I was visiting my family in Spain for a long summer holiday when my sister in law Louise decided she wanted to get her tongue pierced. As I had a couple of piercings already, Louise wanted me to accompany her to the local tattoo studio while she had it done. She was quite nervous at the prospect of having her first piercing and to make her feel a little more comfortable I agreed to have a piercing too. This was my first mistake.
At A Glance Author Metal Maiden Contact Metal Maiden@bme.anon IAM Metal Maiden When Five years ago Artist Some idiot spanish guy Studio Arroyo De La Miel Location Spain I remember it being a hot stuffy day and as we entered the tattoo and piercing studio we were welcomed by the cool air of the air conditioner. As we waited for someone to attend to us we admired the tattoo pictures that adorned the walls. From a back room appeared a guy (let's call him Carlos) and in broken English Carlos asked us what we would like. Louise pushed me forward to go first and I originally asked Carlos if he could do a 'Madonna' piercing. The look on his face told me that he didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I turned to Louise, who by this point was ready to walk out the door when I thought, to hell with it, I would get my nipple pierced. Carlos understood the gesture of me pointing to my left tit and proceeded to usher me into a back room leaving Louise sat on a chair in the waiting area.
Carlos asked me to completely remove my top item of clothing and lay on the couch.. I remember my stomach churning over and over. Not only was the language barrier a problem but I had no idea what to expect or what the procedure was going to be. I've always had quite protruding nipples so when he started to tease my nipple bigger I began to wonder if this was really necessary. Carlos then said he was going to spray my nipple with a freeze spray. After he sprayed my nipple the first time he then began to blow on it. YES, BLOW ON IT! The only consolation at this point was that Carlos was wearing surgical gloves. Being naïve about piercing procedures I didn't say anything but I do remember wanting to hop foot it out of the studio and cut my losses. He didn't do the spray and blow thing once; he did it half a dozen times! When the time came to push the needle through, my nipple was already causing me some pain, bad pain! If that wasn't bad enough, Carlos didn't even let me know when he was piercing my nipple, he just shoved the needle right through. The pain was excruciating, it felt like my nipple was on fire and I had a lot of discomfort in my arm pit. When the jewellery had been put in place he covered it with some lint and that was that, he took my money and said goodbye. No aftercare information or anything.
Later on in the day there was a considerable amount of blood loss and the pain became increasingly worse. My nipple became very discoloured due to the freeze spray and there was a blood/puss discharge. The pain I originally felt in my arm pit was getting worse and I honestly regretted having the piercing done. I had a very restless night, which ever way I laid in bed seemed to aggravate my nipple and the shooting pains I felt didn't subside. The second day didn't give me much if any relief from the pain and I very nearly came to the point of removing the jewellery. I did however notice that the Captive Bead Ring Carlos had put in seemed bigger than the average jewellery and wondered if this in some way aggravated my nipple more. Day three was the same, I was cleaning the area regularly with an antiseptic solution but this didn't seem to make any difference to the healing process. Getting sleep at night was almost impossible due to the pain. I would wake up often with a jerk as the pain shot through my nipple and under my arm pit. I was very near crying point and decided that if things didn't begin to improve by the fourth day then I would remove the jewellery. Thankfully for me the pain did begin to subside, although my nipple still hurt, it was getting easier to bear. The skin on my nipple was now peeling away and the infection seemed to be going.
After the initial four days the piercing improved and the skin on my nipple began to look normal again. I don't regret having the piercing done, I did learn a lot about my own pain barrier and my determination to not let it beat me but it's an experience I wouldn't like to repeat. It was only a year or so later when I went to have my other nipple pierced at a very reputable piercer in my home town that I found out just how wrongly Carlos had done the piercing. Not only should he NOT have used a freeze spray but he most certainly should NOT have blown on the area. The infection I got in my nipple no doubt came from him and he's saliva during the 'Blowing' technique. Not only that but he pierced the nipple in the wrong place and used the wrong sized jewellery. He pierced it right through the centre leaving a great big gap behind it.
My advice to anyone considering any type of piercing is, go to a reputable studio. Ask around, nothing is better than finding a professional piercer by word of mouth. So what if it costs you a bit more than the going rate, at least you know you have found a piercer who not only knows what he/she is doing but your guaranteed a piercing is done in a professional manner. If you have any concerns ask the piercer to show you their certificate of his/her credentials, a good piercer wont mind and you can ask any questions you may have and also be guaranteed to get some aftercare information. If you're still not happy then save yourself the agony and get the hell out of there!
Oh and by the way, Louise did go on to getting her tongue pierced with surprisingly better results than me.