I thought I'd do something a bit different for this experience, and I kept a sort of diary about my hand-web piercing. No doubt it's been done before, but it's different for me =o)
At A Glance Author big in japan. Contact big in japan.@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Allan Shanks Studio Purple Body Piercing Location Newcastle, England Friday, 2nd August, 2002
Decided I'm going to get hand web and nostril pierced tomorrow. I've been doing a lot of research on mainly the hand web. I decided on my left hand, between thumb and index finger. I chose my left hand because I use my right a lot more (writing, eating, catching, etc.). I want a CBR if possible, but I understand a barbell would probably be better because it's less likely to get caught. I got the money, and I'm pretty excited.
Saturday 3rd August 2002
Had them both done this morning. I went to Purple Body Piercing, signed the papers, waited around for a bit, and then went into the back room. I know Allan quite well, so we talked a bit. I wasn't expecting it to hurt that much to be honest. He did my nose first, he marked my right nostril and through went the needle, followed with a blue 1.2 CBR. My eyes streamed and it was over. It hurt a lot more than I expected, but wasn't too bad.
Then came my hand web. I had it checked for veins; there was none and he was read to go. I was just sitting down on a normal chair, I thought it'd be pierced with me lying down, but thinking about it now, I don't see why I thought that. I rested my arm on a trolley sort of thing. He marked the dots, and we spend about 5 minutes checking the movement of my hand, he remarked the dots as my thumb moves into my hand on a weird fold. It was a little higher up then most, but still, it looked cool to me. My hand web then got clamped, he asked me whether I wanted the clamped locked, locking the clamps would probably numb it, but I said not to and to just go for it. I was told to take some deep breaths and on the third, he'd pierce. Through went the needle. I'm not going to lie, it hurt A LOT, but still it was bearable. I was groaning; it hurt more than expected. He clipped the needle or something (I was looking away and don't know the full procedure) and something hit the floor. Al lan said not to worry, it was just an excess part. Then came the jewellery. Okay, no lies, that hurt more than the piercing, again, I groaned and it went through. My hand was throbbing. The ball was screwed on, and then cleaned around. "All done...Have a lollypop." I think that was for my sugar levels so I didn't faint. So up I got and said thanks and left. I went straight home, and put it in some ice cold water. It was throbbing, nothing too bad though. My nose seemed fine. I took my hand out of the water and went into town.
A lot of people were kind of shocked by it, no-one had ever seen one before in person. I didn't know if I liked it yet, it was cool, yeah, but I still didn't know if I really liked it all that much. It hurt a lot during the day, throbbed. I bought some pain killers and it took away the pain. Moving my hand was just a joke though.
Sunday 4th August
Neither piercings hurt during the night, no pain, no nothing. I'd cleaned it with very mild salt soaks because too much salt could upset the piercing, or so I was told. I didn't want to use antiseptics coz there are so many that are too strong and kill new cells (or so I'd read on BME) and some might be too weak, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with Salt Soaks.
I still couldn't move my hand very much, it hurt too much if I did. I was still taking paracetamol and washing my hands at least every hour. It seemed to be doing okay, minus the pain. It was expected though, I guess. I'd never had a piercing hurt so much after the initial piercing. Most just stop hurting a few hours after.
Monday 5th August 2002
Everything seems okay, still been cleaning it with mild salt soaks. It hurt when I woke up, but I had a paracetamol and it doesn't hurt anymore. I can move my hand a bit more now; I think it's going to be a gradual thing.
Hope that wasn't too boring, but I thought I'd let you's in on the afterpain, you gotta be prepared for that if you're gonna gettit done. My Mum hasn't found out yet, hopefully she won't. She wasn't too annoyed about my nose, she just said she wished I'd discussed it with her first.