I can't remember how long I've wanted some kind of mod on my forearms. Back even when I was a kid, I was thinking about how cool it would be to have some kind of metal wire weaving in and out of my skin. It's so visible and so bold. When I heard about surface piercing, I knew I had found what I was looking for. I browsed around on BME and was disappointed to find that people had already pierced their arms. I was still new to this whole community, and didn't realize how many of us there are and how difficult it is to be original. That was encouraging in a way, but disappointing in another. I thought I had a new idea. Oh well.
At A Glance Author hobbes Contact kquadere@vt.edu Artist Brady Studio Anchient Arts Location Blacksburg, VA After many conversations over many cigarettes and lots on skin pinching and poking, my piercer Brady and I worked out all the details. I wanted a band consisting of nine 1" barbells around my arm. This was pretty ambitious. Brady wasn't sure that the skin on my underarm was tough enough for the bars to stay put. That problem was to be tackled later. To get started, only one barbell was going in on the top of my forearm where the skin is the thickest. If this turned out well, we would keep going around my arm, and continue until either the skin wouldn't hold the bar, or we hit the goal of 9 bars. This sounded like a safe plan to me. We couldn't use a surface bar because the lift was too high and I've got no fat on my forearms. It would poke out and snag on everything. Brady chose a flexible plastic piece of jewelry, I'll be damned if I can remember what the plastic was but it's not Tygon. Anyway, after some more conversations and a few more days of waiting we were ready to go.
Getting the forceps set was a pain in the ass because again, I've got no fat on my arms so the skin wasn't too stretchy. It took a while to get the marks just right and get everything lined up. Finally, after more anticipation and suspense, the moment I had been waiting for.
After a few pierces, I've grown an interesting relationship with the needle. I honestly don't remember being afraid of the pain for this one though, so it was just the adrenaline and anxiousness that is only experienced in that chair. This was also the first pierce I'd been able to watch, as it wasn't on my head. Seeing the needle go though and the tugging and the feeling of invasion all mixed into one, and after it was in, that familiar warm rush. It looked beautiful. Two drops of red ooze to complete the picture. The rest happened quickly, in with the barbell, and clean up. Here's a paper towel for that blood, it should stop in a minute. I held my arm up across my chest and looked in the mirror. Two dots of metal were shining on my arm. The bar was clearly visible under the skin, but Brady assured me that it would go down in a few days. It also looked very red to me, but that was the first time I had a surface piercing. After showing it off around the shop, I was very happy and went back home.
I was determined to keep this pierce as long as I could. I liked it more and more each time I looked at it. I cleaned religiously and tried to keep friction away as much as possible. After snagging it once or twice, I quickly learned how to adjust my daily routine around it.
My mother screamed when she saw it, but she got over it. Other people always do double takes and then ask, dumbfounded, "You pierced your arm?" I would generally look at them confused, look at the pierce, look startled, and say something like "Oh shit, what the hell is that? Jesus, help me, pull it out!" I never got any takers. Where's the love these days?
Everyone also said it looked painful. I'd laugh, point out my 6-gauge conch, and tell them that was an example of something painful. They seemed to agree.
One sad day, it got infected. I knew it was probably only a matter of time before that happened. I battled it, and held on as long as possible but lost in the end. It just hurt too much, and it looked really bad. I pulled it out and washed everything up.
I still put on sweaters funny, and never push anything with my forearm. I really miss having a unique pierce like that. As soon as I get back down to Blacksburg, we're going to put another in, and this time we'll use Tygon so hopefully it'll stay longer. I can't wait to have it back.