I've got to admit that it took a little bit of mental effort to get myself ready for my most recent couple of piercings. I just got them done today -- a cartilege orbital in my left ear, and another cartilege piercing on the right -- THAT experience was great...
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon Artist ??? Studio ??? Location Amsterdam, Holland ..but let me back track for a minute. A couple of months ago, while I was on vacation in Amsterdam, I had gotten the impulse to enlarge an existing nipple piercing and get my other nipple pierced for the first time. I found a random place in the Red Light district there, I looked in the shop window, I told some guy what I was interseted in, I eventually followed him into his shop, and I walked out 15 minutes later with everthing that I'd asked for.
The piercer had replaced the 14 gauge ring in my right nipple with a 12 gauge barbell, and he had pierced my left nipple with the jewelry he had removed from the right. The guy was a great salesman -- he came out when he saw me standing and looking at his pictures in the window, he chatted me up, he convinced me of how cool piercing is. Even though I had been planning to wait until the end of the trip to get my nipples done, and even though I had wanted to shop around the town before deciding on a studio, I decided -- on the spur of that particular moment -- to follow the guy into his shop.
Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me until after having the work done how many mistakes my nipple piercer had made. Looking back on the experience, I realize that he hadn't sterilized my jewelry, talked to me at all about what he was going to do, or told me how to take care of my new holes. I know, I'm an old man, but I think that kind of stuff is important. First of all, all of those steps in the process help to protect you and your piercing; secondly, they show that you've got a piercer who cares about what he is doing, and that he will do a good job
I've had a few other experiences with facial, ear, and PA piercing, and I didn't realize until my last one how much could have gone wrong in all of my previous ones. The guy who pierced my didn't know what he was doing -- he pulled the taper through my right nipple way too fast, and he couldn't find an exit spot halfway througn my left nipple piercing. For about 5 minutes. After the guy had finally managed to pierce me, I checked it out in the mirror and immediately noticed that it was crooked, too deep, and bleeding profusely (something I had never experienced before with a piercing). Three days later, my right nipple still hadn't stopped bleeding, and my right nipple was so swollen and painful that I couldn't even stand to shower.
I took the left nipple jewelry out a week after the initial piercing. I left the right nipple as it was (though I did wash it a lot, and bleed). My right nipple is finally okay these days; it is actually one of the most exciting experiences of my sex life thus far (my recent ex-boyfriend LOVED it!). Despite this, I am pissed off that there are people out there who claim to be piercers who don't know anything about what they are doing. My experience in Amsterdam was obviously done by someone with the kind of training one could teach a monkey, and BOTH of my piercings had wound up infected.
I was wounded; the foundations of my world shook; I was angry. I still find piercing VERY viscerally attractive and a nice thrill to get done. My Amsterdam experience, though, made me a lot more hesitant to continue dealing with body-modification. I battled for a couple of months with the issues, I thought about the risks and money waste that could always come with piercing, and I subconsciously decided -- at the same time -- that I was going to get a couple more holes put into my ears.
Until today, when I finally followed through on that "couple more holes" plan, I didn't realize how much my bad experience in Europe had made me terrified of more piercings. It took me forever to get up the nerve to call, forever to get to my appointment. I've got to say, though, despite all my fears and misgivings, that I'm really happy with what went down today. Not only did the guy have an assistant who went through all my questions and the whole aftercare thing in total detail, he was incredibly nice himself. He did both of my cartilege piercings pretty quickly. Afterwards, he looked at them and said they were perfect. He handed me a mirror, and I was amazed at how good my newest additions looked.
In summary: don't go to Europe to get a piercing done (or at least don't go to the shadiest area of a European city); get your piercing done by someone who knows and gives a shit; and get your piercing done. That is my story. Thank you for sitting through it.