This experience is about the one that made me cry, the one that truly made me feel like I've earned it (them). My double nape.
At A Glance Author Kay Um Contact Kay Um@bme.anon IAM ookumbubbleoo When A month ago Artist Brian Bennett Studio Psycho Tattoo 2 Location Atlanta, GA I originally wanted to get my nape pierced to make it look like a clasp for the tattoo I plan on getting in the future. I asked Brian about tygon when I first started going to psycho and he told me he didn't have any and that he was still looking in to using it. He also told me about the piercer at shop 3 that swore by it. I hung out at psycho for about a month before I finally got something done, and it didn't take long for me to realize how professional and kind he was when he was getting ready to do work on me.
Now my nape was the 4th thing I got done by him but it's also the only one that made me cry. He had just gotten a BIG spool of tygon and we just had to decide how I wanted my nape piercings to look. And I decided on a diamond look.
I couldn't see it; I just put my trust in his hands and let him do his thing. He snipped off some of the tygon and went to autoclave it. I just sat down at the counter as usual and talked with the rest of the guys. When the tygon was finished, he set up everything and I got ready.
I laid face down on his dentist chair and did my breathing exercises like he told me to. Honestly the first piercing didn't hurt...I honestly didn't feel it like I thought I would. (But then again I've been getting alot of cartilge piercings lately:P.) Getting the tygon in was the tough part and I didn't know what was going on back there, I was just trying my best to be patient. Then he pierced the second piercing and that was a little meaner because that was closer to my hair line(like when you pull a hair from the back of your head it hurts ALOT more then if you pulled it from the top)....but I felt that one go in.
Now knowing my luck things can't go smoothly and it didn't. The tygon wouldn't go in and it was a lost cause. He tried to work it in for about 10 minutes when we finally realized that it just wasn't going to work. I had to decide what to do. Either we could just stop now and it would have been for nothing... or I could let him pierce me again this time with a 12ga needle so he could slip the tygon through the needle. At first I was thinking 'screw that I've had enough...'but I thought 'I'm so much stronger than that. I can do this and I know it'll come out better if we just go through it one more time.' So we did.
I took a deep breath in and let it out and felt the 12ga needle try to work its way through my already bothered and angry skin. I tried to think of happy thoughts and it worked for the first one. This time he got the tygon in and I was relived. It was still a pretty intense moment but I pulled through it.
Then came the part that made me cry, the second piercing. He pushed the needle through and it took extra effort to get it through and it almost felt like it didn't want to go in. I started to tear up a little and the needle finally pierced through. I let out a big sigh of relief. But it wasn't over yet, he still had to put the tygon in. Thats when the shakes came on. I just started shaking and tears started flowing down my face and for whatever reason I couldn't stop until it was almost over. It took a little while, but it was finally over.
After it was all over, I was still laying there thinking "wow that was fucking awesome" even though it was more of a cross design then a diamond I thought it looked alot better. I got up and looked at it and realized that it was all worth it. I wiped my face off and went to show off my new piercings. It was late and I was beat so I gave everybody hugs and thanked Brian for the awesome job he did and I apologized for being such a baby.
It's been about 3 weeks now and my napes are doing pretty well. They don't hurt anymore although they do itch every once in awhile. They don't show any signs of migration so I'm really happy about that. All in all it was a great experience and I love the way they came out.