At the time I decided to get my fingerweb pierced, I had only two piercings: tongue and labret. I walked into Side Effects in Gainesville, Florida and talked to the piercer who worked there, Eric. Eric did my labret, and I felt comfortable with him. I told him what I wanted pierced. His initial reaction was that it wasn't a good idea. He had not done the piercing before himself but had read about it, as I had. He told me that it probably would migrate, and sooner rather than later. He also informed me of the risk of infection because it is on the hand... you have no idea how much crap gets on your hand. I told him that I was quite aware of the piercing's temporary nature and the risks involved. We then proceeded with placement and jewelry selection. I told Eric I wanted a 14 gauge labret stud between my ring and middle fingers. My reasoning for the labret stud was that the flat end of the stud would be flat and close against my hand/palm and not get caught on thing s as much. This turned out to be a bad decision, but I will go into that later. Eric checked my fingerweb for veins. Unfortunately, there was a big vein going right through the optimal piercing position. He checked my other webs, between my other fingers (on both hands) and found that the only place he had enough room was between my index and middle fingers (on either hand... but I'm right handed so I wanted the left). I would really urge you to pierce your non-dominant hand (for the stupid: if you are right-handed, pierce your left, and if you are left-handed, pierce your right.) It will hinder you if you pierce your dominant hand. Especially if you do things like... oh, clean yourself after doing number 2 in the bathroom ;). Eric made a tentative marking (non-sterile) and took me back to the piercing room.
At A Glance Author Mark J. Contact Mark J.@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Eric Phelps Studio Side Effects Location Gainesville, FL USA Eric is very clean. Everything is very sterile. He cleaned the area thoroughly with iodine and then marked it with a sterile pen. He said we would have to use a 16 gauge because simply, there wasn't really enough room for a 14. He pinched my fingerweb with Penningtons, and told me to take a deep breath. In went the needle. At first, while it was going through the thick skin of the palm of my hand, it didn't really hurt, but once it got through that part it hurt. A lot. I have gotten my nipples pierced since then, and those hurt more... but not by much. My tongue and labret piercings were nothing compared. My whole arm started shaking violently and red dots appeared all over my palm. Eric put the jewelry in and fastened the ball. The cost was $45 for the piercing. It was VERY sensitive afterwards. I found that my taping the two fingers together with a cotton ball in-between it would prevent the fingers from moving independently (which REALLY hurt). I kept this up for a week. Of course the whole time I was cleaning and treating it properly. The labret jewelry turned out to be bad for two reasons. For one... it got caught on things MORE. Because of the perpendicular angle of the plate to the shaft of the stud, it wouldn't just get caught on things... it would get hooked. A couple times it got hooked really good and it started bleeding. The second reason it was bad was that the normal excretions from the hole would collect between the plate and my palm. This would result in the jewelry getting stuck. And getting it to move again really hurt because the stud was basically stuck to the inside of the hole. I subsequently ordered a barbell and that is working out splendidly. No sticking, and the catches are insignificant. There was some migration... I am at 2.5 months post piercing right now... it has migrated maybe a millimeter on the bottom of my hand.
I hope it doesn't migrate out! I like it. It is unusual. People comment on it (when they see it... you're be surprised at how little people look at your hands.) But it doesn't hurt at much as it did before, and it is not infected at all. I am having to clean it less and less (it's not oozing as much as it was before. I'm glad I got it... I am a big fan of unusual piercings. Not that I have any other unusual ones... I just like them. So if you are thinking about getting it... please e-mail me, I'll be happy to answer any questions or give you an update on mine! Lastly, if you are in Gainesville, Florida, and need something pierced, go see Eric at Side Effects on University Avenue (North Side, kinda near where 13th Street crosses) and tell him that Mark with the pierced fingerweb sent you ;).