At A Glance
Author	Lennie
When	A week ago
Artist	Dacey
Studio	her house
Location	Edson Alberta

When my sister was younger and had just moved out of the house, she decided to get a couple of piercings. First she did her tragus then her labret, and her tongue. This of course was all "back in the day" and she has taken them out, but now has dreadlocks, stretched lobes and many tattoos, but that's a whole other story. I was looking at some pictures of mods a couple of weeks ago and stumbled upon a very interesting picture. It was a hand web with a ring in it. I only had my ears pierced before, and had only thought about getting my tongue done, but this one caught my interest.

I was talking to one of my good friends Dacey in math one day, (who has by the way a pierced navel, labret, and many holes in her ears, all by which she did herself.) and I told her about the awesome pic that I saw. I showed her where I wanted it (me being smarter than the average bear and wanted it done on my right hand because I am left handed) and she said it would be awesome. I talked to a few people in my classes and they told me it would be gross. (So much they know.) Dacey and I talked some more about it that week and did our research here and decided that we could do it on our own, she would do her first home piercing on some one else. We set it up that I would come over to her house since her mom wasn't home that weekend and we could do it there. We were set!

Now, you have to remember (and remember this!) is that you should NEVER do a self piercing with out first doing research, and knowing what you are getting into but you shouldn't be doing this kind of thing at home at all. I got to her house at around 1 I think and we sat around for a while. One of her friends was over, so we had to drive her home, and you could tell that we were both nervous. When we got back to her house, we got started right away. She had a 14 gauge labret that we used (I didn't want a barbell, because I was afraid it would get caught on everything) and a safety pin. (Remembering!) She boiled the jewelry in hot water and put the safety pin in saline solution (salt water) She put some gloves on and took the solution and a cotton ball to my hand. She asked me if I wanted to do it fast, or really slow. I told her that if she did it slowly, I wouldn't be able to take it (having tried it before and not being able to.)

When she had everything set up, she wiped my hand again. I gave her my hand and stretched it out, making the web tight. I couldn't see what she was doing because she had to hold onto my hand, but I didn't want to see any way. I felt a small pinch and thought she was just getting started "Hurry it up Dacey!" I said. I was so nervous by now I was shaking a little. "Ok, I'm done!" she said. What? She was done? But I didn't feel anything; I couldn't hear anything go through. I brought my hand to my face and saw the safety pin sticking through. It didn't look that attractive. I asked if it was hard. She told me that she just stuck it through and had her thumb on the bottom, (Jeee that was safe...) I had to take a look at it and play with it a bit. I tried to move the needle back and forth. It wouldn't move. Ok, well, she can do this, not me.

After a while of letting it sit and get used to the pressure, we put a bigger needle through, I don't even think it was an 18 g. My hand was a little red by now, but not swollen. Only 5 minutes had gone by. We decided that ice cream would be the best way to make it heal faster and hoped into her car. (Yes, with a 2 inch needle sticking out of my hand) so down to dairy queen we go, wanting ice cream and Easter chocolate. Most of the time we just sat there, staring at it and wondering how we were going to get a 16-g piece of jewelry through the hole. It was now about 2 in the after noon and we got back to her house. It took a long time for her to get set up again, she washed everything, cleaned, and set it up. The next thing to do was get the labret through. The hole wasn't entirely straight, but that's what you get for doing it at home, so we had a hard time getting it in. Dacey was getting really upset because she didn't want to cause pain, but I told her to just do it, I co uld handle it and it would be well worth it. It didn't take that long to get it in and through, and the head wasn't that hard to put on, but boy, did it feel weird!

I had it done two weeks ago, on a Saturday, right before Easter. It didn't swell up that much, and I could close my hand that night so no one could see it, but it was a little red. Every morning I cleaned it with Saline solution and a little bit of Tea tree oil. At school I washed every chance I got. As you can tell, I really didn't want it to get infected! That Monday, I had a day off, so I changed it to a 14-g. I liked it a lot more, and it matched my ring too. People in school really didn't like how it looked. Either they were really into it, or they thought it was completely not like me and I shouldn't have done it. Oh yes, and the parents. Well, it was a week and a half before my mom saw it, (it's not noticeable unless you actually look at my hand.) and she flipped. Well, it wasn't so much flipped, it was more like 'why would you do that and I want you to take it out!' but of course I didn't because they didn't ask me directly to take it out.

Some of the skin around it has started to peal, and I am thinking that might be migration, but it could just be my hand because it is so dry from washing it all the time. I can move it comfortably and hide it quiet well and I already have some nice jewelry to put in it. I suggest this piercing for people who want something different. No one I know has their web done, and no one I know has seen it either. But again, remember home piercing is not a safe thing to do, and should not be done by any one who does not know the risks. Reading up on this site gave me a lot of good information on aftercare, and pictures and a lot of definitions too.