After ordering some needles from Wildcat early in February I discovered that I had no idea which piercing I wanted to attempt. I'd considered finally having a navel piercing. I was smaller than I'd ever been and gone well below the target weight I'd previously set for myself (and for myself to have the navel piercing done). After a handful of failed attempts at even managing to mark the exit and entry holes, I gave up on that idea. I guess some things just aren't meant to be.
At A Glance Author Cerra Contact just_a_girlthing@yahoo.co.uk IAM Cerra When Three months ago Location Halifax, NS
I remembered the summer of 2003, then, and I remembered that I had considered getting my hand-webs done. I looked at my hands and realised that if I did both of them at once I wasn't going to be able to do much else for weeks. I then considered which one I wanted done. I'm right-handed so the sensible choice was to do my left hand.
The afternoon that I decided to do the piercing wasn't extraordinary. My mum was home and I told her I was going to do the piercing that night. My mum told me that she wished I'd just have it done professionally, and while I know that would have been the best option, I have personal reasons for self-piercing. Mostly that I feel it's a spiritual journey and one that I'm not willing to share with someone who's just doing their job. To me, that is not what modification is about.
I cleaned the area I was going to be working in as best I could and had a huge glass of water to drink afterward. I marked the holes, clamped the skin, put KY Jelly on the needle, counted to three and pushed. When it broke the first layer of skin I was totally unprepared for the pain. In fact, I was so unprepared that I pulled the needle back out. I took a few deep breaths and then relined up the needle and found the original entry point, did another count to three and pushed. This time it went all the way through.
I left the needle in for a few minutes, until I could calm myself down enough to stop the shaking that had started. The curved barbell I had went through easily and then the blood started coming. I packaged up the needle, recovering the bevel with the plastic nib as it was packaged and put it into a drawer so it wouldn't hurt anyone else (the next day I brought the needle to my doctor who was more than happy to dispose of it in a sharps container).
I lay in my bed after that, holding facial tissues up to my hand. The blood stopped for the most part after about thirty minutes. After a few hours the bleeding was entirely stopped and I went to show my mum. She, like so many other people, didn't like the look of it and cringed at the sight. I told her it was probably the most painful piercing I'd ever had and she just shook her head. The swelling came later that night and I kept it mostly at bay with ice wrapped in fresh tissues.
For the next week to ten days I couldn't do a whole lot with my left hand. You don't really know how much you use your hands until you have something restricting movement. I soaked it in a huge bowl of warm sea-salt water a couple of times a day and left it alone as much as possible otherwise. It was in the middle of winter, in Canada, no less, so going without gloves wasn't really an option. The first time I put gloves on after it was done I did a little dance of pain.
After the first month or so I gained most of the use of my left-hand back. Whenever I'd bump it the pain would send shivers down my spine. It calmed down a lot if I babied it and didn't do anything with my left hand, but you can only remember to keep your hand still and out of use for so long. It had started to settle down at the beginning of April, I guess, so almost two months after. Bumping it wasn't a huge problem by then, but obviously if it got stuck on something and I pulled it the pain was still there.
I was just beginning to think I might be able to keep my web piercing when I had a particularly eventful weekend, subjecting the piercing to lots of movement and bumping. It didn't settle down at all after that weekend and I finally retired the piercing in May.
The day I took it out I was quite simply tired of having to be so careful of everything and often being in pain. I missed being able to do dishes without gloves on, I missed being able to wash my hair properly, I missed being able to run my fingers through my hair without a strand or ten getting caught and tugging on the piercing. The removal of the barbell was painful. I again did a little dance of pain, and I again held facial tissues up to it to stop the bleeding. I covered it with a bandage for most of the next week. The scar tissue has mostly settled now, three weeks later. I don't even know that you'd be able to see the scar unless you were really looking for it.
As far as the attention received goes: when I had my lip piercing done back in 1995 (I was a very early starter) I thought I'd attracted a lot of attention. The attention I received back then was nothing compared to what came from the web piercing. People would notice it when I was standing waiting to be served at the bank, at restaurants and shops then proceed to stare at it. Some people turned their heads away, apparently unable to comprehend a piercing through someone's hand. Some people turned their heads inward, apparently trying to get a better look.
When people asked if it hurt, the standard response was given 'There was a needle puncturing my skin, what do you think?'. I didn't tell them that it was perhaps the most pain I'd ever had from a piercing, nor did I tell them that it probably wouldn't last because it would probably never heal properly.
I'll miss my web piercing a lot, I used to love resting my thumb on the barbell, which probably didn't help healing much. I don't know if I'll ever do it again. Surface piercings of any kind are a lot of work and I know how much it hurt for me, and that's not a pain I'd want to repeat. But I still think they're beautiful and I'm glad I had it done at least once, in any case.
I did a lot of things wrong with my web, the main one being that I pierced it myself in conditions that weren't ideal. My reason for self-piercing was not financial, nor was it legal, nor was it parental. I'm not saying that I should have done a self-piercing or that it was right or that anyone else should, but for me it feels best and works best with my mindset and lifestyle.