This is my story of my first surface piercing. I had a 1.5 inch surface piercing done on my left wrist about 7 weeks ago while I was in Edmonton, Alberta. My piercer was M@ from Divine [on Whyte].
At A Glance Author pinkskull Contact lady_rage@hotmail.com When Three months ago Artist M@ Studio Divine Location Edmonton, Alberta, Canada The barbell is the proper bent surface jewelery that is recommended and my piercer was experienced and very professional as well as sterile. Having it actually done was an amazing feeling, not painful. The bar goes in quite deep so after it pricks through all the layers of your skin on one side all you can feel is the needle sliding along under your skin, its an almost eroticly hot feeling.
But to warn anyone thinking of having it done, it is a relatively slow thing to have pierced. Not one of those 1-2-3-DONE type deals. It took about 15 seconds from when the needle first went in till it came out. Seeing the barbell put in was interesting as well and was much quicker than the piercing itself. But I did not find it painful whatsoever.
I treated it with daily saline soaks and did my best to not touch it, bump it, snag it, etc [which takes some getting used to, even digging into your pockets can really snag it badly!] and it was doing great until the 4th day I had it. I woke up that morning and it was red and painful and quite swollen.
I started soaking it 2-3 times a day and took ibuprofin to reduce the swelling. It didn't get any better and actually started to hurt a few inches all around the initial piercing. There was also puss coming out from it.
I went to see a doctor at the hospital who told me I was reacting to the metal. I informed him that it was surgical steel and there was no way I was reacting to it as I have numerous other piercings all with the same metal and have never had a problem.
He then told me it was infected. He only looked at my wrist for about 3 seconds to make this diagnosis. He told me to take the piercing out. I questioned him on that as it is my understanding that the LAST thing you want to do with an infected piercing is take it out due to the risk of it abcessing. He assured me it wouldn't abcess but I still refused to take it out. I went on anti biotics for a week and it seemed to get better. Around where the bar comes out on both sides was still a bit red and dry looking but there was no more swelling or discharge.
I assumed it was healed and was quite happy with it up until two weeks ago when puss starting oozing out of it. There are two small bumps on each end of the bar under my skin where I assume infection is festering again.
I'm prepared to go back on antibiotics as I really, REALLY like this piercing and would like to keep it but if it just wont heal there is not much I can do about it. If I do take it out I plan to wait a few weeks and then have it repierced once again by M@ at Divine.
***Also a note to anyone considering getting this, it interfers with a lot of things. If you work a job with kids or animals I would not recommend it. If you do any kind of construction job or anything labourous where you use your hands a lot I wouldnt recommend it. It gets bumped easily which only increases the chance of infection or rejection. There is an apprentice at Divine who had both his wrists done in the same spot as mine and last time I was in there having my septum done last December Donny [a piercer there] told me that the apprentice has ripped out one of the bars while he was working. Having this piercing ripped out would be excrutiatingly painful as well it would leave a large scar in a very visible place.
Any other questions or if you would like to see pictures please email me at lady_rage@hotmail.com and if you would like to see a picture of it when it was done go to
http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=2205548&imageID=39593079&Mytoken=20050118160238
Other piercings I have include a labret, vertical labret, septum, 1/2" lobes, tragus, rook and eyebrow. If you have questions about any of them please feel free to contact me.
And lastly, I would like to add that the guys at Divine in Edmonton, Alberta are GREAT. I've had piercings done by both M@ and Donny and they are both friendly, informative, professional and cute :)! I do not attribute my infection due to any wrong doing on their behalf its just the luck of the draw with body piercings.