| At A Glance | |
| Author | Andie |
| Contact | Andie@bme.anon |
| IAM | HeadlessLego |
| When | Six months ago |
| Artist | IAM: blackdeath |
| Studio | Forbidden Art |
| Location | New Orleans |
Like most of my piercings, my sternum piercing was not really planned out in advance. I saw it on my bartender and on BME, and I liked it, but it wasn't constantly on my mind or anything. I just get into a piercing or tattoo mood sometimes and need to fulfill the craving before it grows. Anyhow, here is the tale of my incredible-not-so-edible sternum piercing:
It was the evening of the Primus concert in New Orleans at The State Palace in early March. My nerves were running high. Two days later, I would meet and perform with Atone Pain Tribe for the first time in one of the smaller rooms of the State Palace. In just one more day, I would no longer be a teenager. Not to mention the fact that I had just moved into a new apartment in a state that was relatively new to me after living on the East Coast my entire life. blackdeath had recently begun piercing at Forbidden Art, which was literally attached to The State Palace at the time, so I figured I would hand out flyers after the concert to drum up some business. His boss had offered to pay me, so I dragged my new pal VagisectomyPix and my friend Ricky along as well. We passed out flyers for an hour or two running out of the brightly colored sheets of paper numerous times. Unfortunately, it did the shop no good, and rather than asking for money, blackdeath agreed to compensate us all in piercings.
Pixie went first. She had never kept a piercing in for more than two weeks, and blackdeath and I were bugging her to keep whatever she got semi-permanent this time. She had to choose a spot her parents wouldn't see, and a place where she wouldn't pick at it. Eventually, her nape was chosen, and after the setup, sterilization, and piercing process, there was a lovely 10g surface bar in the back of Pixie's neck. It didn't hurt her, but she had turned white and gotten dizzy during the procedure, so after warm water and glucose tablets, it was time for me to figure out what I wanted. Originally, I was going to get my nape pierced as well to match my new buddy, but blackdeath didn't want to use his last 10g surface bar, and then I remembered that I was getting the BME elf tattooed to the back of my neck at some point--possibly in the near future, so that idea was out.
I grabbed my piercing wish list from my purse, and decided to get my sternum done. It would be my first surface piercing, and I was excited. To blackdeath's dismay, he realized that he would be using his last 10g surface bar after all. blackdeath asked me if I wanted the piercing above my breasts or right in between them. I went with the lower option. I was sitting at the time, and didn't realize that my bra might aggravate it later on. blackdeath set everything up, sterilized the area, marked me, and asked if I was ready to be clamped. There is not a lot of skin on your sternum, so the clamps hurt like a bitch. I took my deep breath in and slowly exhaled relieved in the fact that the clamps hurt a LOT more than the needle did. BADA-BING!!! I now had a NEW reason to stare at my breasts.
After much debate, Ricky ended up getting his madison done with a curved barbell. I love the way that piercing looks, but can't get it because I wear a necklace or collar on a regular basis. Then, blackdeath realized that he had a couple of purple gemstone balls with 14g threading that he could put on my sternum piercing. Now my cleavage even glittered! It was perfect, and I was ecstatic. Little did I know this was only the beginning of my journey.
Living in New Orleans, your breasts get a lot of attention. I must admit that it was fun at first to be asked, "Oh my god!!! Didn't that hurt?" to which I could honestly reply, "No, but the clamps did," and I can't even begin to imagine how many drunken tourists went home with pictures of my cleavage--bare breasted or not on their camera phones/cameras/video cameras/etc. I also got some of the DUMBEST questions in the entire world. One guy was convinced that the piercing went all the way through to my spine........and there was NO telling him otherwise! This new piece of metal was certainly getting noticed, and I was happy with it. My piercing on the other hand, was having some issues.
At first it was perfectly normal for my new hole to be swollen or angry looking. That's part of the healing process. It wasn't rejecting or infected, and it didn't have any keloids on it. I was washing it with provon (medicated antibacterial soap) and doing sea salt soaks, but it soon became evident that there was too much pressure on my skin from the 10g bar. (Not to mention the fact that the feet on the surface bar were too long and got in the way) There were also some unexpected complications involving a random stranger licking it, and a rendezvous with chlorinated water while skinny dipping... It was time to make a choice--either the piercing had to go, or it had to drop a gauge.
blackdeath didn't have any 12g surface bars, and I was all ready to take out my first surface piercing for good. 14g just seemed too wimpy to me. 10g was hard-core--14 seemed pointless, but after a little coaxing, I decided to let him switch it and see what I thought about it afterwards. He set up like he was doing a stretching only we were downsizing instead. The 10g jewelry came out and the 12g taper was inserted shortly followed by the new 14g surface bar which sort of just dangled there. (Pictures can be seen on BME or on my IAM page) This bar was MUCH smaller. The feet were angled out instead of at a 90 degree angle like the old bar, but they were still a little long. We put the gem beads on the new surface bar, but took them out later that night because they were too bulky. I had to be very careful to keep my sternum clean because I didn't want anything to be trapped in the gaping hole before it tightened around my new jewelry.
Three days and six sea salt soaks later, my piercing was doing much better. I thought all the cleavage drama was in the past, and I could continue my life with a happy, healthy sternum piercing. I didn't have another major problem with it for about three months. (At this point, I also had a 12g Christina piercing which had never given me any problems at all...) I was doing a play piercing photo shoot with my friend Jill, and during the two hour shoot, my sternum piercing went from normal to UGLY. The top hole had begun to swell, and it was looking fierce. I no longer had contact with blackdeath, so I couldn't ask him what to do, and I was worried. It didn't hurt, so I didn't think it was infected. It was only the top hole, not the bar, so it didn't seem to be rejecting, and from what I'd seen of keloids, they seemed to be a defined bump, not just swelling around one hole. I was baffled.
A week went by. It went back and forth from looking better to worse and vice versa. I soaked it and cleaned it. (Never more than twice a day...didn't want to dry it out) I wasn't sure what to do. I looked up keloids, infections, and rejection in the BME dictionary, but the pictures didn't seem to match. I spoke to multiple piercers, but that didn't help--you never know who to trust. I was told things like, "All surface piercings reject eventually." "I try to leave piercings in for as long as I can. Your body heals itself." "You should take it out." "Try crushing some aspirin on it." "It's just a keloid. Keep soaking it." "It's summer, sweat gets trapped between your breasts, I wouldn't worry about it." Meanwhile, I was having a difficult time of keeping my hands off. I knew that if it was infected, I had to leave it in as not to trap the infection under the skin, but it didn't hurt so that was probably not the case. It didn't seem to be migrating, and since the bar was fine, I didn't want to remove it and risk scarring where the swelling was since there is already a little bit of permanent scar tissue there from the 10g surface bar. So I figured there couldn't be too much harm in keeping it in.
It is now a week later. Yesterday it was a little swollen, but today it looks the best it has since the initial swelling. I think the provon helped it because dial didn't have the same effect, but I still don't know if it is okay. I guess I'll just have to wait. My only retired mods are my original lobe piercings, but that's just because I got my lobes dermal punched. The old holes were replaced with new ones. I think that taking out my beloved sternum would be sad, but I suppose I could always get it redone, and I definitely didn't give up without a fight.
Other than my ears, my sternum has been my only visible piercing. I have yet to pierce my face out of respect to my father because that bothers him (Funny enough he didn't say a word when I brought blackdeath home to spend the night...) and my navel never shows unless I'm topless. I know he doesn't like my sternum piercing, but he doesn't really see it often, and the one time he brought it up, we were with my aunt, and her response was, "I don't know why you're stretching your lobes." I was just happy to hear proper piercing terminology out of the mouth of someone who is opposed to modification.
Though my sternum piercing has brought me many problems, I like it anyway. I like the way it looks, I like the way it photographs, it doesn't hurt, and despite the overwhelming amount of pictures in the BME surface piercing gallery, it doesn't appear to be all that common. I saw it on someone else in New Orleans ONCE in the four months I lived there. The girl had a double sternum, and she was in the mall one day while I was at work. I don't think she was even from Louisiana... So anyway, it may be at a wimpy 14g now, it may affect some sexual positions, it may keep me from swimming without excessive waterproof bandaging, and it may be on it's way out, but I love my sternum piercing, and it is a part of me for the time being. :-)
