At A Glance
Author	cuthalcoven
Contact	frozenfire98@hotmail.com
IAM	cuthalcoven
When	Three months ago
Artist	My mom
Studio	My home
Location	Toledo, OH

So...

You've read my experience "Piercer Extraordinaire" and thought that I had learned my lesson about self-piercing. Well my friends, that is where you are dead wrong. See, I'm blonde and kind of lacking on the common sense side of things sometimes. (lol) I went to the doctor's to have a colonoscopy for my Ulcerative Colitis. Great news, I'm doing better says she. Now granted, I may be doing better by the doctor's standards, but since this disease affects my immune system...any change could cause my condition to worsen.

So to celebrate, I wreck havoc with my immune system, aren't I smart? Heh. I decide that since I'm doing "oh so well", I am going to do a piercing that I've wanted for 5 years, but always managed to find a reason not to get. I'm going to pierce my own hand-web!

Now, stop reading this and take a second to look at your hands. Contemplate the sheer physics behind clamping one hand and ramming a needle through it, and then quickly switching that needle out for a ring, and undoing the clamps. Kind of looks like it's impossible, huh? Yeah, after letting EMLA sit on my hand for two hours, I realized that it was one o'clock in the morning and my hand-web was not getting pierced then.

So the next morning, I begged my mom to help me. Except, I didn't tell her what I wanted...I just begged for her to pierce me "somewhere". She asked where, and I told her... she just rolled her eyes at me and said she'd do it, since I've been wanting it for so long.

So we clean the dining room with one of my dad's antibacterial cleansers, (he manages a chemical plant) and got out my supplies. Luckily, I realized I wouldn't be able to do it early enough the night before that I didn't open anything, so they were all still in their autoclaved baggies. Score!

I put some EMLA on my hand again, and laze around for an hour and a half. Finally, I got impatient and couldn't wait any longer so I told my mom I was ready and it was numb. (Even though it really wasn't)

I sit down and she puts on her gloves to open everything, laying all the supplies out on a fresh paper towel. We had a set of clamps, the jewelry, alcohol swabs, water based lube, and food coloring to mark with. She changed her gloves and used a toothpick to mark a good spot on my hand, asking for my opinion first.

Mom cleaned off my hand with the alcohol swabs, which was kind of stupid because it effectively erased the mark. I told her just to go ahead though, so she put on new gloves and clamped it, checking with a flashlight to make sure we wouldn't hit any blood vessels. Dipping the needle in the lube, she asked me whether she should pierce it towards the front/back/or middle of the clamps. Being stupid, I told her towards the back, so it would be pierced deep enough to avoid migration or rejection. Hah.

She shoved the needle though, and quickly...almost professionally...switched the needle out for jewelry, popping the bead into place. At this time, I'm biting my bottom lip because I realized that the EMLA doesn't really work for hand-webs, and especially if you don't let it stay on as long as you should. It hurt a bit more than I thought it would, I was kind of hoping that it would be surprisingly numb and I wouldn't feel a thing. Yeah right?

I immediately went into the kitchen and mixed up a sea salt solution in a big pan, and just shoved my whole hand into it, aching hand-web and all. I sat there like that until it cooled down, probably about 10 minutes or so. Going out into the living room, I showed everyone my new addition. I heard "Eww, gross!" and "What the hell??" quite a few times... I love my family*grin* and I absolutely adored my hand-web. I wanted it for so long and I finally had it!!!! It looked so cute, so perfect lying between my fingers.

That night, I went to a party and showed my boyfriend, who wasn't so enthusiastic. He doesn't really like many modifications, even though he has his nipples pierced. He thought that it was stupid and ridiculous, and begged me to take it out. I refused.

I went home that night and gave it another quick soak before taking half of a Vicodin tablet and going to bed. (The Vicodin was for my back, and I figured that between the two pains, I better take it again.) Flash forward to half an hour later. I wake up and my hand feels wet, and I realize that I'm bleeding, but I can't feel why it hurts.

Suddenly, I realize that my hand is alternating between tingly pain and numbness. I rush upstairs and try unsuccessfully to pop the ball out like my mom goes, but trying to do it with only one hand was the pits, and my hand-web was hurting so bad that any attempts to touch it were excruciating.

In desperation, I finally grabbed a set of my jewelry making pliers and wedged them between the skin and the ring. I bent it open, causing tears, and then forced the ring out. Immediately, the pain came back in droves. It hurt so bad I was crying, and my entire hand was still clenched like it was in shock. Even so, I missed it. I could feel the difference and I didn't like it. Even in a few short hours, I had managed to fall in love with that little piercing, and I missed it terribly.

The next morning, my hand was numb again. I cried to my mom and we figured out that I had probably pointed out a spot too deep, and we hit a nerve or something. It hurt for a week and a half later, and even now...two months later, the entrance and exit holes are still visible, just not open. If I squeeze it, I can feel a tube of scar tissue, and the pressure hurts a lot. I told my mom we'd re-pierce after it settled down, but I'm not so sure. Even when I had it, I was annoyed with it because it caused a lot of hassle trying to work around it, even though I loved the way it looked.

For all you DIY-ers out there, this experience was scary. I seriously thought I was going to lose my hand. Please please please see a professional piercer if you have the money... and if you don't, please take all precautions that you can. Don't pierce deep...these piercings are temporary for a reason, they're not MEANT to be pierced deep. I wouldn't discourage someone from getting a hand-web, but you should be aware of the fact that because of its placement, it does get in the way, and it does get banged a lot. You have to be willing to make some sacrifices for this piercing, if you intend to get it done.

Thanks for reading!