I've always used to be against piercings that weren't on my ears, but I've grown to really like piercings in the past couple of years.
At A Glance Author Amberlee Contact Amberlee@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Joe Studio Jay Spaulding's Ink City Location Albany, NY I wanted to get my nipple pierced for quite some time, so on my 18th birthday, I decided to go through with it. My friend and I took a bus to Central Ave which is where Jay Spaulding's studio is located. She has both her nipples pierced, and I wasn't going through it without her.
We walked into the shop and told the piercer that I wanted my nipple done, so I filled out the waiver (my hand was shaking because I was so nervous) and he took me in the back room by myself because they didn't allow my friend to be in the with me (I thought that was kind of strange).
This wasn't my first piercing. I have six ear piercings and my nose done, but anyway.
Once I got in there, I pulled down my tank top and bra (I was getting the left one pierced) and he marked me standing up. My nipples got hard and being nervous didn't really help. I'm usually not scared to lift my shirt off in front of a total stranger, but I was pretty awkward that day. I did originally want a woman to do it because it felt like going to a gynecology appointment or something, but the guy was actually pretty hot, so... yeah. :P
I wanted to get them vertically pierced because I think that horizontal nipples are more popular and I wanted something that was unique, although I do plan to get them both vertically AND horizontally pierced in the near future.
Then I laid down on the chair (similar to what they use in the dentist's office) wiped me off and went right to it. He told me to take a deep breath on the count of three he was going to push the needle through.
I don't know what people are talking about when they said it hurts, because it didn't, honestly. Besides from a little stinging sensation, there was no pain.
Then there was a problem. The person who pierced me realized he was piercing me with a 16 gauge barbell. He started to yell at the other guy for accidentally placing a 16 gauge barbell in his 14 gauge drawer, so he had to take it out and start again. I was pretty pissed, but it wasn't too bad. He just had to pierce through the hole again with a 14 gauge.
The jewelry transfer did hurt, though. I was yelling because it hurt so bad when he screwed the balls on because he looked like he was having a hard time with it. It felt like he was ripping my nipple off, but that only lasted about 10 seconds until he got it screwed on.
He cleaned me off with an antiseptic spray, and I was done.
My nipples have never been more sore. I paid him and sat down for a couple minutes before I left. It was pretty hard for me to walk because I didn't want them to get hit on anything, so I was very rigid while walking to the bus stop.
We hit a few bumps on the bus ride home. Ouch.
When I got home and looked in the mirror, I thought they were a little off center, but that's because your nipples change shape dramatically when they get hard.
But I loved it and immediately went to my mom's house to show everyone. They all hate it, obviously. And my grandma said I could get breast cancer from it, which is a lie. She always tells me stuff like that to make me not do things that she doesn't want me to do.
About a week after, I started to notice how the barbell was too short and it was "sinking" into my nipple because the balls were huge. The guy obviously didn't measure it too well because it was waaaayyyy too short for my nipple and I started to get scared. The shop wasn't open for the Thanksgiving weekend so I ordered a 3/4 barbell off of bodyartforms.com and I have that one in right now. It's not a problem anymore and my nipple shrunk back to its normal size after a few days.
At the time I got it pierced, I wasn't thinking of how my nipple was going to shrink back in size when it's not hard, so it's half my fault.
Other than that, I highly reccommend getting it done to whoever wants it. The only part that actually hurt was the jewelry transfer, but that's only for a few seconds.
I'm getting the other one done after Christmas. I always wanted nipple rings that glow like Christmas lights. :) Haha