I'd wanted my nipple pierced for about 4 months. In February I told my best friend that if somehow I saved up the money (something difficult to do when I have no job or allowance) I would get my nipple pierced for my 18th birthday. Somehow I quickly saved the money and before I knew it I was telling my friend I could do it.
At A Glance Author Maygen Contact Maygen@bme.anon When A month ago Artist I forget names easily... Studio Body and Soul Location Camrose AB We planned it out and checked out some places. It was either go to Edmonton or choose between the two piercing places here in Camrose. The Green Room is not an option I was willing to take, I haven't heard any good stories from there. So we checked out a new place in Camrose. Body and Soul. We talked to the owner/piercer/tattoo artist. She was great, answered all of our questions. She also had 8 years of experience with body piercing. Her personality was also amazing!
So of course this is a couple weeks prior to my birthday so me and my friend agree that yes, we are going to go there. I do my standard research on bmezine, reading the experiences, trying to gauge how much pain to expect. So the weeks go by. I agree to meet my friend at the place along with another friend.
While I wait for my friends to show up I talk to my piercer, sadly I always forget her name and I lost the card she gave me. She recommended being done with barbells (I would have asked for them anyway) and she tells me that she usually does nipples with 14 gauge curved barbells. I ask her if it's the standard aftercare, sea salt soaks twice a day, no dirty hands, ect. She said yep.
So while I wait for my friends I fill out the paper work saying I'm 18, not drunk or anything. All the standard papers.
Only a little after finishing my paper work my friends show up.
So after making us remove our footwear (it was muddy outside) she leads me and my friend to the room. I make my other friend (a guy) wait in the main area.
She asks me which nipple I wanted done and how I wanted it. Right nipple, standard horizontal.
So I stand there and unbutton my shirt and lift my bra off of my breast. Truth be told, I didn't know I'd be able to do it so easily. (My friend, the one in the piercing room, told me later that she didn't expect me to so easily either).
So the piercer gets some gloves on and cleans my nipple and area with iodine and marks it with a marker. All the while I'm standing up so that it looks right.
After she finished marking me, she gets me to lie down on this doctor like bed thing.
My friend takes my left hand and stands beside the bed. My piercer asks me to put my other hand under my ass so I don't accidentally hit her or something during the piercing.
So I'm lying there and my piercer it holding the needle (I'm not looking at the needle). She tells me to take a big breath in and then let it out. I do and she says bigger.
So I take a bigger breath in and as I start to let it out the needle goes through my nipple. So instead of exhaling normally, the only thing that showed that it hurt was my somewhat loud exclamation of 'fuck!'
It hurt. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't feel it. I felt it! But, after reading some experiences here on bmezine, I thought it was going to hurt a lot more. It's bearable. For me anyway. I have no clue what my pain level is, my tongue piercing and the two tattoos on my inner wrists didn't hurt at all.
So my piercer goes to grab the jewelry and I look down at my breast and my friend, who didn't watch the actual piercing (even though she loves getting piercings, she hates needle), looks as well (she's my best friend, so I didn't care that she was looking at my breast). I think her words were something like 'Wow, that needles huge!'
I had to agree, seeing this needle through my nipple, it did look huge.
So I ask my piercer if the jewelry was going to hurt and she told me a little bit. Truthfully it didn't really hurt, I felt it, but it didn't hurt.
So after she tightens the bearings, she tells me that they threaded on both ends so I had to make sure they were tight whenever I cleaned them.
So I paid her ($60 total) and left.
About a week later I am back in her studio. The barbell was too short and was really sinking into my nipple and the areola and causing it to hurt. I knew this and so I went back. But, my nipple also swelled a surprising amount.
So she switched the barbell to a longer, straight barbell (for free). Even a few hours later my nipple didn't feel as painful as it had when the other barbell wad digging in.
It's now exactly 31 days later, a month. The healing is doing fairly well. It doesn't hurt at all and I've managed not to catch it or bump it on anything. It still lymphs and has some puss. I try to do a sea salt soak twice a day, but so far I manage at least one a day. I also clean it daily when I shower with normal soap.
Some people have a problem with having only one nipple done but for me it's just right. I love it and if my friends ask I'll show it to them.
So if anyone lives in Camrose I definitely recommend Body and Soul. She does tattoos too and from what I've seen they are awesome too.