End of March 2001 I was going through galleries on BME. While looking through the Surface/Unusual Piercing gallery, I saw one I instantly feel in love with. It was a picture of a woman with a surface piercing between her breasts. As I have a habit of wearing low cut tops, I thought this would be perfect for me.
At A Glance Author chloe Contact elyria@tbaytel.net IAM chloe When A year ago Artist Matt Studio Classic Body Piercing Location Thunder Bay, ON
In the next day or so I headed to Classic Body Piercing to speak with Matt about this. We sat in the piercing room and he explained to me all the risks involved with surface piercing. Even though I knew all the things he was saying since I'd done my research, I sat and listened. I told him I was fully aware that it might reject, but that I wanted to give it a try anyway. He seemed quite happy about this. While he'd done many surface piercings, he'd yet to do a "cleavage" piercing. He set about to pinching at the area with his fingers, seeing how easy it would be to clamp, how much pressure would be on the piercing, etc. Being able to clamp only about 1/2", he suggested I go on a juice diet for about a week in order to break up the layer of fatty tissue just below the skin. This would allow for a deeper piercing, increasing its chance of successful healing. I said I would do that, and we made an appointment for me to come back in one week to see how progress was going.
After a week of consuming almost nothing but Five Alive, I went back to Classic. Matt once again clamped it. This time, clamping a little over 1" was very easy. He reminded me that it still might reject. I nodded and said I was sure I still wanted to go through it. My appointment was made for the next day.
Finally, the day is here and I'm going to get the surface piercing I wanted so badly. There are a few people milling around the shop, so I sit and wait. After Matt has dealt with all of them, I fill out the papers, pay, and head to the back room. I was so excited. I sit down and he marks the spot. We both agree that it's high enough to be visible when I want it to be, low enough to be easily hidden, but not so low that it will be catching on my bra. My anticipation is becoming uncontrollable. He shows me the jewellery; a 14ga SSS surface bar that lines up perfectly with the purple dots on my chest.
He puts his gloves on, cleans the area, and gets the clamps ready. He tells me that because of the area, which is still not the easiest area to clamp, this won't be very comfortable. I feel a little nervous, but tell him I'm ready. It took a while, and some mild discomfort to get the area clamped. Every time he gets the clamps on and lined up, the skin starts slipping out from them. He tells me to brace myself for more pressure from the clamps. I take a few deep breaths and tell him to continue. Though not unbearable, this was quite uncomfortable.
"OK, I've got it clamped, are you ready?" He asks me. I answer a quick "Yeah" and I feel the needle go through. The needle going through really wasn't that bad. I figure all the pressure from the clamps had dulled my feeling the that area, leaving me with a sensation of what being punched in the chest feels like.
I breathe deeply. All that's left is for the jewellery to go in. I think of the corners on the surface bar, and the roughly 1/4" posts on it. This isn't going to be fun. Wow, was it ever not fun. The jewellery going in felt like it was ripping the skin from my chest. The entire time I'd been starring up at the ceiling. I feel pressure and a light tug on the new piercing. "You're done!" I hear. I look down at my chest, and there it is; a beautiful surface piercing, situated between my breasts. It's perfect! I stare at it for a few moments. Matt asks me if I'm feeling OK. I say I am and he encourages me to stand so I can get a look at it in the mirror. I love it instantly, it's exactly how I wanted it to look.
I sit back down for a minute as Matt cuts the needle in half and remarks how nice the piercing looks. He tells me of all the surface piercings he's done, he likes the look of this one the best. Since he didn't have his new camera yet, he asks me if I'd allow him to take pictures at a later date. I tell him that's not a problem, thank him again and leave.
When I left the shop, I felt great. Almost euphoric. I headed up the stairs and outside the building. The first breath I took when I got outside is when things turned not so great. A wave of dizziness overwhelmed me. My entire body started shaking and my vision was going in and out. "I'm going to faint" I thought. Since I knew I wouldn't be able to safely make it back down the stairs to the shop, or across the street to my car, I leaned against the building and breathed deeply. The whole time fighting to keep myself conscious and calm. Ten minutes later I started feeling better. I took a step away from the building. My legs were still a tad shaky, but the urge to get back to my car so I could sit would not be denied. So I very slowly and carefully crossed the street and got in my car. I sat there for about twenty minutes before I even turned it on. I kept going over in my head that I'd felt fine when leaving the shop, there was nothing to indicate I'd suddenly go into to sho ck. When I was convinced I was fine, I turned my car on and headed for home.
Once at home, I went straight to my room and took a quick nap. I woke up feeling fine, had a small meal and gawked at my piercing at bit more.
Aftercare was simple and healing wasn't a problem. Two months after having it done, I went back to Classic and had the jewellery changed to a surface bar with much shorter posts. Now, the balls rested against my skin. It looked so amazing, I was so thrilled with it. During those two months, the piercing hadn't rejected even the smallest bit. Maybe three days after having the jewellery changed it looked a bit different to me. It's starting to reject. I tried convincing myself otherwise, but keeping a diligent eye on it told me it was in fact rejecting. Not quite a week after the jewellery change, only a 1/2" of my piercing remained intact. I sadly knew what I had to do. I took the surface bar out and said goodbye to my beautiful surface piercing.
Today, pushing ten months of the initial piercing, I have a somewhat noticeable one inch scar where the piercing used to be. Despite the scar, I don't regret the piercing one bit. When a stranger rudely asks me what happened, I flatly tell him or her that I was stabbed in a bar fight. This generally prevents them from asking any questions about the rest of my piercings. Sometime soon, perhaps this April, I'll have my surface piercing redone. Hopefully with the bit of scar tissue left from the first time, it will stay. It healed too nicely the first time to make me think it wasn't meant to be there. If however, it does reject the second time, I'll leave it at that.