolution Body Piercing Location Christchurch, New Zealand

I've never had anything pierced before. I'm 18 and on the conservative side, still at high school. When nipple piercing first came up in conversation I went for the standard "Oh my God how could anyone do that to themselves" response. But I thought about it for the next couple of weeks and actually warmed to the idea. My girlfriend was delighted, she always thought that nipple piercings looked sexy. So I decided that I would get it done.

I live in a city called Christchurch in New Zealand and I'd heard about a place in town which had quite a good name for itself. So I looked them up in the phone book and found that the piercer was trained in the UK and had been piercing for nearly 10 years. So that was good enough for me and I walked past it a few times before going inside and telling them I wanted my nipple pierced. I filled out and signed the release form and waited till the guy was finished with another girl's eyebrow. That took longer than expected cos every time she stood up she nearly fainted... Anyway, once she had recovered, I went behind the curtain and was really impressed about how clean everything was. I lifted up my shirt and he cleaned my nipple and marked out the piercing. I didn't really look at the points which in hindsight I should have.

Anyway, he asked if I was ready, and I said I was. He clamped it (which didn't hurt at all) and then told me to breathe in and breathe out slowly, so I did and I closed my eyes as well. I felt searing pain through my chest (the best description I've heard is "white hot fire flashing through my chest") which lasted about 3 maybe 4 seconds. Then I opened my eyes and looked down and there was a needle right through my nipple. He then told me that he was going to pull the needle out and follow it through with the ring and I said OK. Pulling the needle out felt a little uncomfortable but the familiar searing pain was back when he pushed the ring through. Once again it was only for about 3 seconds. Then he clipped the ring off with the ball and he was done. I was amazed at how good I felt. He asked me if I wanted a drink of water or anything and I said no cos I felt great. I actually kinda enjoyed it (yes even the pain), now I'm no masochist or anything but you know what they say about piercing, it's addictive. It was a real rush actually, endorphines or something... So I got up, paid my $45 (which is about US$20) and walked out feeling great. It ached quite a bit over the next half hour or maybe three quarters of an hour but after that I didn't really feel it.

The bandage he had put over it washed off in the shower that night and I carefully cleaned it. The next morning there was a little spot of blood on either side which I cleaned off and then I was sweet. That blood was the only blood I ever saw from the piercing. I gave it a salt water soak every day for about 5 weeks or so and I still wash it with antibacterial soap every day in the shower. So it's nine weeks on now and it seems to be healing OK. After I plucked up the courage to rotate the soap through the piercing (that hurt a lot the first time) it was really tight and took quite a bit of force to get it around. But it's loosened up a bit now so it rotates through quite easily. I'm still washing it thoroughly every day but I still get crusties almost every day too. So it's taking a little longer than expected to heal but that's alright, it's probably because I wash it so thoroughly and that's slowing down the healing, or something like that. I love it so much and I'm so glad I got it done, but the left side of the piercing is slightly deeper than the right. So before you let a piercer pierce you, always check the marks, cos it's a lot easier to change them than it is to change a hole.

So yeah, go and get your nipple pierced everyone! I now love the idea of body piercing and I'm planning on getting a helix in my left ear really soon and later on maybe an industrial navel (maybe even a quadruple!). So if anyone's ever in Christchurch, New Zealand and wants to get pierced, go to Absolution Body Piercing! I'd recommend it to anyone cos they're clean and friendly and cheap! (not that that's really a consideration, more a bonus)