This is about my surface piercing I had under my navel it contains the piercing procedure, healing and rejection.
At A Glance Author Arcane Contact Arcane@bme.anon IAM arcane When N/A Artist Vampy Studio our house Location Norwich I was warned that living with Vampy might mean I would become her guinea pig for piercings and sure enough, she asked if I wanted a surface piercing so that she could gain experience on the punch and taper procedure on someone she knew. I jumped at the chance straight away as I had been looking at surface piercings and thought they were very dramatic and something I would want. After considering having under my collarbones pierced, we decided on under my navel as it would go with my current navel piercing and, could be hidden if I wanted it to be.
The piercing took place in the piercing room, which is (conveniently) in our house. Vampy is an experienced piercer and I trust her to pierce and poke me completely, I know that everything used is safe and all needles are new and sterile. Vampy cleaned the room up and together we chose which surface bar would be best suited to the area. Then while she sterilised everything. I was told to gently rub the area that would be pierced so that the area would be easier to manipulate later.
Once everything was ready, I went and lay on the bench and Vampy explained what would be happening. Gren put the Distillers on for me so I could concentrate on something while the procedure was happening. Vampy started marking out the area and after checking it was all positioned correctly, and after I had annoyed her several times asking if she was gong to begin yet, she started. I craned my neck to try to see the procedure. Two holes were dermal punched into my stomach, as the dermal punch was so sharp it felt just like a series of small cuts. This shocked me slightly as I was expecting the dermal punches to be especially painful. There was a bit of blood as I expected but considering what was happening it was minimal. Then after a bit of making sure they were both deep enough and even, Vampy started to separate the layers of tissue between the two dermal punches. This bit took a while, as it was her first time using the punch and taper method, so everything was checked and double-checked and it went slowly. I was busy singing away anyway, thinking that the worst pain was still to come. The separating of the tissues did not hurt at all; the only discomfort was due to the amount of pressure being applied to the area. After about 15minutes the surface bar was placed into the piercing and it was all done. Vampy cleaned up the area a bit and I slowly sat up. My stomach ached from the pressure and movement applied to it but the piercing hurt surprisingly little. I looked at it in a mirror and could not stop smiling, it was incredible, and my stomach looked like something I could be proud about.
Aftercare was two salt soaks a day (though to be honest I was slack on this). Throughout the whole time I had the piercing there was crust around each ball everyday. For the first few weeks, it wept when knocked. I was careful to wear low cut trousers so that it was not caught but when I sat down it got caught on the waistband and small things like walking up stairs annoyed the piercing. The surface bar was not visible for the first few months, you could only see the balls either side.
I think this piercing was probably the most beautiful piercing I have had so far. When I showed some of my friends, who are not into piercings, they were amazed and I found myself having to explain the piercing to many people. A man I met on a train was astounded when he saw it as I was sitting down and I spent the entire two-hour journey talking to him about the procedure and the idea of surface piercings and implants. I really enjoyed the piercing and the comments I got from it, I wanted to show it off to the world and even my dad, who hates piercings, said it was nice.
The piercing started to grow out after about four months, this was mainly because it was being knocked while I slept and being clumsy (which is most of the time), the piercing raised up showing the bar underneath and the bars protruded more. This meant it became caught even more. It gradually became painful when touched by anything, and the area between the balls became bruised and sore. Because it didn't look good I started covering it up, and it made me unhappy that I had something so nice and unusual that I didn't want people to see. Due to these reasons, I removed the piercing after about 6months. I believed if I cared for it enough it would be fine, but soon realised that was not true. The area afterwards was sore and wept for about a week afterwards. Once the dermal punched holes healed, it was red for another couple of months. What I am left with now is a red line with two pink scars either side, which I am expecting to heal to two small scars in the future.
I would recommend this to anyone seriously considering the idea. The punch and taper method, though lengthy was not painful just uncomfortable. If you are getting this piercing be warned it needs a lot of care and attention, the smallest knock can send a shot of pain through you. Though mine was never fully healed I think it was defiantly worth it. The scar is a bit of a pain but it will fade. I do not regret it and would have it again.