So about three months ago I got a vertical nape piercing. It's great and I've had no problem with it. A month later I got a six piece lower back corset (see: "With spikes in my back, how am I supposed to sleep). And so as that began to heal up I was once again faced with the difficult task of deciding what work to get next. I was looking around the website and saw a few pictures of nape projects and I thought they looked pretty damn tight so I started working on my own design. I got complex and my final project ended up including five more surface piercings, two staples and three implants. I took my design into Billi, my piercer, and we started to talk. As the conversation progressed, we ditched the staples and concluded that the placement on the implants wouldn't work. In short, my idea was shit; at least from the point of view of the man who would have to do all the work. So we began to brainstorm ideas for something a little more simple and feasible. What eventually came out of the chat was the idea to surface weave six pieces of PTFE between my shoulder blades; the pair in the middle being almost vertical and the other two sets fanning out at sharper angles from there. Each weave was to have two piercings connected by a piece of PTFE inside of a metal tubing to make the whole thing look like it was made of metal. The implants were scrapped all together.
At A Glance Author pippen Contact pippen_scott@yahoo.com When A week ago Artist Billi Studio Forty-three 25 Location Colorado Springs, Colorado
With the final design mapped out and okayed on both sides, I made my appointment for a few days later and left. Billi went to work hollowing out two two-inch pieces of 12 gauge metal tubing (it's pretty damn sweet when your piercer can make his own jewelry).
I came back a few days later, waited in the shop for a while as Billi and his apprentice Nate put the "finishing touches" on the metal tubes. Then we put the markings on my back. Holy shit! Marking is usually the most annoying part of any piercing, but this one was such a bitch. The angle in which the tube runs across the surface of my back had to be just right on either side, plus the exit balls had to match up as well. And since this was only phase one in the overall design; he has to make sure he was leaving enough room to fit all of them between my bra straps. All in all it took over an hour to get everything marked up right. After a smoke break, some last minute tinkering on the tubes, another smoke break and the forgotten paperwork, we were set.
I was slightly nervous about the work since it would be four piercings total. Only a month and a half earlier I had six piercing done for my corset and I passed out while being marked and then went into a shaking fit when it was finished, so I was slightly paranoid that it might happen again. But onward we went. I took off my shirt and lay down on the table. The first one was a bottom left, followed by the bottom right. They hurt, but it was nothing too bad (my corset still holds the record for pain). Then the top left and finally right. I couldn't believe how fast it went, it seemed like nothing. We had to pierce with a 12 gauge needle so the 14 gauge PTFE would fit thru needle okay, so there was quite a bit of blood. The morbid side of me was loving that. It took a minute or two for the blood to stop flowing so that Billi could clean it all off. I love the feel of cold anti-septic on a fresh piercing.
I stood up and looked in the mirror. It was great. I bent and twisted in everyway possible. I didn't feel any pain, but I could feel the PTFE stretch and pull. After a quick show to Nate and a few of the tat artists Billi and I went out for a smoke and we took some pictures. I showed off a few more times, paid and went on my merry way.
That night I slept fine. I was surprised by the lack of annoyance as I lay down. Cleaning was, and remains to be, a complete pain in the ass. With enough bending, stretching and contorting I am just able to clean the eight exit holes in my upper back.
For the first week I had relatively no problems, just the basic shit that goes with any new piercing. But on day ten-ish, I was feeling my piercing and I thought I noticed that I had lost the ball on top of my left piercing. But when I looked in the mirror I found out that it had not fallen off but had instead been sucked so far down into my skin that it was flush with my back. It began to hurt too. So back into the shop I went.
Billi had a look and freaked. Apparently the skin had begun to grow over the ball and in another day or two I would've had a nice new implant instead of a piercing. It had to come out. Originally we were going to have to take out the whole left side and let it heal before we tried to repierce it, something I really didn't want to do. Then we were going to reweave the left side but use more material so that the PTFE was longer than the piercing when the skin swelled and then place a larger ball on the top. But finally we wagered to cut the PTFE apart and separate the weave into two separate piercings until better healed.
It was slightly painful digging the ball out of my flesh but at least we didn't have to use the scalpel like Billi warned. It only took about ten minutes-tops, but my back felt instantly better. It looks fucking weird now though because I still have the weave—complete with metal tubing—on my right side but two surface piercings (one with miss matched balls) on my left. It makes me grin, but at least I know it won't always look like that and my shoulder blades no longer hurt, so that's worth looking a bit goofy for.
I'm going to give these another week or two to heal up a little better before I do the next set. Even though they are a bit of a hassle to clean, I am really happy with them. They look great-when they match that is- and I am stoked to finally have an original design on me. When adding these new piercings to my other work I am now at a total of thirteen. Which might explain some of the difficulty; but all in all they are incredible and I love them, so it is lucky 13 in my mind. Until the next pair that is, then it will be lucky 17. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Billi up at forty-three 25 is the best piercer in Colorado Springs so check him out if you are in the area. It will be worth the drive.
To be continued...