I wake up on the morning of my 18th birthday having already decided to get my hood pierced vertically. I'm ready, I've got my $65 as was stated on their price list (plus my tip... so technically $75) and I'm ready to go.
At A Glance Author k0rnonthek0b Contact nosoup@comcast.net When A week ago Artist dana Studio adorn body art Location beaverton, or Now I'm no virgin when it comes to being pierced, ears, cartilage, tongue, gauging things... etc. I know what to expect, I know how to tell the difference between a good place and bad. Or so I thought. I'm heading to a place that my sister recommended highly; of course I want to go to an amazing place to get a genital piercing done, who doesn't? I don't want them to mess it up right?
I get there, the place is dead. The piercer hasn't even arrived yet, so I wait for about 30-45 minutes for her to even show up. My gut is telling me to get the hell out of there, they aren't professional, but I respect my sister's opinions and waited to see what the piercing room looked like.
She finally shows up, she leads me back to the piercing room; it looks very clean and neat so I calm down a little. I tell her I want a 12 gauge, she says they don't have 12 gauge, so I settled for a 14 gauge. She pulls out a curved barbell, and takes a look at me while it's being soaked and cleaned and whatnot, says to herself that "this will be the easiest vertical hood piercing I've ever done." Which makes me feel comfortable. I continue by dropping trou as instructed, hop up on the table and spread my legs. She tells me not to kick her when she slides the needle through. I laughed, but kind of got scared at the same time.
She tells me to breathe and calm down and yadda yadda, then she slides the needle through; it doesn't hurt all that badly, then she slides it through the last bit of skin and I thought I was going to die. Ok, not really... but it did hurt. After that though, I felt nothing. She showed me in the mirror and I was satisfied. She takes me out to the main room, explains aftercare and asks for my cash. She tells me that it is $75 which pisses me off because that isn't what their list says, so I give her $75 plus whatever change, and $1's I happen to have on me as a tip, thank her, and leave.
Two days later I find out that I need a CT scan, which means no metal. Dun dun dunnnnnn... Now, the first piercing place's phone had been down for weeks, so I couldn't call them, which I'm now thankful for. So I then called MY favorite piercing place and explained the situation. The most wonderful piercer Dana, at Adorn Body Art (Beaverton, OR) answered the phone. He tells me to come in and he'll switch it to a non-metal one.
I get there; he takes one look at my piercing and tells me that it's no good. It's shallow and it could easily tear out. He lectures me about letting her pierce me with a 14 gauge (how was I supposed to know??? Isn't that what piercers are for?) Then he tells me that we can try stretching it, but it probably wouldn't work well. So he puts the plastic whatever one in, I wait a week and I come back in. After the whole week of freaking out that I was going to rip it out, I tell him that I want it re-pierced and I'm too freaked out about it ripping, and I don't want to have to baby it.
He takes out the old one, re-pierces me (ouch) and I'm on my way. Oh, and he said not to use Dial anti-bacterial soap, which the first piercer told me to use. So, don't use it... it kills natural bacteria and whatnot. I pet the monkey and I'm off with my bag of sea salt and my new piercing, which by the way is awesome. Lemme tell you, that sucker isn't gonna tear out.
It's been just exactly 2 weeks, I've had to go back and switch it to a non-metal (again) due to an unexpected surgery... but they switched it out no problem, people there are great. It seems to be healing perfectly, it doesn't hurt... I'm keeping up with the cleaning. Let me tell you; the piercing and jewelry feels reeeeallll nice.
My advice to you? Which is going to sound incredibly stupid because 95% of all BME experiences say the exact same thing, but... GO WITH YOUR GUT FEELING. If the place doesn't seem right, get the hell out of there. No good. Leave. Don't pretend it's going to be ok. Ok, enough of that. Otherwise my advice is to get one, it feels great, stimulates you more, looks cool and is fun to play with. If you're already thinking about it, I say do it. Get off your computer and go do it right now.