The story of my temple surface piercing stretches over two years and several piercers. In December 2000 I was plotting the next piercing... something new and beautiful and different from the hundreds of eyebrows and navels (including my own, sigh) that I was surrounded by. I was doodling in a lesson, and drawing those weird faces with as many piercings you can cram on, when I looked across the room and noticed a girl who had drawn (as I myself sometimes did, sigh) dots next to her eyes with eyeliner. Hey that would look wonderful as a piercing! I wasn't sure if it was possible... so I logged on to good old BME and sure enough, "temple bar" appeared, with the photo of a lovely young girl whose photo I immediately printed out and still have pinned to my wall, even though I have moved five times since then...
At A Glance Author xia_mei_rosie Contact kd2a.taz@caramail.com IAM xia_mei_rosie When Six months ago Artist Nico Studio Metiss'tattoo Location Cahors, France Suppressing my eagerness with difficulty, I hinted to my piercer that I would like this to be my next one. He tutted and said it wouldn't work; my skin was way too tight. "Oh..." I sighed (yes I sigh a lot) and that was the end of it...Well, I'll admit I tried it on with other piercers but they made the same sort of noises.
Until spring 2002, when I was out shopping with my little sister Polly in the teeny tiny one piercer-town of Cahors. There I was looking at some really ugly stuff, when I catch sight of a very pretty girl... "Polly," I hissed, dodging behind the sequinned boleros, "look, she's got MY piercing," (yes I know a very childish attitude) and I fairly went green with envy. I was later to meet this charming girl, named Colline, and discovered she had been pierced by said lone piercer of Cahors. She had had hers for two years and it looked like it was healing very well, and though that isn't final, it's pretty good going for surface piercings...
But I didn't think my body (which is renown for rejecting, migrating and any form of piercing banishment) would accept it, so when a fit of piercing came upon me that summer and I turned up at the rather dingy Cahors studio I only mentioned it casually...
"Do you want to do it or not?" he thrust at me in an unusually angry way (I am used to being treated like a princess, by piercers who have fiercer competition I guess). I whinged and whined about how I really loved it but how I didn't think it would work and surface piercings this and my skin that... Nico realised snapping at me wouldn't work. He sat me down and offered me a drink (non alcoholic of course) and some biscuits, and after a long conversation offered me these words that I have kept with me ever since. "Give it a try. If it works, you've won everything. If it doesn't, you're no worse off except the price of a piercing and richer through your experience. Cherish it whilst you have it, enjoy it, and hope for the best."
This may sound like he was pushing me, the way I tell this story, but he didn't. I spent the whole afternoon in there, talking with him as soon as he was free and sitting around thinking whilst he was busy. He charges VERY good prices for his work and I didn't feel he was just digging for gold.
Anyway, as you will have guessed, his words of wisdom convinced me. After some more discussion about where the holes would be (he was thinking vertical, I was thinking horizontal), and which jewellery (bad choice of a CBR, I know I know), I hopped onto the chair and steeled myself. I had hear surface piercings were high on the pain classification (somewhere, don't ask me, I've forgotten) so I expected it to be pretty bad. This was to be my thirteenth piercing and I had had some hurty ones but nothing awful (they never are really, are they?). "No clamp?" I asked in great surprise, and he told me he didn't want to traumatise skin and could do it fine without clamps. Fine by me, though the under enthusiastic glove-changing worried me a little. But I felt generally confident. Gentle pinching, and needle, and... and... I waited... "Is it almost finished?" I asked. "All over, just cleaning up".
Wow! That had to be the most painless process I had ever been through. I almost jumped into the mirror and yelped "Oh gorgeous I love it I LOVE YOU!" to a surprised Nico, hustled him into the room to pay and sign papers (I'd have signed my life away at that moment) and listen to some advice (but barely...) before rushing off to show my boyfriend at work, who was disappointingly unimpressed and said it was very ugly. HA!
Two weeks later, after having spent the last five months unemployed, I get a job offer from the agency...for a two week contract as a salesperson. Grr, I decide to whip out the CBR and put a small discreet curved barbell in instead. This did not seem to affect the healing process; it was doing well as one can see in my photo in the BME gallery. Everything went fine, I had to sleep on my right side (as the piercing was on the left) permanently which hurt my shoulder a little and annoyed my boyfriend a lot but otherwise I was quietly pleased with myself. I did catch quite a lot though... Then I did something not really advised... I went to one last rave as a sort of "good-bye to France" before starting university and being serious. Whether it was candy in my system or staying out in a field for a long time or maybe it just didn't like the music, or nothing to do with my partying, but from then on it just started getting redder and redder and shallower and shallower, slowly, but surely.
I tried to not worry but it was evident it wouldn't be there very much longer. Regular hard knocks (accidental of course) didn't help. Putting PTFE in would have way too much pressure on the piercing and would have kicked it out in no time. So I went to my new found piercer in London, Taz, and he very kindly tried to "make it better"... but to no avail. The day came when I walked into his place and he went "ouch, time for that to go". I sobbed a little into his shoulder and he gave me hugs and a yellow plastic ring with a flower on it. And that was the end of my temple piercing that was doomed to fail since the jewellery was wrong and the conditions were bad.
However, I do not regret having done it at all. I was very happy having fulfilled my dream piercing even though it only lasted a grand total of 5 months. I might have been able to prolongate it's existence, and the aftercare was not always ideal, but I have a sneaky feeling it wouldn't have worked out. However, I still feel that now I know and can say, "I've done that"; Nico's words of advice have become my mantra when it comes to piercings as I am always having to retire them. I feel it doesn't really matter as I have been through the experience and no one can take that away from me (even my meanie body!). And hey! I still have some pretty scars! (only a month old though so I'm not worried).