At A Glance
Author	Stacey
Contact	Stacey@bme.anon
IAM	Scottish Princess
When	A month ago
Artist	Myself
Studio	At home

DISCLAIMER: Before I begin my experience, i'd like to point out that the environment in which I carried out this piercing was far from sterile, and although the tools I used were sterile, there was probably some amount of contamination. Self-piercing is a hazardous thing to do, and although the modern piercing industry wouldn't be what it is today without people piercing themselves to find out what worked and what didn't, I would recommend you go to a professional artist who will pierce you in a sterile environment as this would be safest.
If you think you can do it yourself, then by all means go ahead. I did, and it would be contradictory to say not to do it yourself, but being pierced by a professional is safest as they know what they're doing. And lets face it, no-one's house is going to be as clean as a piercing room, regardless of the measures you take to try otherwise.

This is the story of my vertical nipple piercing.

Now i'm no stranger to nipple piercings, having had both nipples pierced horizontally at 14ga in May of 2005. (you can read that experience here) I've since had to retire both nipple piercings. The left one was retired at around 7 months old and the right one at 13 months old.
Despite my having some issues with how they looked when I first got them pierced, I had grown to adore them. I was totally smitten with them, regardless of the amount of problems they had put me through. I was utterly gutted when I had to retire both within months of each other due to migration and infection (an infection that, despite months of perseverance with warm salt water soaks and longer jewellery, just would NOT go away)

Anyway, having had 'normal' nipples with no metal in them for maybe 4 months, i'd missed them since i'd had to retire them and had resolved to get the re-pierced as soon as they'd healed. (Ok, I know 4 months isn't long enough for them to heal fully, that was bad judgement on my part and I hold my hands up to that)

Skip forward a few months to June 2006.
I'd always wanted to pierce myself and had browsed the BMEshop without buying anything, for far longer than is healthy for anybody. Finally, after working my behind off for weeks, I had enough money to buy 14ga needles, EMLA cream, clamps and other lovely things from the shop. It was delivered a week after ordering, much to my delight and I pondered what to pierce.

I eventually decided on piercing my lip, but that's another story.

I've had my lip pierced now for about 5 weeks which isn't long but it feels perfect, not sore to touch, and i'm still using the LITHA method religiously, only cleaning it twice a day in the shower. There's been barely anything in the way of crusties.Seeing this piercing heal so well, I started itching for another.
Now, unless you have a few piercings or modifications in general (tattoos, scars etc), it's unlikely you'll know just how strong the urge for another piercing can get. I'd gotten to the point where another self done piercing was becoming an increasingly good idea and well, no time like the present, right?

Skip forward to late July/early August.
I was sitting in my livingroom one Tuesday evening and thought to myself "I really want to pierce my nipple. I miss my nipple piercings and I will get them done eventually anyway. This way, i'll be able to control the whole situation and keep myself calm"
So, convinced, I set things up. I boiled my clamps and the jewellery for about an hour (Not a highly recommended way of sterilising anything, but it was the best I could do with the resources I had at hand) snapped on gloves, put EMLA cream on my nipple to numb it and started setting the rest of it up while I waited.
My mental check list went something like "Needle? Check. Clamps? Check. Jewellery? Check. Lubrication for needle? Check. Kitchen towel? Check". Ok, so it looked like I was pretty much ready to go.
After changing my gloves, I went and got my clamps and the jewellery (I can't remember how I got it out, I just know I did it without losing the balls from the barbell and I was very happy about that) and sat them on kitchen towel.

I was ready to go.

I changed my gloves, again (Maybe it was unneccessary, but I just didn't want anything to go wrong or get infected) and unwrapped the needle. I stared at it with something suspiciously like fear creeping up my throat, squeezing my insides. I took a few good deep breaths and picked up the clamps.
Having no surgical pen to mark my nipple, I had to get the clamps somewhat straight, then I had a better chance of getting the piercing straight.
So I unlocked my clamps and, after wiping the EMLA cream off my skin, put them on my nipple, with the intention of piercing my nipple vertically. I had loved my horizontal nipple piercings but I found they were impractical. I think the reason they were so angry with me all the time was because I got them caught countless times on anything and everything. (I know you need to be gentle with nipple piercings for them to last, but most of the time I forgot they were there. Not good) so vertically it was. I had looked at hundreds upon hundreds of photo's of vertical nipple piercings and I thought they were just beautiful. They just looked fantastic and I knew that vertically pierced nipples were what I wanted this time. I digress.
Sitting with the clamps on my right nipple, in front of my full length mirror, I lubed the main part of my needle and placed the point on the top of my nipple. I moved it once, twice, four times until I got it where I thought it should be. I then looked in the mirror to see if it was straight, which it was, then I sat for a few minutes, breathing deeply to clear my head then suddenly thought "Now" and I started pushing the needle through my nipple.

It is the wierdest thing i've ever done. About half way through my nipple, it dawned on me that I had a needle half way in my right nipple! I barely had any time to think about this though as just a few seconds later I hit something, presumably scar tissue from the previous piercing. It was really tough and my needle stopped moving.
"Shit" was all that ran through my mind. When I got my wits together again, I realised that i'd be utterly gutted and so disappointed with myself if I stopped now. So I changed my grip on the needle and kept pushing. My nipple was completely numb through all of this and I felt only the slightest twinge of pain when the needle sliced through the scar tissue. Then it was done.
I sat there, puffing with the effort, shaking and possibly a little too pale with the tiniest hint of green on my cheeks. After moving the needle right down (that was tough) I removed the clamps and had a look at it.

It was squint, I was slightly gutted but in love. Like last time, I knew it would grow on me.
Not deterred, I picked up the jewellery (14ga titanium barbell) and inserted it. That was just as tough as piercing it, but once it was in, it never bled one bit. After putting the needle in the waiting sharps bin, I had a decent look at it and decided that if I sat a certain way, it didn't look that badly squint. I could live with it. And the great thing about piercings is that they can be removed.

3 weeks on, it seems to have settled very well. For the first two weeks I had no crusties at all and that was really worrying me. I thought i'd done something wrong and ruined my nipple. Needless to say I was worrying over nothing and, although not a huge amount, it started lymphing a few days later. This was strangely reassuring that it was healing ok.
I've only had one problem with it catching on things, and I was asleep when I caught it, so it couldn't really be avoided.

I adore this piercing now and wouldn't be without it. There still hasn't been a momentous amount of lymph, and i'm using the LITHA method once again and it seems to be working brilliantly. Considering how new the piercing is, it isn't sore to touch and it looks practically healed, although I know fine well that it isn't, so I plan on keeping up with the cleaning for a good few months yet.
I've dealt with the fact it's squint and I don't mind, I really don't. It might look a bit silly when I add the horizontal one later, but i'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I don't advise piercing yourself as there's always a risk of getting an infection or even a pretty serious disease, particularly if your tools aren't sterilised. If you do decide to go ahead and pierce yourself, try and get things autoclaved beforehand.

Happy Piercing.