Before I start I want to say I don't suggest doing this, I was younger and less wise and self piercing is not a good idea, especially without the proper tools.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist me Studio me house Location Uk This was back when I was still in college, a couple of years ago now, but I still remember quite well. It was one of those evenings, you know, you're bored, you're looking at bme, you fancy a pokin', I'm sure we've all been there. I more fancied the feeling and pain of a piercing than anything else, and had taken a shine to hand web piercings a while back, so thought I'd give it a try, just as something to leave in for a few days, maybe a week, it's always good to try new things, hehe.
I already had a few piercings and had pierced my own nostril so wasn't too worried about piercing myself, especially somewhere on my body easy to see without a mirror, like my hand. Like an idiot, I thought using a big old mattress needle thing would be a good idea as I didn't have any piercing needles. I boiled it in strong salt water and laid it out on an antiseptic wipe. I also did the same with the 16g bcr I had chosen to put in it. I was initially planning to use the spare barbell I had, but on hunting through the place where I keep my body jewellery, I realised I was missing one of the balls, so the bcr it had to be.
I washed my hands in some antibacterial soap and used an antiseptic wipe to clean the area between my thumb and finger on my right hand, since I write left handed. I decided to pierce from the inside side of my hand outwards, because I could push it through with my other hand easier that way. I held a touch under the skin to try see what I was piercing through, I couldn't see much, but noticed one vein to dodge past. I chose a spot, lined the needle up, and pushed.
To say it was hard is an understatement. The combination of the needle being not too sharp and the toughness of the skin in that area made a very slow and tough job. It wasn't too painful, more of a burning sensation, with sharp pain as the needle came through the skin at the other side. When I eventually got the needle right the way through, I pulled it back out, and then slid the ring into the hole, with no trouble as the ring was thinner than the needle. There was no blood at all. I washed my hands again with antibacterial soap and cleared up.
After a few hours with really no pain at all, I got a dull burning sensation in my whole hand, and it almost tingled, this feeling carried on for a few days on and off, and gradually died away, with the only pain being when I knocked it, which hurt a lot, and made it ache for a while after.
Major thing to talk about with this piercing, the knocking it – picking things up, passing people things, getting dressed, using a knife and fork, the list goes on – I was hitting it several times a day, and that with the constant movement of my hands and things like washing etc means this piercing never really heals, which is why I planned to leave it not longer than a week, I was sure it'd start to reject by then anyway. But I loved the way this piercing looked, and everyone around me was encouraging me to leave it for longer, they loved it, most had never seen anything like it. So in it stayed, and after about a month, it started to dry up a little.
I really tried my best not to hit it and keep it clean as I was liking the idea of keeping it for as long as possible. I changed the jewellery to a barbell, and as short as I could use, this meant I was hitting and catching it a lot lot less, but I did still hit it, and it still ached just as much. I did have a few flare ups due to over cleaning, as your hands are constantly touching things I liked to clean it a lot more often than I have done with other piercings, but it caused the skin around it to become too dry and I ended up doing more damage than good. I was cleaning with antibacterial soap and salt soaks which did work well once I cut down on them.
The impracticalities of this piercing really became clearer and clearer to me as time went on. For a start I was doing art as one of my subjects at college. When handling paper and paint and things like that I really had to be careful, I was amazed the piercing lasted so long with all the paint and chalk dust that must have got in it. Also I have lots of pets, and I had to be aware of the piercing whenever I cleaned the animals tanks/cages, and even whenever I stroked my dogs, after all you wouldn't want to rub a dog on a lip piercing would you, it's the same deal. Even simple things like washing your hair, it was annoying remembering to try to keep the shampoo etc out my piercing. There's really no way you could have this piercing and have a manual job, or work with animals or anything like that.
After around 5 months I began to notice I was loosing my piercing, it was ever so slowly starting to reject. At around 7 months I took the piercing out. I think it could have lasted at least another month or so, but I didn't want too much or a scar really. The hole healed over quite quickly, and left me with a nice big red mark for weeks. This faded after a while to a scar, and you could feel the hard tube of skin the piercing had sat in. you still can now if you squeeze the right bit, and sometimes you can vaguely make out the scar, but I don't mind, it reminds me of having the piercing, and although it was a bloody pest to have and look after, it did look great. Would I do it again? Yes and no, I would love it for the way it looks, but only if there was a point where I'm not using my hands so much in my life, with my animals and such, else its not really worth the hassle.