Disclaimers. I am not a professional piercer, just a piercing enthusiast. Piercings really should not be attempted by yourself unless you are a pro. However, if you are going to DIY a piercing, you should do as much research as humanly possible and use the correct tools (i.e. tri beveled single use needle as opposed to say, a safety pin, for innumerable reasons using the latter is completely ignorant.) With all this in mind, I hope this account of my self done nipple piercing proves helpful, or at least interesting.
At A Glance Author Rachael Contact modifiedheart@gmail.com IAM Rachael When It just happened
First of all let me give you a brief history of my experience with piercings. I have 15 piercings total now, 11 of them professionally done. I have so far pierced myself successfully: vertical clit hood, two inner labia, retired tongue, retired scrumper, various retired ear lobe and play piercings, and now nipple. My professionally done piercings include 14g industrial, 14g v. industrial, 16g daith, ½" lobes, 16g nostril, 6g septum, 12g labret, 4g navel, and two 12g inverse navels. I've been self educating myself on piercing since age 13, and it would be pretty fair to say body modification is my life.
Like a lot of people, I've always been attracted to nipple piercings. I decided pretty early on that I wanted my nipples pierced, and shortly after that decided that I wanted them to be done vertically. I left the idea on the back burner for quite awhile, always assuming I would just get them done once I turned 18. However, in the past few months I have grown more confident in my self piercing and have tried a lot of things I wouldn't have dreamt of in the past. After recently ordering a bulk order of needles and some helpful things like forceps and insertion tapers, I decided I would give this nipple piercing thing a go.
I was nervous about the pain factor, mainly because I definitely don't have the biggest breasts or nipples. It is my understanding that the smaller you are, the worse the pain since the nerves in the nipple will be closer together. Pain isn't a problem for me when I'm getting a piercing done professionally, but since it effects me physically I worry more about it when I'm piercing myself.
On the night I decided to go ahead and do it, my first step was to clean the area where I would be piercing, which this time was my bedroom. After that, I cleaned off the clamps, jewelry, and insertion taper, then washed my hands and cleaned off my left nipple with rubbing alcohol. With the help of a mirror, I marked up how I wanted the piercing to look and after several tries was finally satisfied. After another hand washing I got out a needle, took it out of its cute little package, and applied some Vaseline to it.
I clamped and help the clamps with my left hand and tightened them up as much as I could bear. The clamps themselves were uncomfortable but I tend to enjoy that sort of thing. Following my marking I positioned the needle and gave a little push, just enough to break the skin. It stung a little, so I went on. The pain was intense and there was the familiar "popping" sensation with each new layer of skin it went through. When it got to the exiting point, the pain was at its worst and I had to apply quite a lot of effort to get it through. There was a small drop of blood upon exit.
I removed the clamps and took a few minutes to breathe and try to stop my hands from shaking, which I always get from the endorphins and adrenaline rush of piercing, etc. Finally I lubed up the insertion taper, put it into the needle and pushed the needle out and the taper in. After that I was exhausted. The insertion taper seemed to be stuck, for lack of a better term, and absolutely would not budge. Against my better judgment, I decided to leave it and just go to sleep. In the morning I took a warm shower and was able to thread in the barbell. It bled a little during this process and hurt quite a bit.
It is now my first day of nipple piercage. I'm very happy with the way it turned out as far as placement goes. It's exactly where I wanted it to be. Although it wasn't much fun pain wise, and I plan to do the other side soon. I have in a 14g straight barbell, 9/16" in length, and plan on changing it to a shorter barbell once it is happier. In addition to that, I hope to stretch it at some point in the future. For after care I'm doing what I've done with all my other piercings – saline solution twice a day.
All in all, I'm very pleased with my shiny new metal.