Before I begin: Self piercing is dangerous and should not be done! Me being an idiot does not mean you have to be as well so please use the services of a professional. I will not take any responsibility if anyone decides to do self piercing. My story is purely a report of my own experience.
At A Glance Author Siphaeon Contact Siphaeon@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Myself Studio Home Location Finland
First of all I've been thinking about getting my both nipples pierced for like last 10+ years. Why haven't I done it earlier, who knows, but it just made me more determined that sooner or later I'll get them done. Okay one reason I've propably thought it over so many times is that my nipples are very (I mean VERY) sensitive so I imagined it wouldn't be painless at all. Actually I have self-pierced my nipple temporarily while being very drunk with buttons and stuff but the pins in them are far smaller than a piercing needle.
So after time my determination grew and grew and finally I ordered bunch of equipment because my girlfriend wanted some jewellery as well and I thought this would be a good time to order some for myself too. So I ordered some needles, stretching pins, penningtons, barbells etc.
I was going to a festival so I thought I'd better move the piercing after that. Afterall it's not too hygienic at festivals so just the plain idea of going there with fresh piercings is stupid IMO. After I got home from there I just needed to recover from the hangover...
So after one day of being sober and at work I was just waiting to get home and into it. And first thing I did after getting home was having a shower and cleaning my hands because from what I've learned, almost all cases of people having bad experiences or fucked up results are because of poor hygiene or bad equipment. Then I poured Neoamisept which is a strong medical disinfecting liquid, sort of antiseptic close to rubbing alcohol, into a small bowl and dropped the penningtons, needle and barbells in it. Let them soak there for a while and then got into business.
First I used non toxic marker to mark spots to get the bars balanced. Then I soaked a cotton pad in Neoamisept and cleaned my nipples. Then I took the penningtons and grabbed my left nipple. It was bit hard because my nipples aren't too big either but after a while I got the penningtons the way it seemed appropriate. I asked my gf if she wanted to thrust the needle but she wasn't sure if she could do it so I went and did it myself. She also asked me if I wanted some ice to numb my nipples but I refused because if I was to do it myself and all I definitely wanted to feel how much pain I could tolerate.
The process getting the needle through took me like 15 minutes and yeah it did hurt a lot. Needle I used was 1.6mm piercing needle and pushing it steadily through took my adrenaline to a whole new level. After I got it through it was time to insert the barbell through. It was tricky enough so off goes the penningtons and the needle. It bled a little but I used cotton pad on it, put some vaseline on the barbell and pushed it gently in the hole. Since the hole wasn't like a straight tube you can see through it took a while to trick the barbell through. After I got it in all way I closed it and cleaned it.
I felt a small victory reaching the halfway of my project but still it was just a halfway. I drank some Fanta to keep up my sugar and had a smoke. At this point my girlfriend realized she forgot to videotape the process and readied her digital camera and I calmed myself for the number two.
The second one was pretty much the same but even tougher (it's insane how tough human flesh can actually be!) and took more time to get done but I wasn't going to back up, no, not having already gone this far. And finally after one and half hours I had them both done and cleaned them up with Betadine which is an Iodine based solution they use in surgical operations and it keeps the area clean a very long time as well. Downside in using Betadine is that it colors your skin as well as the jewellery for a period of time but still, it's not permanent so I think it works all right. And yeah one good thing about it is that it won't dry up the skin so the wound should heal up better too.
We took some photos of the fresh piercings and I ate dinner just to get more energy. After that I had to go to our rehearsal place but later on I went to bed early since for what I know, the rest is good for the healing process.
Next day both felt already pretty good despite the slight sensitivity and they both looked nice as well. Now it's time for the aftercare but so far it seems like everything went well and I'm happy I finally made my long lasted dream come true.