Many of the "BodMod" experiences I've seen go into detail about the act of getting the modification: Who did it, where it was done, how much it hurt, if one likes the result, aftercare, etc.
At A Glance Author Tomas Contact smooth@null.net IAM Smooth When Ten years ago or more Artist Self Location Central Highlands, Viet Nam While these are all very good information to provide, and are a help to those seeking more information about various modifications, there seems (to me) to be a decided lack of information on why people have gotten their mods.
Since the Mod I'm writing about is very common these days (it wasn't when I got it), I thought possibly some background about why I got it and it's personal significance would be more appropriate and interesting than just saying "I got this piercing, it hurt when I got it, but I like it a lot."
The mod I'm writing about is a simple nipple piercing, currently about 8 gauge but originally about 16-18 gauge, that I acquired in December of 1969 (yes, that's 32 years ago).
Before that piercing I had never considered getting a tattoo or a piercing. Body modifications of any sort were something rather exotic and possibly titillating, but not something I thought I'd ever want.
How, then, did I come to get what at the time was an unusual and strange piercing, why did I suddenly decide that it would be "right" for me, and what do I think of it 30 plus years later?
The Tale of the Pierced Nipple
I spent a bit over a year during 1969 and 1970 in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam. I didn't really wish to be there, I'd rather have still been a studio cameraman and transmitter maintenance tech at the TV station I had worked for, but my country said it needed me and I believed it.
I enlisted just three weeks before my draft notice came in the mail in 1966, but it wasn't until 1969 that I ended up in southeast Asia.
I was a very young and inexperienced sergeant responsible for the generally even younger boys who worked for me.
I've always been an avid reader, and read everything and anything whenever I had the chance. The two types of books I liked best were technical books and Science Fiction.
One of the many books that affected my worldview as a teenager was Starship Troopers by Robert Anson Heinlein, which was a political/social commentary thinly disguised as a SciFi novel. It was published about 15 years after WW II ended, and was one of Heinlein's best. (If you've seen the movie trust me that it has very little to do with the novel.) As a source of ideas to start one thinking about how some things work, it is a good read.
In the book one of the things mentioned is the only form of "jewelry" the soldiers were allowed to wear with their uniforms: Tiny pierced earrings to commemorate their lost brothers-in-arms.
When one of my boys died in front of me from a head shot, I needed some way to remember and honor him, some way to help purge my overwhelming sense of guilt at not being able to prevent it.
The piercings in Starship Troopers jumped into my mind. Since we were not allowed earrings (nor would I have wanted them at the time), I chose a simple ring in my nipple as the symbol. It would be private, and even more personal than a pierced ear.
The piercing was done in the field with what was at hand and the ring was made from some stainless steel wire. I found it difficult to confide in anyone else about my need for it, so I ended up making the piercing tool and ring from stainless wire and doing it myself, in private.
Yes it hurt, but that pain was able to relieve some of the other pain I felt from his death.
Aftercare for my piercing was poor and occasional, and I'm very lucky that there were no serious problems with the piercing (my first). I would strongly recommend that how I did it and how I cared for it NOT be considered the right way to do it if one has any choice.
In looking back over thirty years to that time I still feel that I didn't really have much choice either in how it was done, how it was cared for or the necessity of doing it. It was necessary and right in that situation.
I wore that stainless ring for many years until I replaced it with a nicer and heavier ring. Over the years the ring was occasionally replaced with progressively heavier gauge SS rings or bars, until this year when I replaced it with a simple titanium barbell.
The piercing has a lot of significance as a reminder to me of one of the names on the Memorial Wall.
Dennis, I remember you and salute you. You were so young. You were kind. You tried. You did your best. One cannot ask for more.
Peace.