On April 24th 2004, I embarked on a journey that would lead me here today, telling you the story of how my nape was pierced.
At A Glance Author MegzQ! Contact MegzQ!@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Shawn Studio Advanced Tattoo Clinic Location Windsor Ont First I'll give you a little background history of my mods. Currently I have 5 tattooes, most of which are on my back, one is one my upper left leg. I also have 5 holes in each ear right now, and I have my nape and a vertical clitoris hood piercing. In the past I have pierced my bellybutton (upper and lower), my ear cartilage, my rook, my tragus, my tongue and my tongue web. I've always been fascinated by piercings and tattooes, and plan on getting more things done, like my lip, and a set of play corset piercings.
Now back to my story. It was like any other day, except there was some added anticipation and excitement. I had been looking forwards to getting my nape pierced for about two years now. My friend Jenn and I decided a month earlier that we would chose that date to get pierced because it was the day after her 20th birthday and it was also the one year anniversary of my second tattoo. So that day seemed like a good day to chose. I was also looking into some sort of bandage to cover it with incase I went swimming in a public pool. I decided that there should be at least one month between the time I got pierced and the time that the trip took place to give it a little bit of time to heal. I found bandages called tegaderm...apparently they work well.
After choosing the date, I also decided that I should bring along my friend who wanted a piercing for his birthday (a month earlier) so I told him I would pay for it. He ended up getting his ear cartiledge pierced. So that day I went to my friend Jenn's house...and we stared at the back of my neck and decided that it was going to be a very pretty piercing. So we left her house, picked up Evan and made our way to downtown Windsor. We got to the shop and I was nervous. I was also driving, it wasn't exactly a good combination. But we got there, and I talked to Shawn a bit before going into the room. He had it all set up because we called in to let him know.
So we went into the room and I straddled the chair (every time I go to that place I have to do that! Like I mentioned, most of my tattooes are on my back, which means that I have to straddle a chair every time I get tattooed). He cleaned my neck, put the clamps on...and just before he was going to pierce me, they slipped off and flung across the room. So we all decided that that wouldn't be the best place to pierce. So he spent another 15 minutes trying to find a place to clamp. The teeth of the clamps were digging into my skin, it hurt a lot. He finally got a chunk of skin to stay in the clamps, and he proceeded on to the next step...which didn't hurt at all. He put the jewelry in and off I went. He pierced Evan next. He was really good about it, and didn't squirm at all...which surprised me. So evan did a good job, and then my friend Jenn wanted to switch her barbells in her tragi to clear retainers because she works at a museum during the summer. After that our friend Dai sy came to see us. At this point I was convinced that she should get something pierced too, so I told her to get her bellybutton pierced. She at first said no, and she insisted she didn't want it, but after awhile I convinced her to get it.
Back to my story. My mom found my nape piercing and had a freak out session on me...which lead to her taking pliers to it, to remove it. So my piercing died...or did it? I put a retainer in it for the first week afterwards, and it was a 16g retainer and I had a 14g piercing, so it slid around a lot. My mom ended up finding that also. She was joking with me and did the rub the back of my neck thing, and she was like what's this? and I told her I did it so that the infection would go away first before letting it close. Now I insert it everyday, and take it out when i get home from school. It hasn't been infected, it looks like it's going to be ok, and the hole doesn't close up between insertions and take outs, so I think it might work.
I strongly recommend not doing what I did. if you take out the piercing, leave it out, don't put it back in. This can lead to infections, and can cause serious damage to the place that was pierced. I love my piercing, and I really really don't have the heart to give it up, which is why I keep putting it back in. Eventually I will retire the piercing, but not today.