I talk incessantly when nervous, so when I went to get my nape pierced a month ago, my piercer remarked that I seemed to know a lot about body piercing. I replied, "I have a lot of free time," but what I really meant was, "BMEzine, BMEzine, BMEzine."
At A Glance Author Lizz Contact Lizz@bme.anon IAM lizzicide When A month ago Artist James Watts Studio Miraculous Creations Location Worcester, MA As soon as I realized I wanted nothing more for my 17th birthday than to have some metal put through the back of my neck, I began a frantic search for a piercing studio in Massachusetts that does surface piercing the RIGHT WAY. No tygon or curved barbells for me, thanks. Punch-and-taper familiarity would have been nice, but, knowing that the procedure is a fairly new one, I wasn't going to split hairs over it. So I emailed around and, after getting no response from -any- of the nine studios I emailed, I started phoning in inquiries. I was really disheartened to hear that at least three of the studios in MA use curved barbells -- totally inappropriate jewelry for this kind of surface work -- but I was lucky enough to stumble upon James Watts at Miraculous Creations in Worcester. He mentioned having 7 years of surface work under his belt, but it was the custom-bent, staple-shaped surface bar that sold me on his studio. Anything less is just asking for rejection.
A few days later, my mom and I headed on over. My anxiety level had to be around 8 or 9. I had managed to forget that the pain never lives up to the agony of anticipation, and it didn't help that I'd more or less convinced myself that my anatomy was such that the piercing would be impossible, as I have almost no grab-able skin on the back of my neck.
We arrived right after the studio had opened, catching the staff a little off-guard. How friendly can you expect anyone to be when they've just finished setting up for the day, right? My mom and I signed various waivers and affirmed that I have no bloodbourne illnesses or allergies. James reached into a case full of jewelry and pulled out two straight barbells from which I could choose, one with large balls and one with small ones. When I asked if I could change the balls to flat discs, he said that they're externally threaded (big no-no, but what are you going to do?), so no. "Actually," he said, "The balls are better for a healing piercing, because any hair or anything that gets stuck behind a flat disk is going to be impossible to get off. With the beads, all that debris just slides right off without even getting caught." Made enough sense for me. I chose the bigger set of beads and he lead me to a small room. I took a seat in an office chair, Jesse Tanner style, while he ran the equipment and jewelry through the autoclave behind me. I stripped down to a tank top, put my hair up with an elastic, and had him feel the back of my neck to make sure that he could actually pierce it at all. He said it was "Perfect." Lemme tell you, hearing him say that lifted my spirits considerably.
Perfectionist that he is, he definitely took his time marking and remarking and remarking it. My mom and I both took a look at the final placement of the purple dots. Poifect. He had me tilt my head just a little, and on went the clamps. Ow. The tighter the clamps went, the more it hurt. I actually winced and considered asking him to speed things up a bit, but he asked me to breathe out and he slid the needle through so easily. I felt the most immense relief of my life, knowing it was over and he could take those effing clamps off. I actually muttered "Oh thank god," and then seized up a little when he told me he was going to insert the jewelry... Thankfully, I barely felt it going through or him putting on the beads. I checked it out with the help of two mirrors and...it was love at first sight.
He sent me home with his card (so I can come back for checkups), a bottle of Satin soap, a container of sea salt, and an extensive aftercare packet. On the train home, I was terrified of turning my head, but sleeping has been easy. It lymphs like crazy, but it's mostly pain-free (and I'm a wimp about pain), and I don't remember any swelling. I clean it with the Satin every time I shower, but I haven't bothered with any sea salt soaking so far. It doesn't look or feel irritated or dry, but if he tells me that sea salt soaks are absolutely necessary when I go back for a checkup, I guess I'll have to figure out some way to balance a glass of hot, salty water against my neck. Can't say I'm looking forward to it, but if it's the difference between a piercing that lasts and a piercing that rejects, I'll do my best. I've only caught it on something once, and while it did hurt a -bit-, it didn't send me into hysterics or anything. Overall, a pretty happy piercing.
I feel like I'm the only one in the world who likes my nape piercing -- and that's alright, because I love it so much, it makes up for every friend who's cringed at the sight of the thing (And for every Hot Topic employee who's felt the need to tell me that every girl who works there has the same piercing. What makes them think I care? Argh.)