Shortly after arriving at work Friday morning, I get a phone call... It's Kari and she's completely hysterical. No big thing there, happens a lot. She's crying and mumbling about being in a car accident, being the concerned friend I am, and considering it was an easy ticket out of work, "I'll be there in 20 minutes." She shows up at my house an hour or so later, turned out to be her ticket out of work also! She filled me in on the on-goings of the morning (turned out to be a flat tire, I'll never know how a flat tire equals "accident" in her mind!).
At A Glance Author CarynE Contact CarynE@tattoos.com Artist Reason Studio Gothic Body Location Milwaukee, Wisconsin As she's on the phone telling everyone she knows what happen, I started paging thru the phone book. Today was the day. She asked me what I was looking for, and I told her that I was going to get my nape pierced. "I gotta go," she said to whoever was on the phone and hung up. I'll never forget the blank look on her face. "You're going to do what?" I've talked about this for months and months, maybe it had been so long she had forgotten the conversations or passed off the idea as another one of Caryn's notions.
I'm not real familiar with the shops in the Milwaukee area. Mostly just word of mouth stuff. All the work I've had done was either in Ohio when I was in college or different shops here and there while traveling. I decided on one that a friend had had his frenum pierced at. Called them up, they said that the guy that did surface piercing would only be there until four. We were out the door.
The shop was only about ten minutes away. I was driving, and wasn't nervous at all! That is very very odd, considering the last time I was at the dentist (about 2 months ago) I cried when he went to put the Novocain in my mouth! Literally! Cried... tears! Christ, I'm 21 years old and I am crying at the dentist! But I wasn't nervous at all. We were talking about hooking up with Chuck and what have you... We found the shop and walked in...
I've always hated the first five minutes of being in a shop you aren't familiar with. It's like some kind of competition. Employees, customers, everybody lookin' at ya... How much coverage I have vs. how much you have. How much of it is visible? How much more might there be? I just don't like it. I got that feeling the instant I walked it. Being a 6'4" girl has never been easy. Everywhere I go, people look at me because I'm so tall. Now, I got people looking at me because I'm tall and because they are trying to determine if that really is what they think it is on my arm, and where's the rest?!
The girl working the counter greeted us and I told her that I was there for my nape and had just spoken to Reason on the phone. He was across the street getting a sandwich. Figures. Kari flipped thru some flash while I tried to check out the cleanliness and the basic vibe of the place. Seemed okay. There weren't rooms, which I was a bit weary of... It was just a line of chairs against a wall. Not so bad, but I would have definitely preferred some kind of enclosure.
Reason showed up, typical piercer, "face full of shit!" :) There was a labret and tongue ahead of me, so I parked my ass next to the partition to watch. Everything went extremely smoothly for both. I watched him wipe everything down, wash his hands, change his gloves, pull out the new needles and jewelry (not necessarily in that order). I was very happy with the physical aspect of the shop. I had already spied the Autoclave when we first came in. Everything appeared to be very clean, and that is what is the most important to me. The only thing that made my skin crawl a little too much was the recommended aftercare. "Listerine, every time you eat or drink anything for the next two weeks." for both the tongue and labret! Yowzers! "Anti-bacterial soap for the outside of your labret 2-3 times a day for the next two weeks." Then he went onto the whole beer = yeast infection thing, and I immediately become extremely grateful for QOD.
Then all of a sudden it was my turn. Now I'm kind of sweatin'. Is this guy capable is all that is going thru my head after listening to the aftercare advice he had. He asked if I had filled out the paperwork, and I hadn't so he got that. As I was filling it out, he brought the surface bar over me to look at, he had just removed it from the autoclave. He decided for me that it should be done at a 14g. I didn't like that too much, and questioned the gauge size, not wanting the cheese cutter effect to take hold. He told me that if I went any higher I would risk the chance of cysts forming. Not knowing or ever hearing ANYTHING about cysts I took his word for it. I asked him about his aftercare advice for my nape, and again, he said anti-bacterial soap 2-3 times a day. In one ear and out the other that statement went. I'm a sea salt girl all the way! Not having any more questions we proceeded to his chair.
I sat in his chair while he laid everything out. Still not nervous about the actual piercing, just ready! He had me stand up so he could mark my neck and there came the height comments. "Holy cow you're taller than me! Jeez, how tall are you?" Little FYI for all you little people out there. Tall people know they're tall, they've always been tall, and you aren't informing us of anything. Why do you think it's okay to comment? Would you walk up to a very heavy person and say "Holy shit! How much do you weigh??" No. A heavy person can most likely control their weight. Remember that. Sorry, anyways, I sat back down in the chair and he had me sit straight up but kinda leaning my head forward. I was semi-concerned about this. I didn't know what my reaction would be to a 14g barbell being shoved thru the back of my neck. I just really didn't want to take a header into the floor... My friend and some other dude stood behind me to watch. I honestly had no idea what to expect. I could feel the clamps on and then boom!!! It hurt! I couldn't quit put my finger on exactly what... but it really fucking hurt! Ow Ow Owwww! I had a death grip on my chair! I could feel the blood rush to my head in an instant! He told me that I would be experiencing a "mild hot flash!" Hot damn, I was going thru menopause at 21! Then it was over. I could feel him futzing around with the balls, making them tighter I would imagine. No more pain. Didn't hurt at all in fact! It was odd! Very very odd! Everybody was just sorta lookin' at me, waiting for some kind of reaction or something. I didn't have one. I felt a hundred times better than I had about 15 minutes ago, that I did know.
I stood up to look at it in the mirror. "Yeah, yeah nice!" I thought as I went heading back for the chair, my knees all full of jello. It was done! I had finally done what I had seen in so many pictures, and read about in countless experiences!
I had some kind of imaginary neck brace on for the remainder of the afternoon... I got home and took a shower shortly after. Soaked a couple of cotton balls in sea salt and water and laid them on the piercing for 10 minutes or so. Had no problems sleeping. I actually had forgotten it was there when I first woke up.
***Three weeks later*** I am still extremely pleased with this piercing! I've been somewhat amazed at the responses I have received from it. They have all consisted of "Ewwwww! Gross!!" I'm absolutely in love with it! I think its one of the most aesthetically pleasing piercings you could possibly adorn your body with! Nobody, not one of my friends like it! Fuck em'! I've effectively quit all aftercare. I wash it with a mild hand soap in the shower, but that's it. No more soaks. I don't know if that's "good or bad," but it's working wonderfully. I have zero problems with it, I guess I'm lucky! I wear my hair down at work and it never gets caught or wrapped around it and I haven't had a problem with shirt collars at all. It's absolutely wonderful! That's all.