I had never had any other piercings except my ear lobes and my cartilage. I got my tragus pierced and it made me want to get something else done. I began looking online at what other people had gotten done, since I was pretty new to piercings and knew very little. That's when I found what I wanted.... I knew it the moment I saw it. I wanted my wrist pierced! It looked soooo beautiful.
At A Glance Author meggs Contact meggs@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Atom Studio Ritual Location Cedar Falls, IA So I set out here in town. There are a few different piercing places, and me knowing nothing just set out for the one I had heard the best things about. Little did I know what a mistake I would make.
I went in to talk to the piercer, Atom, about what I wanted. He seemed really cool and interested in what I wanted to do. He set up an appointment for me to come back when he had more time.
One broken appointment and several days of anticipation later, I went back to Atom to get my piercing. I was so excited. I had decided that I wanted both wrists done, but Atom basically refused to do both at once. He said he wanted to let one side heal before doing the other. This seemed reasonable enough so I agreed.
Now, the story is going to start to go downhill, but let's keep in mind that I was very new to piercing experiences, especially surface.
Atom had me sit down so he could mark where to pierce. My friend Jenny had come with me for moral support. I left the decision of placement up to Atom since I figured he knew what he was doing. He marked for the piercing on my arm in what I would learn to be a very bad spot.... he put the piercing on the top side of my arm right where your wrist bends, right next to where that little protrusion (??) of your ulna (arm bone) is. The piercing bar was about 1 inch long. This meant very little to me.
So Atom marked my arm, did the whole pinching the skin to reduce blood flow and stuff deal and got the clamp ready (I'm pretty sure he used a clamp, but I was so nervous at this point I wasn't really paying attention). I was gripping Jenny's hand so hard I thought she would smack me. He slid the needle through and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was nothing!! I tend to get really light headed and dizzy after being stuck with needles, but it passed quickly. He put the bar through with the cute little blue balls on the end. I was instantly in love. One of the next things I noticed though is that it was a little slanted. I mentioned it to Atom after Jenny agreed. He explained it away by saying he had to slant it a little to follow the way my wrist would bend... it's hard to explain, but if you bend your wrist up, you'll notice it bends more on the side closer to your thumb. So, I accepted this, paid my money, and went happily on my way. I was so happy and I loved my wrist once I got used to the fact that it was slanted.
It wasn't until a few months later that I wasn't so happy anymore. I know it takes a long time for surface piercings to heal, but mine was bad. It was constantly getting infected, no matter how careful I was. The one side of my wrist eventually developed an abcess.
Then the one day came when I went to another piercing studio with my sister. My sister was getting some henna done for fun, and the piercer asked what the deal was with my wrist. I explained my story, and he proceeded to explain to me what was wrong with my wrist. It was crooked, too short/deep, right on the bend of my wrist, and had narrowly missed a large vein. I was so upset that my wrist was not healing (and looked horrible) and the piercer, Mike, assured me it probably wouldn't. Mike tried to help me out by replacing the metal bar (which I learned was some crappy bar that Atom had bent himself) with a tygon bar. Mike told me that might help it heal. I left the tygon in for awhile with no real improvement. About 6-7 months after getting my wrist done, I sadly decided to take it out. I still have two horrible purple scars, but I think I did the right thing. I still think wrist piercings are beautiful and I would like to try getting another one, this time with Mike as my piercer. He has done a few piercings for me so far, and I really like him. Best of luck if you are getting a wrist piercing.