Every now and again I'd go to madmaxtattoo.com and drool over the amazing piercing and flesh stapling work they do over there in Finland. I'd never seen anything like it where I lived, so with a reluctant sigh I'd put the idea of ever having a four-point MadMax nape bar out of my mind... (If you're not familiar with the jewellery you can take a look at the Mad Max site or my IAM page – it's basically a 1.6mm bar that when in position goes in and out and in and out of the surface of the neck, like two horizontal staple bars side by side but joined together in the middle).
At A Glance Author poops Contact poops@bme.anon IAM poops When Six months ago Artist Samppa Studio a friend's studio Location Worthing, England One day I wandered onto Noot's IAM page to discover that Samppa of Mad Max Tattoo, the inventor of the four-point MadMax nape bar would be coming over to England for a visit and was taking appointments. Woohoo! Well guess what I did next? Got myself an appointment and started saving the pennies...
Samppa was working out of a shop owned by his friend in Worthing. It was quite far for me to travel (I live in London) but I knew it'd be well worth it. A friend of mine, Tish, offered to come with me for moral support. We arranged to meet Puck at the train station, then he could take us down to the shop.
So a week later there's me and Tishy on the train to Worthing...well, actually it was the train to Eastbourne and we got really lost and ended up being an hour and a half late and Puck had already left...d'oh! But after twenty or so minutes of grabbing and questioning the local baggy-trousered teenagers we managed to get directions to the shop and headed down. I'd avoided drugs for 24 hours, had a good night's sleep and eaten well.
We were pretty late but luckily everyone had waited for us. I made my humble apologies for being such a muppet, and got introduced to everyone there: Samppa, Sussu, Noot, Puck, Kalima and Replica. Replica was getting some flesh staples too. Samppa checked my neck against the jewellery, made a few adjustments, and when he was happy put it in the autoclave along with Replica's staples. While the autoclave was doing it's thing Puck took us down to the cash point and we grabbed some food. Back at the shop I chatted with everyone until the jewellery was clean, at which point I hid and made Replica go first.
I wasn't as nervous as I normally would be for a piercing by this point. I think it was because I was in unfamiliar surroundings – when I'm going to my usual piercing shop I break out in a sweat as soon as I go in the door as I know what's coming! The atmosphere in the shop was relaxed, and the music was pretty ambient. I was also rather in the dark about how much this procedure could hurt, as I couldn't find any experiences already on BME specifically about it. Kalima, who had had his MadMax bar for a long time, assured me that it'd be more than bearable. After another ten minutes or so Samppa re-emerged from the piercing room. "Are you ready?" he asked. "No," said me, and through we went.
During the procedure Kalima and Puck were in the room to take photos and Tish was there to laugh at me pulling pained faces. After Samppa had cleaned my neck it took a few minutes for him to mark it up. When he was happy with the positioning he motioned for me to sit in the chair next to the piercing table. This freaked me out a little, I'd imagined myself lying down for this one, so I didn't have to support my head, but it really wasn't that bad in the end. Samppa laid out all his equipment on the table: clamps, needles, jewellery, balls and lubricant, and he tucked a paper towel into the back of my top to catch any blood. He didn't really speak throughout the procedure, which was a good trick because it meant I wasn't always sure how far on he was, and I wasn't tensing up waiting for the needle.
He clamped my left side first – it was uncomfortable but not painful, just very tight. When the clamp was in position I felt the needle on the left side of my neck (so he was piercing inwards) and I started to take deep breaths. As the needle went through I exhaled. It seemed to take a few seconds to go all the way through. The sensation is so difficult to describe, it didn't exactly hurt, it just felt tight and uncomfortable. Once the clamps were off I was left with a burning sensation in the left side of my neck, but no real pain. The procedure for the right side was the same, he clamped, then pierced from my right side in. This one hurt a lot more, the same sensation as before but much more intense - I think I was stamping my foot by the time he was done! Then the clamps came off and it started to burn.
Now he had to insert the jewellery. He did that from the right side and guided it through to the left. Again, this felt uncomfortable but not painful. I couldn't figure out how far on he was with it, I just felt a tugging sensation around the back of my neck the whole time. I thought the bar was only through the right piercing, but it had actually gone all the way through, and Samppa was already screwing the balls on (I'd chosen two plain 6mm ones) and straightening things out by the time I'd figured out what was going on.
All done. Puck showed me the digital photo he'd taken after I was done and I was well chuffed with the result. It was evident from the photo that I had bled a little, but not much, and I didn't bleed any more after that. When I stood up there was a big sweaty hand shape on the table where I'd been holding on, so I guiltily gave it a wipe with my sleeve. I thanked Samppa again and skipped back out into the shop to show everyone (and to pay, which I almost forgot about!) Kalima gave me an aftercare sheet along with a little bag containing cotton buds, some sea salt and a bottle of herbal aftercare tincture, and told me if I had any problems with the piercing then just to give the shop a call or come down to see them. By this time it was getting late, and Tish and I had a train to catch. So we thanked everyone again and headed down to the train station with Puck.
My neck felt odd, but I think it was mostly as I was being too cautious about the piercing and holding my head at a funny angle all the time. The only discomfort I had was a raw feeling along the back of my neck, sort of like sunburn. That night I could sleep fine on my back and on my sides, but I did have to tie my hair up for bed. I'd washed my hair the day I got the piercing done, that way I had a few days to let things settle before attempting to wash it again. For the first week or so afterwards the far right exit hole was more painful than the others – it was the only one I could really feel. I think this was because it'd been through more trauma having the entire jewellery fed through from that side. The pain was never really all that much, and by the second week I couldn't feel the piercing at all.
For aftercare I used saline solution (benzalkonium chloride, 0.12%) – sprayed it on then wiped it off with a cotton bud. I did this three or so times a day, and used the tincture Kalima had given me once a day after cleaning with the saline. Every day in the shower I let the water run on my neck for a few minutes, just to wash away any muck, and I also lathered on some Provon antibacterial soap and rinsed it off. After four days I started to get a lot of crusting around all four holes, so I started doing sea salt soaks (¼ teaspoon of sea salt in a cup of hot water), soaking each hole for five minutes. By the end of the month I was down to one clean with saline during the day and a salt soak at night, as well as a daily shower. There was hardly any crusting after that month, although the middle two exit holes were still a little bit red.
I've got really long hair, so washing and brushing it was pretty problematic to start with, but I soon got used to working around the MadMax bar. I kept my hair tied up, and used loads of hairspray while this piercing was healing, as getting hair wrapped around the balls was very painful! But as the weeks went on I found I could wear my hair down without too much of a problem, as out of habit I'd check for tangling every so often.
I was pleased to find that clothes weren't as much of a problem as I'd envisaged. The bar's positioned so that it's low enough for me to wear hats, but high enough for me to wear t-shirts and the like without it rubbing. Putting on and taking off clothes, however, took some getting used to, I had to be very careful for a long while. I started to wear necklaces again after two weeks, and they haven't interfered with the bar at all. I haven't tried wearing chokers or collars just yet, I think I should wait until I'm completely healed.
I'd expected to get a lot of questions and comments from people about this one, but I really hadn't anticipated the amount of...shall we say..."public interest" I've been dealing with since getting my MadMax bar. I've developed an irrational fear of queues, as the person behind me always has something to say! I just hope my work colleagues weren't being serious when they threatened to hang me up on a hook by my neck if I was cheeky to them...
I thought long and hard before deciding to go ahead with this work. It's two surface piercings, and I'm well aware of the risks that accompany each of them, such as rejection, scarring, etc. If my body does start to reject the bar then obviously I'll take it out before it gets too bad. But the two people I've now met with the same bar have had no problems at all, and no signs of rejection, more than a year after having them fitted. I'd only ever seen this bar on males before, so I was worried it'd be a little big for my little girly neck, but so far so good. It really has been one of the least problematic piercings I've had, and I'm really optimistic about it staying put for a long time to come.