Since I was fifteen years old, all I could think about was getting piercings! I wanted all sorts of piercings. Mainly, I wanted my septum, ears, nostril, nipples, you know the usual. Well after getting all of those done at least once or twice I started to get bored. I wanted something different, something unique. I looked online at BME and then just decided on what my new piercing would be. A NAPE! I fell in love with it as soon as I first saw it. It was so different and also so beautiful. My birthday would be coming up soon and I had plans to get many things pierced.
At A Glance Author Natalie Contact natalier@unm.edu When A year ago Artist Noah Studio Evolution Location Alb. NM A few weeks after my 18th birthday I decided on getting it done. I have been going to Noah from Evolution body piercing in Albuquerque NM since I was 16 years old. He is the most experienced body piercer in ALB., at least in my opinion. Their shop is also very clean, in fact I think that it is the cleanest in Albuquerque. I recommend them to anyone out there looking for a good piercing. I trust Noah with all of my piercings so when I told him what I wanted to do he seemed very excited. I was not really nervous, since I had a lot of other piercings and tattoos already. I was just excited because this would be my first surface piercing.
So we talked about placement for a while, originally only deciding on getting two piercings done. We would place them diagonally from each other so that the balls would make the shape of a diamond. Noah had me watch him autoclave everything that would be used and pulled sterile tygon from a package. He had explained to me that he would use a material called tygon to do the piercing because this material was pliable and would help to prevent rejection, which is common with surface piercings. However, with this type of material it is required to replace every three months since it is porous and harbors bacteria. This all sounded great. So, I went back to the room where the piercing would be done. Noah marked my neck with a toothpick and dye. Then he asked me to look at the placement. I agreed and we quickly got ready. He had me sit straight up and keep my neck straight. Then he pinched my neck skin with his fingers. Noah did not ever use a clamp and this seemed very much more comfortable to me than previous piercings in which a clamp was used. He then told me to breath in and inserted the needle.
The pain was not what I was expecting. IT wasn't anything like I had felt before either. It was not nearly as painful as cartlidge piercings in my ear. It just felt like a sting or a pinch and then the jewelry was inserted. The pain stopped almost instantly. Then we moved onto the second piercing. He went through the same process and then inserted the needle. Again, hardly any pain. I just kept thinking to myself "this piercing was a piece of cake!" Noah cut the tygon a little longer incase my skin swelled any, this made it very easy to clean.
He then went over the care instructions and told me about coming to see him once every 3, months or so to get the tygon changed out. Depending on how fast I healed, I would probably be able to switch the tygon to steal within 6-9 months.
I went home in shock. These were by far the most beautiful piercings I have ever seen. Cleaning them was not bad at all. They were just a little sore the first day and then they moved around freely. It's been over a year and I have added two more nape piercings to my collecting. They form a strange design and I absolutely love them! I have steel in all of my nape piercings now, and they have healed wonderfully.
I can honestly say that I love the look on people's faces when the realize that I have the back of my neck pierced. They are almost in shock. The most common question that I get is "did it hurt?" Actually this piercing is one of the least painful piercings that I have experienced. My most painful piercing was my conch.
Some people say surface piercings are the hardest to heal, but to me, they were the easiest piercings I have ever healed. Although my piercer said that I healed these piercings relatively fast. I love them and have since added several other surface piercings to my collection. I recommend this piercing to anyone. I absolutely love them! The only problem I have is that if I wear my hair in a low bun the hair will tangle around my barbells, but other than that I have had no problems.