At A Glance
Author	Alice
Contact	Alice@bme.anon
When	A month ago
Artist	can't remember her name
Location	Lexington, Ky

It was February. My birthday was approaching and I was ready for a new piercing. I was turning sixteen, and instead of the usual requests for a car, I put in for something a little different-a new piercing. I had wanted the top of my belly button done (I already had the bottom, and was going for a diamond eventually) but the piercer said it would reject because of placement.


I had been wandering around BME the past month or so, looking for alternatives. If the belly button didn't work out I wanted my handweb done. Before you start yelling "inexperienced kid!" at me...I had done my research, knew that I probably had 7 months with it if that, and that it would get infected anyway. I couldn't care less. I had seen a picture of one about a year earlier and fell in love immediately. I wanted this done, more than any other piercing. A guy I know at school has pierced himself responsibly at least 20 times, without rejection/infection/etc., so needless to say I look up to him immensely. He said he thought they were unsafe, and so did every other friend I'd talked to. I didn't care- tongue piercings were looked down upon for a long time before they were finally accepted.


Anyway, after being thoroughly convinced I wanted, needed this, it was time to decide if I would do it at home, or pay someone $60+ to do it for me. I was going to be safe. I was going to do it right. If I did it right, it'd last longer, right? I was even going to get PTFE, with light balls, and have it placed right. I'd done my research.


Finally, she decided she didn't care enough to fight about it. It took her four months to give in (by now it was June). In her eyes it was safer than a tongue piercing. I knew that it would probably heal a lot slower and reject a lot faster than the tongue, but she didn't care.


When we got to the studio (I'm leaving the name out because they probably are a decent studio, this just wasn't the easiest of piercings) the lady didn't seem enthusiastic. I asked her about getting a handweb done. She wouldn't answer me if she had done one before, instead telling me she knew she'd be able to do it. We looked at rings. I asked about PTFE, and she said a large gauge titanium would be just as good. I wanted a ring, but she thought a barbell would be better. We decided on a 12g, but she didn't have any balls to fit it. 10 or 14? I went with 10...bigger is better, right?


The piercing went fine. She did a good job with the cleanliness. It bled a little, but nothing scary. I almost fainted, I guess because it's a really weird feeling to have someone pulling on my hand and I wasn't used to it at all.


Healing went alright. It became infected a week into it. Luckily (I guess) I developed an ear infection the day after and I got antibiotics. They got rid of the infection, and everything was great again. I had it for about 2 days before I knew my body wanted PTFE instead of this big ugly metal thing. I ordered some (do you know how hard it is to find PTFE 10g??). It took about a week to come. It only came with 1 ball though...which didn't even fit. Sooo I ordered a clear 10g acrylic CBR. I'd just use the 2 balls.


After a week of waiting for balls and trying to do 4+ salt soaks a day I was tired of it. I do Kempo (martial arts) 3 times a week. Up until then I'd been wearing 3 bandaids on it, and trying hard not to move it. Last Thursday all of the bandaids fell off because we had to do some stuff that made me sweat extra. Bill (the teacher) saw them, and my partner was definitely freaked out (he was at least 55, and very conservative). He almost refused to work with me. After doing Kempo for almost a year I wasn't going to let anything, especially a piercing I could redo, get in the way.


I took my handweb out last Saturday morning. I hate hate hate retiring piercings. Honestly, I almost cried...my hand felt so empty and light.
Overall, this was a beautiful piercing, but not practical at all. Go ahead and do it, but don't expect to keep it.


If you decide to get it done, (because I had read that line about not keeping it countless times on here and didn't care) make sure you don't use that hand. It will keep your body from rejecting it so much faster. Don't handle money, pets (duh..?) and expect getting ready to take a good 2 hours.