I'll start off to say that I'm very experienced with piercings and procedures as I have too many to name and I spend a lot of time with my close friend, who just happens to be a piercer. I'm comfortable with piercing myself through experience but I definitely do not recommend doing the following if you are not a professional because, I admit, IT WAS STUPID.
At A Glance Author Aubz Contact Aubz@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Me Studio My Bathroom Location Alberta, Canada My first self piercing experience involved a seemingly harmless hand web. I flipped through BME to admire other people's hand piercings and was instantly hooked. It was a Sunday and the local piercing studio that I usually go to is closed on Sundays and Mondays so I was too anxious to wait. I was determined to do it myself.
Inspecting my hand, I realized that there were very few blood pathways or, for that matter, much of anything at all. I decided it was pretty safe to go ahead with that piercing so I collected some supplies. I'm what you would call a punk, so I have numerous safety pins lying around and I chose a large one as my needle. Mistake number one. I cleaned it off with Bactine to get rid of whatever germs I could, and also soaked an 18g captive bead ring for jewelry. Since I have many-a-piercing I also had betadine laying around, and chose that to clean the area where I would be inserting the pin. With my few pieces of equipment, I was stoked.
I positioned myself underneath the light of my bathroom, and poked myself slightly to get a feel for how tough the skin is between my thumb and index finger. It was thicker than most, but still lenient enough for a quick job, or so I thought. I jabbed the pin through too slowly and rather than exiting the other side, it proceeded to just push the skin away. Mistake number two. It didn't start to hurt yet, but trying to get it through the other side was excruciating. And believe me, I have an ENORMOUS tolerance for pain. The skin would just not give, so I positioned my index and middle fingers on either side of the exit area and squeezed against the force of the pin. Finally, it emerged. With Penningtons forceps I could have made the whole process much easier, faster, and more accurate. The hole was at an angle, rather than perpendicular to the web of skin, so it wasn't perfect.
Then came the insertion of the jewelry. It wasn't as bad as I was prepared for, but it took some force to get it through. I tinkered with the stupid ball for a while, irritating the piercing during the process, but managed to get it in without too much trouble. It was done, and it was beautiful and it was different.
There was no bleeding, thankfully. So at least I hadn't hit something that I hadn't known was there! Whew! I proceeded with simple aftercare of cleaning it twice a day with bactine. Sterile saline solution probably would have been a better choice, but I thought with the bacteria around, something stronger was needed.
After a day it already began to hurt. I suspected that the jewelry was wrong due to the angle so I went out and purchased a 16g piece of PTFE and inserted it right away. Surprisingly the step from 18g to 16g was no trouble at all and it instantly solved the problem that the ring had been causing.
As I interacted with people at school and at work they were automatically astounded by what I had done. They were disgusted that I had done it myself, but amazed by it nonetheless (since no one in my city, I'm sure, had ever had this done). I washed my hands as often as I could, but my job (as a bike and hockey equipment specialist) requires touching grease, oil, dirt, dust, people's feet, etc. I found that infection was fast and furious. I left it in for a good couple of weeks but there was a buildup of tissue at both entry and exist holes and it was red, very red. I chose to take it out, to my own dismay, but it was for the better. The tissue dissolved and the hole healed up very nicely with no scar or other sign of a piercing ever having been there.
I definitely loved the piercing though, aside from it catching on pockets, gloves or shoelaces every now and then, and look forward to getting it done again. This time by a professional or a more experienced me who owns forceps! So, I guess I could say that I recommend it if you have the patience to look after it, but GO SEE A PRO TO GET IT DONE (unless you are a piercer yourself)!! DIY piercing requires skill and knowledge that I didn't have at the time, and that most never do attain, so be careful and don't be stupid!