At A Glance
Author	Alli
Contact	Alli@bme.anon
When	It just happened
Artist	Ben
Studio	Utopia
Location	Hicksville, NY

I sometimes get the random urge for a new body mod. Usually, I ignore it (due to low cash flow) and it passes but today I just couldn't help myself.

My boyfriend and I were aimlessly wandering Utopia in Hicksville, checking out some toys downstairs ;). He suddenly asked me if I thought he'd look good with a septum piercing. My boyfriend already has one ear gauged to 00, one gauged to 10, a tongue ring and used to have both nipples... so he's relatively seasoned with piercings. I replied that I thought it would look nice... and that I was thinking about getting my left nipple repierced. I had my right one done already, as documented here.

We sort of made a deal... an "I'll do it if you do it" of sorts. We went upstairs and gave the girl whose name I always forget our IDs and she scanned them, and he paid for our piercings (apparently, the piercing is my 11-month present :]). I asked him if he wanted me to go first because he can be sort of a baby about piercings, but he said no, he'd rather go first.

The piercer, Ben, asked for a few minutes while he set up a sterile field and got his materials together. When he was ready, I accompanied my boyfriend into the room and he proceeded to... hyperventilate about the fact that he was about to actually get the piercing done. I asked Ben if he wouldn't mind giving my boyfriend a few minutes to relax and think it over, and he was very nice about it. Eventually after much deliberation, my boyfriend got over it and said, "let's just do it."

I sat next to him and allowed him to hold my hand, which he proceeded to try to crush. Ben marked one side of my boyfriend's septum, and told him to breathe in long, deep breaths for a few moments to calm his nerves. Without giving him a count of three (which I found unprofessional as Allen tends to be a lot more gentle with hyperventilating people who are terrified but still want piercings) Ben shoved the needle through my boyfriend's septum. I kept holding his hand as Ben followed through with the black titanium retainer. It looked great, in my opinion, and I'm glad that my boyfriend was able to calm his nerves and go through with the piercing he really wanted. And anyway, he told me after the fact that his piercing was nowhere near as bad as he thought it would be.

After he was done, Ben left to get my materials and pulled a new sheet of that sanitary paper stuff over the piercing bed thing. He asked me to remove my shirt and stand in front of the chair where he sat (at about eye level with my nipples), holding my hands to my sides and staying as still as I could. I took off my shirt and bra and he marked off where he was going to pierce my nipple. He was piercing at 12 gauge, which I thought a little big for my nipples (I have a 14 in the right) but I've learned is much more comfortable. I lay down on the bed, and let my boyfriend come hold my hand (I didn't really need it, but I let him because he seemed like he really wanted to "be there for me"). In no time, the piercing was over. However, if you read my previous experience, a stupid experiment with piercing my own nipple at fourteen left scar tissue, and Ben said that piercing my left nipple was like "piercing through leather". True to that, the piercing took longer and was much more painful than my right nipple, though still not unbearable. However, I have a high pain tolerance... I mostly noticed how hard Ben had to push to get the needle through!

Ben ran both of us through the aftercare for our new piercings, and I left with a bag of sea salt while my boyfriend left with a spray bottle of H2Ocean. I've always preferred Allen over Ben for piercings simply because Allen just seems more experienced and tends to be a bit more thorough in explaining aftercare and calming one's nerves, but even I have to admit that Ben did a pretty great job today on both of us.

As a side note, my boyfriend couldn't get over how well I took the piercing. There he was, hyperventilating about a 1/4" thick spot of flesh, and here I was getting pierced through a full inch of scar tissue!

Regardless, it's been about six hours and I love it! It's a little sore, but that's to be expected, and I'm glad my nipples finally match :)