Ever since I was fairly young, I used to love the look of all different sorts of body mods, stretched lobes and septum piercings in particular, however I never thought I'd be 'the sort' to get one. I was in 6th form at school when I decided I wanted my first piercing, mainly to stand out. Now I knew that I couldn't get any sort of facial adornment because as I mentioned, I was still at school (A very strict grammar school I might add) so my options were limited. I was considering just waiting until I left school or maybe just going for it and getting one in my ear somewhere.
At A Glance Author John Contact John@bme.anon When A year ago Artist Alex Studio Spikes Tattoo & Piercing Location Wolverhampton, UK My mind was settled when my then-girlfriend's brother came back from Thailand with a nipple piercing. It wasn't so much the look of it that spurred me on; it was my girlfriend's comment of 'you would never get that done you wuss!' I knew what I had to do!
So I researched a few studios in the area, finally plucking up the courage to ring 'Spikes' to ask how much they charged for a nipple piercing with a bcr. It was £22.50. Not bad, so I went after school on a Tuesday, completely bricking it.
I got to Spikes and to be honest I wasn't expecting greatness. I thought I would be treated as some little kid with no mods who wanted to prove how hard he was; in fact I though I would be stuck in a back room and just have a rusty needle shoved through my nipple and then my wallet commandeered by a larger hairy man.
I was greeted by Alex at the counter and immediately I started to feel even worse, bearing in mind this was my first venture into a tattoo studio and my first look at somebody with some proper ink! I enquired 'do you do nipple piercings?' half-expecting, half-wishing the answer to be no! However (Surprisingly for a piercers) they did! So I told him what I wanted, and he said I'd have to come back in about half an hour. So I filled out the paperwork which made me feel a little better knowing they at least wanted some record!
Half an hour and 8 cigarettes later, I went back in, and was led into the back room. Now I was starting to feel completely at ease. Alex was honestly one of the friendliest people I had ever met, and the piercing room looked like a hospital quarantine room it was so clean. He explained the entire procedure to me before he even told me to take my shirt off!
I lay down as instructed on the dentists chair thing, as Alex showed me the jewelry in its sterilized packed. He then cleaned the area thoroughly with another sterilized wipe, and marked the area. I was asked to check if the placement looked ok, which it did! The clamps were then applied which really did hurt, and I asked if he would count me down, to which he agreed.
3, 2, 1... and then the needle slid through with a fair amount of ease, and no screaming or voiding of bowels I had expected! It was sharp, but bearable. He gave me a few minutes to chill out on the bench (while he changed gloves) which allowed me to get my breath back and gingerly open my eyes. I looked down at the needle through my nipple and remarked it looked about 10 times worse than it felt!
I was asked if I was feeling ok, to which I replied 'never better!' (On a side-note, I think the piercing was a better experience because I hyped it up to be a much more painful than it was!) Alex told me to lie down again, while he slid the needle out and the jewelry in. That went perfectly without a hitch, and then my nipple was cleaned (not that it had bled at all). I stood up and looked at my nipple, and I'm not going to lie I though it was the most awesome thing I had ever seen! I told him so, and we talked about his tattoos for a while before I put my shirt back on, left the piercing room and paid him a well-deserved £22.50. I was given an after-care sheet, and it was explained to me that if I had any problems or questions, just call up or come in and they will help!
I looked at my watch and was incredibly surprised to realize he had spent about 15 minutes performing a standard nipple piercing! It made me realize what a great body piercer he was. I was just a kid who wanted a bit of metal through my tit, but he had taken a hell of a lot of effort to make me feel right at home and comfortable! Spikes isn't exactly a quiet shop either, there were a fair few people waiting when I went out!
The aftercare was fairly simple, I bought some coarse sea salt and proceeded to make up some boiled water/salt mix when I got home and soak the piercing. I continued this for a month and a half, and it is the best healed piercing I have!
I was so happy with the result; I have been back to Spikes and Alex for 13 more piercings! Every one of them the same, friendly atmosphere, medically hygienic and amazing results!