A few years ago I got my right nipple pierced at 1.6mm. I wasn't really enamoured with it until I put in a curved barbell with spikes. My nipple had horns, and I liked it, but it still wasn't right.
At A Glance Author orange IAM orange When N/A Artist will Location yorkshire I kept catching theses spikes on things and hurting myself - the worst time when I was working under my car. I rolled out from under it and caught a spike on the lip of metal that hangs from the sill. It hurt and bled a lot and shortly after started to migrate, and I blame the migration on that incident.
So I took it out and I missed it for a about a year.
In the meantime I decided that larger gauge jewelry was more suited to my body - I have a big frame, why should just over one millimetre of steel be suitable given the relative sizes?
So this time when I got both my nipples pierced (and theres another thing - I decided to `balance`; I needed metal in both of them) I wanted large gauge.
The piercer at the better shop in town happens to live in my street, and I talked about it with him a few times. When I asked him the highest gauge he would pierce at he said 2.4mm. I wanted more so we came to a compromise - he would pierce at 2.4mm and immediately stretch to 3.2mm.
So the day came and I took my top off for the man with the needles. This is a good shop and he is a good clean piercer so there is no need for me go in to detail about cleanliness, liability forms and the procedural claptrap. He did it right as far as I'm concerned.
He started with the right nipple, I told him that it had already been pierced and had rejected and that I knew the scar tissue would make the job harder.
It was a LOT harder. I was surprised at the effort he had to put in to get the needle through my tough nipple-skin. It seemed he was pushing with all his strength. For the first minute or so it hurt like hell but then my defence mechanism kicked in and although I knew it was hurting I couldn't really feel it, it was kind of numb and glowing, not uncomfortable at all, maybe even enjoyable.
Finally the needle popped through and we breathed a sigh of relief. Now came the hard bit. I had never used a taper before. The immediate stretch was even harder than the initial pierce, and for a time I wondered if we would have to abort the mission, but thankfully my piercer was determined. I apologised to him for causing him hard work with my unorthodox request, but he kept assuring me that it was OK, that it made a change for him and in fact it was good, more enjoyable than the usual day to day stuff he did.
To an outsider this would surely have looked like one man brutalizing another, but after a while constant severe pain seems to turn from feeling bad to feeling good to not feeling, and I laid there chatting casually, asking about his ink and talking about business while he forced the 3.2mm taper slowly through my nipple. When it eventually came through he quickly followed it with a barbell, and my right nipple was done. Great. Stinging a bit, but great.
After all that I could see he was slightly daunted before starting on the left, he asked if I needed a rest but I assured him I was alright, we should get cracking...
As there was no scar tissue in the left nipple this time it was much easier. Admittedly, I had been a little worried, if only because of the effort my piercer was having to put in, but this time the pierce was plain sailing and the needle went through relatively easily. We carried on the conversation about ink. However the immediate tapering to 3.2mm from 2.4mm was difficult again, not as difficult as on the right, but it hurt just as much and I went through the same range of feeling - the discomfort, the enjoyment, the unfeeling.
Once the barbell was in I sat up and looked at my sorry nipples in the mirror and I liked what I saw. I had enjoyed it very much - I think in retrospect that I'm glad we went for the immediate stretch, it added another level to the experience.
We sat and chatted for another 5 or 10 minutes then I was plastered up and sent on my way.
For a few days my nipples hurt like shit but I didn't find this pain particularly unpleasant, more of an increased sensitivity, albeit so sensitive as to not be touched but definitely not unpleasant.
All in all it took about 4 to 6 months to be able to have them touched normally and about 18 months for them to heal properly. Every time I saw my piercer in my street he would ask me how they were getting on and if I was ready to stretch them yet!
So what have I learnt from it? Well definitely that being my size and having my lifestyle means the piercings I have need to be more than 1.6mm (cheesewire, I swear) to be suitable and sustainable in my body. I learnt that my nipples can be quite sensitive (but thats another story, heh). Mostly I learnt how to not only control pain but to channel it and enjoy it.
And of course I've got these wicked looking pieces of metal adorning my chest :)