Wow where to start. This happened a few months ago, and basically I had finished stretching my septum, hadn't decided on nor could I afford a tattoo, and was still considering various other mods, when the seed of a large gauge navel had planted in my head. I was never really a big fan of navel piercings, or at least had never considered one for myself, but my ex girlfriend had always tried to get me to consider a big navel. As such I'd been spending some time trawling through the big navel gallery on BME and I saw a few I thought looked really good. I made the mistake of mentioning this to my good friend and drummer Matty and he started his scheming...
At A Glance Author shadowbringer IAM shadowbringer When Three months ago Artist Tania Studio Anatomic Adornments Location Vancouver BC Matty is a very excitable person when it comes to his friends new mods, or at least he really enjoys coming and being a part of the experience, and he's also an incredibly generous person. He recognised my urges to get a new mod and decided to sponsor my navel. He was intending to get a 4g septum punch so we decided we could be the 4g club, which later became the 4g yacht club, but that's another story. He was downtown one day and couldn't resist the opportunity to get the punch (which had to be done at 6g but he later stretched to 4) which I was disappointed about because I wanted to be there, but I understood. Sometimes you just need to go and do it. Anyways we had the jewellery and the scalpel ordered and when it came in and we found an appropriate date, we all went down to ANATOMIC. They called me in to mark me up, I did some deep breathing to relax and we eventually all piled in to the piercing room (Matty, Hilary(my girlfriend), Tania and Lysa (the piercers), an d my buddy Chia stayed outside in the waiting area.
I remember the room being incredibly hot that day, especially with all 5 of us crammed in the little space. I lay down and continued my deep breathing exercises, and the procedure began. Tania clamped me and started cutting from the bottom I believe, and I felt a sharp but very clean pain where the scalpel first entered. I focused on accepting the pain and letting it flow through me while Tania continued to cut. She went in from the top and the bottom again, perhaps once more from the top, all the while we were sweating beads. Hilary had a cool cloth on my forehead while Matt patted sweat off HER forehead. He also moved around a little to get some digital shots. The most difficult part of the procedure was the taper. Tania had done one navel scalpelling before and had cut a bigger then needed so she tried to avoid this problem. Unfortunately my skin tensed up VERY tightly and as a result the taper got stuck. It took Tania and Lysa tag team pushing on it to get it t hrough, and when they finally did the jewellery subsequently got stuck. It took some time to work it through as well but finally it was over. Tania slid an o-ring onto my brand new 4g black pyrex navel curve, and I had a new mod. I was amazed I had made it through such an intense procedure so smoothly. I honestly barely felt the pain after just a few minutes, which I attest largely to being surrounded by such calm and competent individuals, and to my full acceptance of the procedure. Despite the obstacles the energy in the room remained very positive which I was very grateful for.
I sat up and the benched was absolutely soaked in sweat. I stood up and had a look at my pretty new adornment and was very pleased. Matt coughed up the dough and I thanked my piercers, then we were on our way, myself beaming with the joy of my new mod I could proudly display as a symbol of this ordeal survived, even well enjoyed.
I was so high from having gone through what seemed to intimidating to me and from the endorphins and being so deeply relaxed for so long, I was absolutely floating when I left the shop. I hopped on my longboard and when we reached the next corner, my front wheels gently slipped off the rounded curb onto the street. I stepped off so as to avoid falling backwards and cracking my head on the pavement, and calmly watched an approaching car very slowly hit my board and drag it halfway across the intersection. I was barely affected by this, and was just glad it was my board and not me, or anyone else, that was damaged. I just picked it up and kept on to our vehicle.
My advice to anyone considering a scalpelled piercing is to go to a very good shop and make sure your piercing artist is well experienced and skilled. Also make sure you are prepared for such an experience, as I know if I had attempted something like this a few years back, it would have gone much less smoothly. And of course proper aftercare and babying of ones self and ones new mod are a given for proper healing.