I didn't really get into piercings until I was 14, but I love saying that this has been an obsession of mine since I was little; by the time I was nine I had my earlobes pierced four times each and my cartilage done in both ears, which was a lot more than any other kids I knew. I've taken out some piercings over time but the number hasn't gone down at all - I'm at fifteen piercings and counting.
At A Glance Author Dana Contact Dana@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Tommie Studio Altered Skin Tattoos & Piercing Location Missoula, MT Recently though, everyone else seems to be jumping on the piercing boat. My friends tell me I have originality issues, and actually get mad at me and tell me that I didn't invent body piercing and therefore have no right to claim I'm completely individual by being pierced, and I agree, but it's deeper than that. Back in seventh grade, I started the trend of dying hair at my school. First I transformed my dirty blonde into a natural looking strawberry blonde, then I went darker, trying auburn and chestnut brown. Once every girl in school had proceeded to dye their hair the same colors in the same order, I started messing around with vibrant semi-permanent color. I had green streaks for a few weeks before they turned this ugly chlorine-damaged-blonde color, and I dyed my entire hair fuschia for the summer. I just wanted to stand out, see - I wanted something to make an impression on other people. During my eighth grade year, I met a girl from out-of-state who had her tongue pi erced; I immediately decided I wanted it done. However, the journey there was not easy. It took over a year of begging both of my parents to let me get it pierced. Finally, my dad relented. On my 14th birthday, he took me to one of his friend's houses; she has a piercing studio out of her home, and she really knows what she's doing. My tongue healed wonderfully - within a week I was having fun with different barbells, within a month almost every girl at my school had their tongue pierced, or planned to get it done over the summer.
So started my true obsession with piercings. I got my navel done like every other girl in my school ended up doing and moved onto ear piercings. Of course, I'm not the only one at school with pierced ears - and of course all the popular girls went out and got their rooks and helixes and conches pierced a short while after people really started noticing my ears - but I love them all the same. I think of my pierced ears as an ongoing project. There's always going to be something else I want to get, but it has to keep this perfect balance I have going in an array of silver barbells and hoops. I get a lot of cracks about what happens if I go through metal detectors, but I also get a lot of compliments on my ears; I'm told that I'm the type of girl who can pull off a lot of crazy things 'cause I have the confidence for it, and I think that's the reason why most people (including my mom) who aren't big on piercing don't have a problem with my ears being pierced a combined total of eleven times. I couldn't stop at my ears, though. I ended up piercing my tongue web myself (NOT a good idea, though mine healed wonderfully on the second attempt at having it pierced) and I love it because it's a piercing not everyone has. It has a deeper meaning for me, too - a lot of my piercings do - but I'm not even here to talk about why I'm pierced.
So yes, I'm going to focus on my new favorite piercing, which is the surface barbell I have below my navel. My mom and I were planning a trip to Missoula, which is about three hours away, because she wanted to get some work done on her tattoo, so she had to go back to the original artist. I had money saved up so I could get a tattoo as well - my mom was all right with it because it was a tribute to a friend who died recently in a car wreck. However, when we arrived at the studio early on a cold Saturday morning, Detail Dave, the tattoo artist, told me that he'd prefer to wait until I was 16, since that was the basic studio policy. I was a little disappointed, but not for long. My friend Micah was with me, and she and I quickly absorbed ourselves in the assortment of body jewelry for sale.
"Maybe I should get a piercing instead," I said. I had been longing for one for a while, and had found a few piercings to consider while browsing on the internet. I knew my mom wouldn't let me get the vertical labret that I wanted (and I knew I'd get fired at work if I kept it in). I also didn't think she'd go for a cleavage surface piercing, so I asked about getting a barbell below my belly button. Being the prepared piercee I am, I pulled a picture out of a notebook and showed her; to my surprise, she thought it was cute, and agreed to sign for it. The adrenaline was starting to pump through my blood by now - not only was I going to get a new piercing, but I was going to do it as a spur-of-the-moment decision, something my boyfriend would never approve of. See, I'm a really independent girl, but when it comes to my boyfriend, I tend to let him make decisions for me. It's a complicated relationship, and I'm sure that things aren't exactly the way they should be - that's why this piercing was so exciting to me, because I wasn't being the timid girl I usually am when it concerns him.
It took the piercer, Tommie, a little while because she had to get the autoclave running - we were the first visitors to the shop that morning, so nothing was really ready. I waited anxiously, talking to Micah about how I was scared that this piercing might actually hurt, since it was going through a lot more skin than my navel itself did. I'd say it took about half an hour before Tommie told me she was ready to pierce me; by that time I was almost shaking with adrenaline. She was really nice about everything, and let me get away with pretending like this was just another piercing, like I wasn't nervous at all - she wasn't going to say anything about my bravado, but she did take extra caution to explain everything that she was doing to me. Tommie took a lot of time lining the two dots for my piercing up correctly. She told me that my navel was pierced in a straight vertical line, but that it was just a little bit off-center, so she was going to compensate for that by moving the surface piercing over a fraction of an inch. I didn't understand how it would matter too much if the barbell wasn't completely level - after all, I had never noticed my belly button piercing was crooked, and the first time she made marks, they looked straight to me - but she insisted on getting it perfect, and finally got the dots to the exact millimeter that she wanted them. She then had me lie down in the piercing chair and relax. I had my friend Micah standing next to me, and I think I actually held her hand because I was nervous about it, but when I breathed on Tommie's command and the needle went through my stomach, I barely felt it - in fact, my navel itself hurt worse. I laid, relieved, in the chair for a few seconds, and then got up to show my mom, who was getting ready to be tattooed.
One of the smaller benefits about piercings is seeing people's initial reactions to them. They serve many purposes to me, and for the most part, I could care less what other people think of my piercings, but I love it when someone really admires a piercing (withOUT intention of getting it themselves) or when a piercer really falls in love with the piercing they just did. I've had that happen twice to me - once with my usual piercer, Karie at Cafe Earth in Great Falls, MT, which was my daith - somewhat small at a 20 gauge. The other time was with Tommie in the few minutes after she pierced me. She had me show it off to everyone in the studio at the time, and then insisted on taking pictures of it, both with and without my regular navel ring in. I was really happy with my decision, and haven't regretted it much since.
At first I was really worried about if it would grow out or not, because I heard somewhere that surface piercings have a 40% chance of growing out, but I've had hardly any problems with it, and it's been about a month and a half now. I cleaned it three times a day with sea salt and antibacterial liquid soap at first; lately, I haven't been religious about cleaning it, but it honestly hasn't needed it that much - I heal most piercings quickly and effortlessly, so that's good. It's going to look great by summer, I expect, and I've already gotten compliments (which is the reason I wore a two-piece dress to prom, I admit...). However, a friend of mine from work went out three weeks later and got the exact same piercing. Granted, she took it out because the piercer pierced it crooked, but she's going back to get it re-done soon, which brings the originality factor down just a bit. I've already moved on to other piercings, and actually have a casual wish list lying around for when opportunities arise, but I'm pretty sure that my surface navel piercing is always going to be one of my favorites. It's a souvenir from a great weekend, a self-assertion of my independence, and a cute accessory to my abs, which will soon be in shape! Overall, the entire experience was a wonderful one, and I'm going back down to Missoula in a month or two to show Tommie how well it's doing.