A few years ago I got interested in surface piercing. At the time there were few people in the UK who were interested in it and even fewer who would do it. I finally found someone but it was their first go at surface piercing and they didn't have the proper jewellery. Needless to say the straight barbell grew out and I was left with a nice scar.
At A Glance Author stripey_kitten Contact stripey_kitten@bme.anon IAM stripey_kitten When A month ago Artist John Studio Nirvana Location Glasgow Cut to one month ago. Surface piercing has been getting more common and as I have always had an interest in it I figured that now was the time to have another go at my wrist. My usual piercer wasn't up for doing it but then I remembered another piercer who had done some work for me a few years back. I went to see him to talk about a possible surface piercing.
When I got to Nirvana I asked John about the possibility of a surface piercing. He explained that he had done quite a few but with varying degrees of success. I wanted my barbell to sit horizontally across my wrist but John didn't think this was a good idea. He had done a number of horizontal piercings and he told me that they tended to grow out. I was disappointed because this was what I wanted and it seemed that once again I wouldn't be able to have a surface piercing which would last for more than a few weeks. However he then offered me an alternative. He had begun piercing wrists diagonally. He explained that there seemed to be less chance of these piercings rejecting. He also drew me a diagram showing how he would place the barbells if I chose to have 2 piercings. I was impressed. The balls sitting on the surface of the wrist seemed to form a diamond shape. It was so pretty and I could just imagine the metal on my skin. I decided that this was the piercing for me.
John was free at that point so we decided to do the first piercing then. He explained to me what was going to happen: that he was going to measure up my wrist and see where he thought both the piercings should be placed and then do the first one. This seemed to take ages. It was a fine art, trying to make sure the marks formed a perfect diamond shape and that the two barbells would run parallel. Once this was done John showed me the barbell. I was surprised because he was going to pierce me with a curved barbell. I was to leave this piece of jewellery in for 10-14 days before returning to the shop to get it changed for more appropriate surface piercing jewellery. The question I always get asked is, did it hurt? Honestly, no it didn't, I hardly felt a thing. John actually had to tell me that we were finished because I didn't even realise the needle had gone in.
The next few days were hellish. Having a new piercing and a toddler do not go well together. Every time I went to pick the wee man up, I managed to catch one of the balls on something. After a couple of days I learnt to cover my wrist before I changed a nappy. It seemed to heal well and two weeks later I went back to Nirvana to get the jewllery changed. John explained that he was going to use a pin to get the hole open as he inserted the new jewellery. It was over in a matter of seconds. The curved barbell had been taken out and replaced with an insertion pin which was in turn replaced with the surface piercing jewellery. It looked perfect, I was so happy.
John explained that I should wait until the swelling went down before I had a go at the next one. Two weeks later I was ready and we went through the whole process again, exactly the same as I've already recounted.
And now, two weeks after the second piercing was fitted with the surface piercing jewellery, here I am. My 2 year old has become obsessed with the fact that mummy has these silver balls on her wrist. He tends to try and pull at them or just stares and tries to prod them. The piercings seem to be healing well and have only given me cause for concern a couple of times. Firstly the skin around them is still red and uncharacteristically dry. I'm sure this will pass and I'm tending not to worry about it too much because it isn't causing me any discomfort. Secondly, every so often (usually when I catch it on something) a large amount of fluid oozes out of it. I can only presume that it isn't draining properly but again there are no real signs of infection and no pain so I'm just going to see how it goes. I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep these ones in a lot longer than my other surface piercings. I just need to remember that they are not a child's plaything.