I am not a very wild guy. I will start off with that sentence; it puts into perspective what I did, perhaps gives a voice to those like me who consider themselves fairly average who are interested in getting a nipple piercing.
At A Glance Author dallas guy Contact dallas guy@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Fantasia Studio Big D Tattoo Location Dallas I went to high school with my piercer. She had just found a job at this tattoo place, and at one school event she was doing Henna tattoos which got us talking. I asked her what else she does, such as if she tattooed or what. She told me that she was a piercer and was one day going to work her way up to tattoo artist (hopefully). She told me she could give me a discount if I let her pierce my nipple. She had never done it before. I thought it over. I asked my girlfriend what she thought, and she said that nipple rings were sexy but she'd love me whether I chose to do it or not. I summoned all of my courage and decided to go ahead with it.
I arrived at the studio, and I must say that it was a very sketchy place. If you know the Dallas area, this particular studio was located in Oak Cliff. If you don't know the Dallas area, that spells bad news. I walked up to the door where two of the artists were standing smoking weed. Bad first impression. I entered the studio and told the person at the counter that I was looking for Fantasia. She was eating, so I waited for about five minutes in the main area. The flash on the walls was all completely ghetto and wholly garbage. There were so many gang-related, Mexican Mafia type samples that I wanted to vomit. I am a believer in the idea of going for tattoos that are original, ideally something that means something to you. Otherwise, it's not TRUE expression.
Fantasia walked me into her room and closed and locked the door. She made me feel much more at ease about everything. She was completely sterile, wore gloves the whole time, made me feel relaxed. In fact, she touched something small after I had been prepped for the piercing and she did everything over again just to be safe. Fantasia definitely understood the value of caution.
I pulled my shirt up, and Fantasia marked one line on either side of the nipple. She made sure I was okay with the marking, and then she rubbed some type of sterile solution on it. I think it might have been iodine. After all was prepared, she clamped my nipple, which was very highly uncomfortable. At this point I was getting EXTREMELY nervous. I get a buzz of nervousness to this day just thinking about the situation. She told me that the best thing to do would be to put my hands behind my head on the headrest. I did. I held on tight.
She told me she was going to count backwards from 3 since I was so nervous. She used the oldest trick in the book on me: the false count. "3", she said. I gripped the headrest tighter. "2." Sweat broke out on my skin. I waited for her to say "1", but before I realized what was happening she had jabbed the huge needle through my nipple, sending a sharp bolt of pain throughout my body. I clawed the headrest, and my eyes shot wide open. I imagine it looked like I was having an orgasm more than anything else. I looked down and saw the needle running through my nipple. The harder part was when she slid it out and simultaneously slid in the barbell. Make no mistake about it, it definitely hurts. Plan on NOT doing anything the next day. Do it on a Friday so you can sit around Saturday and Sunday. I was stupid enough to go to work at a hot, sweaty haunted house a couple of days later. My nipple never fully healed, and I'm positive it's because I didn't take care of it well enough. Learn from my example!
Overall, the resulting gratification I got from having my nipple pierced topped the pain of the piercing by a factor of ten. I loved it while I had it. I was still living at home at the time, so it was pretty difficult to hide it from my parents, but I managed. Let me give some advice:
1. Don't plan on standing up straight for a while. The slightest contact of ANYTHING with your nipple will send pain shooting down your spine.
2. Don't be around friends who are jackasses. They have no idea how much it REALLY hurts, and many will not hesitate to try to make you hurt.
3. It will bleed and produce pus for a little while. You just took a chunk of skin out, so this is natural. If it lasts longer than several weeks, you should get some professional advice.
4. Don't work at a hot, sweaty haunted house. Seriously.
5. If you can stand the hideousness, get a ring. They're much easier and far less painful to clean...but nowhere near as sexy as the barbell!
Happy piercing!