My friend had recently gotten her nipples pierced, and I had never seen nipple piercings in person so I asked her to show me. When I saw them, all I could think was that they were the most savage thing I'd ever seen and I wanted them for myself.
At A Glance Author Laura Contact Laura@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Jason Studio Body Odyssey Tattoo and Piercing Location Berkeley, California After finding out where she'd gotten them done, I collected the money I needed and walked to the shop, which was just a few blocks from my house. When I got there, there were four or 5 guys in the waiting area looking through binders of pictures of tattoos that had been done there. There was only one guy working, Jason, and he was in the back doing a full back tattoo on some guy who looked really uncomfortable. He looked up at me from the tattoo he was doing and yelled across the shop, "Hey! What can I do for you?" Although I was sort of uncomfortable with all those guys staring at me, I yelled back "I want nipple piercings!" The guys laughed amongst themselves and one of them winked at me. It was weird.
When Jason was done with the full back tattoo, he came to the front of the shop and asked the guys if any of them were ready (apparently they were all getting matching tattoos) They said I could go first, so Jason brought me into the curtained off area. Picking the jewelry was sort of hard because I'd heard that rings are bad for your nipples. Your clothing weighs down on the balls, which consequently lift the part that's going through your nipple. Someone told me they knew someone whose nipple had split from wearing rings. But I like rings so much better than barbells. After I picked out my jewelry - silver rings with little balls, went with the aesthetic choice - I laid down on the table. My friend had told me that the piercings didn't hurt that much, so I was feeling pretty confident. I had been sort of worried because my right nipple sticks out less than my left; it used to go in a bit, actually. I was hoping that wouldn't be a problem for the piercings, that he wouldn't turn me away when he got a closer look at my nipples. But when I told Jason that my right nipple didn't stick out as much as the left he just replied, "It will in a minute."
He prepared the needle, and drew the marks. I approved them, and then he told me to take a deep breath. When I breathed out, he stuck the needle through my left nipple. It felt like it took a long time getting through, as far as piercings go. And I could feel it pushing through all the tissue of my nipple. My friend had lied! It hurt really bad. I remember looking up at the ceiling and wondering what the hell I was doing to myself, and why? But then I thought about how awesome my friend's were and how much fun they would be to play with and I tried to ignore the pain. He put the ring in, then asked me if I wanted a minute to rest, but my adrenaline was sky high so I told him to go for the right one. That one seemed to take less time, even though now that I look at it, it goes through more skin because he wanted to even out my nipples. It still hurt pretty bad though. Once the balls were in place, he handed me a mirror. They looked pretty damn good. He told me he'd done a pair just a few days ago and I told him that that was my friend, and she was the reason I had come to get them myself. Then he said I had real nice boobs and the piercings suited me. Nice guy.
I put my shirt on, and he laughed a little, saying he could always tell if a girl was wearing barbells or rings by the way the piercing looked through her shirt. I looked in the mirror again and realized I would have to buy some padded bras so that my parents wouldn't be able to tell. As I walked out, there were a whole lot of eyes on my breasts, which made me somewhat uncomfortable again, but I suppose that's the price you pay for being really obvious about what piercing you're getting.
I have to say...the salt water soaks were sort of difficult. Having to hold two shot glasses full of warm salty water on my breasts is really awkward, especially when you don't have shot glasses, only those really small glass bowls. Yeah, that was a blast. Getting my nipples pierced was the most impulsive thing I ever did, but I'm so happy I did it. How could I regret something that's brought me so much joy?
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