So I found myself travelling through Charleston, SC and wound up settling down there for a couple of weeks. I had been wanting to pierce my nipples for about a year but just never had the oppertunity or the immediate desire or whatever feeling it is that prompts you to pierce or tattoo something. Usually these things are thought out somewhat, you do some research, you do a lot of thinking about what you want and why...all that other good stuff.
At A Glance Author anonymous When Six months ago Artist Scott Studio King Street Studios Location Charleston, SC Tattooing is illegal in South Carolina, though I heard laws were in the works to make it legal within a couple of years or something. Right now everyone in Charleston who wants a tattoo drives south to Savannah, GA. There were people tattooing out of their homes with a varied degree of cleanliness but your milage may vary.
I came across King Street one day while I was riding my bike around town, I had seen it before on my rides but had never stopped, or it had never looked open. One day I took the time to stop and go in to meet Scott who runs the shop. He came to Charleston from TN where he worked at another shop, the owner of which helped start the shop there in Charleston. Scott had been open for a couple of months and relied heavily on the college population in Charleston. There are a couple of schools crammed into that little town. I wanted to hear stories about drunken college kids getting belly button rings, and he had some, but mostly his clientele sounded to be people that had thought out what they were looking for and came to him when they were ready.
King Street Studios is sort of out of the way from the main drag of Charleston. But the downtown of the city is growing and expanding and commercial investment is starting to make the area expand and grow, pushing the current residents out and putting a Starbucks or a smoothie-whatever in their place. Prawgross I guess. He's a little north of downtown, definitely on the wrong side of whatever 'line' Charleston residents feel is 'safe' to be. Believe it or not, the rent is probably cheep and there's nothing wrong with that.
There are a handful of other piercing shops in Charleston, but they are either on the outskirts of town, hard to get to without a car, or were just kind of creepy or rude to me. I like my tattoo shop to do tattoos, my piercing shop to pierce, and those two can mix, but I don't want my piercing shop to sell used clothing, records, and insence. Maybe I'm too pickey, maybe I missed out...whatever.
Anyway, Scott was very helpful in talking about what I wanted and what would be appropriate for my nipple size. He had an excellent portfolio which spanned a couple of years and different styles of work to make me confident that he was capable. The room piercing room itself was spotless and he laid out all of the necessary things, sealed and sterilized. Talked me through the process, and then we got started.
Disinfectant (the stuff that isn't iodine.) Marking, checking, rechecking, and then the needles came out. The first one (right) didn't hurt, but you knew something had just happened, like a piece of metal being shoved through a very tender spot. The left one wasn't better or worse, but when you were done...you knew that something had just happened there. Most people have more to say about piercing, but means different things to different people.
I got 14ga stainless CBR. Nothing fancy, I wanted the feeling and the experience more than I wanted a piece of jewelry. FWIW, Scott's jewelry selection was pretty small, he didn't have a lot of stuff on hand. He said that he could do custom orders, if that's your thing. Just something worth mentioning.
Scott walked me through aftercare and sent me on my way. Warm water and soap. Nothing fancy, just keep it clean. Healing wasn't so bad, very tender for a few days, and then things started settling down. Keep everything clean and try not to touch them...what else can you say. It was about three weeks before I really felt comfortable with anyone else touching them too much, and probably another two before I wasn't thinking about it anymore, forgetting that they were there every once in awhile. All told, a good three months to heal completly for me.
All in all a great experience if you're looking in the area. When tattooing becomes legal in the state Scott felt that his shop couldn't survive unless they expanded and started tattooing. That will be great for local business but I feel like a small shop like his could suffer by having to do too many things to make the rent every month (see selling insence and records and shit.)