At A Glance
Author	Kelly
Contact	Kelly@bme.anon
IAM	Bard
When	A month ago
Artist	Tyler
Studio	Ocean Mystique
Location	Virginia Beach, VA

I read this story once called "Murder by Gaslight," and the only thing I can remember about it is that one of the female characters had a nipple piercing. I was hooked (pardon the pun). I knew that someday I would have my own nipples pierced, unfortunately for me, I was underage at the time, and neither of the studios I went to would pierce me. I also lacked two other critical elements: money and freedom.

Yep, I was living at home with an allowance from my parents with the threat of "Not while you're living under my roof you won't" ready to lock my in my room or send me to a shrink at the first sign of "deviant" behavior. So I waited...impatiently.

Sure I could have gotten something else pierced, but somehow it seemed like getting any other major piercing (I'd had my ears gunned when I was much younger) would be a pale substitute for the one I really desired. So I waited...impatiently...finally turned eighteen...and opportunity knocked.

Two friends of mine decided it would be a cool idea to get pierced the day after prom, so we went to prom, partied hearty until the wee hours of the morning, slept on the beach until the studio (Ocean Mystique) opened, and then headed in to get pierced. I grinned, told the guy at the counter what I wanted to get done...and a big ol' cloud rained all over my parade. The studio's policy was that female nipple piercings could only be done by a female piercer and they didn't have one working that day. Crushed, I went home, slept for twelve hours and was two years before I went back.

Why, might you ask, did it take so long, if I wanted the piercing that much? Well it had a lot to do with the fact that I went off to college.

Now making the transition from high school to college can be kind of scary. I mean you get there and you find out what cool you had before (in my case not much) just doesn't cut it anymore. So Freshman year I fell in with some nice kids, who were boring, straightedge, and definitely anti-body modification. But they were safe, so I sort of put my dream on hold for a while.

Then one day *I* woke up and wanted to know who the hell had been running my life for the last year and a half because it certainly wasn't *me*. By that time I'd also met some awesome people who were much more my type and very involved in the modification scene. So I finally stopped and listened to my inner voice which said: "Bitch, why the hell don't I have my damn nipple piercings yet?" Or something like that. Suddenly getting my nipples pierced wasn't just about doing something I'd always wanted to do, it was also about making sure I had a very tangible reminder not to get lost in someone else's idea of me ever again.

Some people celebrate a (re)birthday with cake and ice-cream, me, I wanted needles and pain.

So there I was again at Ocean Mystique with another friend of mine (she wanted vertical nipple piercings) waiting to get pierced (I'd decided on horizontal for both nipples) and being slightly worried since this was my first piercing. But soon I was back in the nice hospital-esque room with the lovely Tyler chatting away as she readied the first needle.

Now I'd heard the whole range of opinions regarding how much pain is associated with a nipple piercing from "Huh, you're done?" to "Fucking Hell that hurt!"(from the piercer whose just been punched in the face by a frantic client). But I have a pretty substantial tolerance for pain, and really, I wanted the pain almost as much as I wanted the piercing.

So she kept me talking and in went the first needle. It hurt, but not nearly as much as I expected; it was almost disappointing. Then the second one was in, and it hurt slightly more. By that point a warm sort of tingling had begun to spread from my nipples over the rest of my body. I raised my head up enough so I could see the needles sticking through each pink bud...I don't think I've ever seen anything more beautiful (there's definitely a play piercing session somewhere in my future). Then the jewelry was in (curved barbells), and I was up off the table admiring my shiny new accessories and basking in a nice piercing afterglow. I probably kept grinning at odd moments for the rest of the day.

Aside from some day-after soreness and a minimal amount of blood from the left one, they've been healing perfectly. So the LITHA method definitely gets my vote for best aftercare program. All I did was wash once a day with the soap as instructed and pray for my body to not do anything weird.

I'll be getting the jewelry switched out before long, and will hopefully have the money saved up for another piercing. I'll just have to figure out what's next.