I was looking at your web site and I came across toe piercing under hand piercing, which is why I categorized this as hand, not toe. I immediately liked it and so did my friend(1) so we decided to get it done together. However, when the time came, she didn't get it done. She planned to get it later on, but as for me, I still wanted it sooner. So while she was out, she bought me a tiny curved 14 G barbell for when the time that I was ready rolled around.
At A Glance Author Erin When A month ago Artist a friend The time rolled around. I was sleeping over her house and my other friend was getting her belly button done. I decided to do my toe in the same night as her. I got my piercing done first. She, friend one, who would be doing the piercing, cleaned her bathroom, attempting to make it as germ-free as she could. She cleaned all of her equipment and told us to enter the bathroom.
I sat on the toilet and held my foot out. I wanted the piercing to be on my right foot, toe next to my big toe, and the area under the knuckle of the toe. She pulled at the skin seeing how much there was to pierce. I was worried there wasn't going to be enough skin, but there was. She tried using a clamp (which hurt) even though she already figured it wouldn't work, which it didn't. It wasn't a big deal, she just didn't use it. She marked my toe and got out a sterile 14 G needle.
I was expecting it to hurt so badly that I just relaxed and tried to accept the horrible pain I was about to endure. Much to my surprise, it didn't hurt badly at all. It barely felt like anything. She then put the barbell in and blood poured everywhere. That was the only thing that bothered me a little but she cleaned it up and it was fine. It looked beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
I took care of it, cleaning it with antibacterial soap. I wore clean socks. I tried not to wear shoes which weren't comfy anyway, due to the swelling of a new piercing. I didn't walk a lot. One, for the sake of the piercing. Two, I looked like a complete gimp and my parents didn't know I had it done. Keeping off it and keeping it elevated seemed to help the soreness too.
The night after the night I got it pierced was hell. It was so swollen and sore I couldn't sleep. The next night was even worse. All day I tried not using it and keeping it elevated and it seemed to be doing fine. Fine, until later that night. My entire foot was red, and swollen, huge. I called my friend for advice of what I should do and we eventually came to the conclusion that I needed to take it out. Once we got that decided, there was another problem. My toe was so swollen that I couldn't get a grip on the balls and couldn't get the barbell out. By this time I felt like the most probable thing to do, would be to amputate my foot, it would've ended a lot of pain. I tried different things but I finally ran cold water on my foot which not only let the pain down a little, but got the swelling down just enough to get a good grip on the ball. I got one ball off. I looked at it. I was so tempted to keep it in, it was so pretty, but I knew I couldn't so I took it out.
After that, I expected it to be done and over with and have my foot back to normal in a couple days. No, that was not the case. my foot was black for a week or so. It was purple for a week or so. It was swollen until it turned red, which is what it still is. I was worried about it because my parents didn't know about it so I couldn't go to the doctors. However, I'm sure it's healing, I am able to bend my toe now which is a good sign. I've talked to a few people and I think the problem was that she might have hit a blood vessel or a nerve.
In conclusion, if you are thinking about getting it done, I think it is a wonderful piercing and the actual piercing itself doesn't hurt that badly. However, make sure if you get it done, to have a couple days where you don't have to move around a lot so that it can heal with out difficulties. Also, hope that the person piercing it doesn't hit anything. Maybe some day I'll get the toe on the other side pierced, but for now I think I'll just let the one heal itself.