This is the story of my fourth and maybe final nipple piercing.
At A Glance Author spotlight Contact spotlight@bme.anon IAM spotlight When A year ago Artist Alex Studio Spikes Location Wolverhampton, UK The very first nipple piercing I had was in my left nipple. I was quite young at the time, 18 or 19, and I was still quite ignorant when it came to healing and the sizes of the bars and whatnot, so that one didn't last very long. Over the next couple of years, I got my left one done again. When that one went tits up (pardon the pun), I got my right one pierced. Both times, for no reason whatsoever, they refused to heal, and just got worse and worse over the months. There was no reason why I couldn't heal them. The piercing studios I went to were ultra professional, and knew beyond a doubt what they were doing and I followed healing instructions to the letter. I just could not heal this piercing.
At the start of November 2004, I decided to have one last go at it. I loved how my nipples looked when they were pierced and I figured if I was determined enough, I could get it to heal.
I went into Spikes and told Alex what I was after, and also how much trouble I'd had healing this piercing. He couldn't really offer any advice as to why I couldn't heal the previous ones, but did say I could come in any time if I had trouble with the one I was about to get.
I signed the forms and sat down for a while as Alex was quite busy. After about half an hour he called me in. I sat down on the table as Alex went through everything he was going to do. He showed me all the equipment he was going to use. I was a bit hesitant about the length of the bar, but he assured me that when my nipple swells, it'll be just right. I asked if I could have my nipple frozen and he said that it wouldn't really make much difference, but if it made me happy then he'd freeze it. I had decided to have my right nipple pierced as it's only been pierced once before.
So I took my top off and Alex asked me sit as straight as possible so that he could get the markings right. He took his time over it, which I was quite impressed with. I looked in the mirror and the markings were spot on. I lay down on the bed and he put the clamp on my nipple. I took three deep breaths, and on the third exhale, he pierced. He was right; the freeze spray didn't make much difference. It was one of the most painful piercings I'd ever had, but it only lasted a split second. He took the clamps off and cut the canula down so that he could insert the barbell. This was uncomfortable, but not unbearable. I lay down for a few seconds to get my breath back then took a look in the mirror. It was perfect, straight as you could get and no blood or mess or anything, it was also quite deep. I was so happy. I got up to leave and Alex reiterated that I was free to come back should any problems arise. So I paid and tipped and got on with my day without any major problems.
I went through the healing process for nearly a month. I used a salt water solution to clean it with twice a day, and whenever I had a shower or wash, I removed the crusties with clean water. I did that for two weeks, then after that, as and when it needed it. I changed it to a shorter bar after the swelling had gone down, as the longer one caught really easily, and it could be quite painful.
To my complete surprise, it settled down and healed beautifully. There was no pain, or odd discharges or anything. After a couple of months, I had noticed that it had migrated. Instead of being horizontal, it was now diagonal. I still didn't have any problems with it though, so I was happy.
In August of this year it started hurting again. I paid more attention to it and cleaned it if it was needed. It wasn't migrating, and there was very rarely any discharge. I had noticed that I subconsciously started to wrap the towel round me differently to avoid it rubbing on my piercing so it would hurt, and I lay differently at night so I wouldn't lean on it. When I got dressed or undressed I was very careful about catching clothes on my nipple. Even my boyfriend couldn't hug me properly because it hurt so much.
I went back to Alex, and he couldn't find any reason as to why it had started acting up. His advice was to carry on with the salt soaks and see how it goes.
At the start of October this year, I made the decision to take it out. It was quite upsetting retiring it. I made sure to clean it thoroughly before and after taking it out, and carried on cleaning it for a couple of days afterwards, just in case. Within a week it was fine, no pain at all. It kind of felt like my right nipple was finally free, as odd as it sounds, after months of it being in constant pain.
So now I've had each nipple pierced and retired twice, and because of this I don't have any feeling in my left nipple and very little feeling in my right. I still have no idea why I can't heal nipple piercings, especially when every other piercing I've had has healed without incident. For the foreseeable future, I have given up on this piercing, which is almost heartbreaking as it is by far one of my favourites, but I can't say I won't try again one day.