The Madison piercing.. the story of how i got mine is a tale.
At A Glance Author Jai Contact Jai@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Keri Studio Needleworks Location Birmingham, Oasis Market I love piercing. Thats the long and short of it.
I love getting pierced, I love the feeling, the adrenaline, the look of a new adornment on my body, and I also love looking after a beautiful piece of art on, or should I say, in my body. I want to become a piercer and I want to share the joy that I get when I get pierced with others. And its not that I got bored with normal piercings..lip, tongue etc, its just that I wanted a piercing for people to go "wow!" at, and be scared or intrigued by.
Anyway, after an MSN conversation with my friend Paul one morning, we decided to go to Birmingham so that he could get his ear pierced. He had never had a piercing before, and we were going to a studio I knew and trusted and I love the people who work there, they are the friendliest, most professional bunch of people ever, not to mention the funniest! At this point I hadn't even considered getting a new piercing, as I was still looking after my eye-line piercing which I had had done two weeks previous.
Walking down the stairs to Needleworks, my face lit up when I saw the people working, my two favourite piercers, Ross and Keri. We spoke to Keri and Ross about Paul and him getting his ear pierced and standing there watching him being pierced I felt the old feeling creeping up inside my head, the one that tells me "Jai, you have to get pierced".. and I ignored it for as long as I could but still ended up thinking that I needed to have a piercing in an area that I could hide it away easily and it was around this time I knew I was going to get something done, there and then. Eventually after standing there for a while with newly pierced Paul, I knew I had to have something done, and it had to be shocking. Now I had thought before about the idea of having the front of my neck done (I didn't know the name for it at this point - now I know it is called a "Madison" piercing), and at first I wanted a ring in it, so it looked extra cool, but after a talk with Keri, we realised that a bar would have to be used, due to the fact of a ring getting caught on clothes etc.
We went into one of the two rooms they have and I sat on the side of the bed as Keri bent, cleaned and got ready for the piercing. She marked it out, made sure I was OK with the placement and then cleaned the area, and clamped it with forceps. Now having the skin just below your adam's apple clamped isn't the most comfortable feeling I can tell you that, but it's worth it. The freeze spray was put on and the skin went hot then numb, and I knew this was it. The piercing that would shock people, and make them wonder about piercings would adorn my body for however long it took to heal and grow itself out. Keri told me to breathe in, and then out, and as I breathed out the needle was pushed through and to my surprise I didn't feel a thing. She picked up the jewellery, pushed it through with a little bit of force (this bit was sore, it was hard to put a bent metal bar through a straight piercing!) and "hey presto!" the piercing was finished! She cleaned the piercing over, made sure it was all ok and straightened up and made sure the skin was taut around it so that the piercing sat flush and straight along my neckline.
I had my momentary rush of blood to my head, and the adrenaline kicked in straight away sending me into a hyper mood. I walked out of the room, and promptly was asked questions about my new piercing. I showed it off to a few people outside who asked me about it, which was my main reasoning behind it, I wanted it for me, but I also wanted it to show non pierced people the extremities or the ways in which we can adorn our bodies to an advantageous point, either for vanity or just for a shock factor and the attention that comes with it. I paid up, left and had people staring straight away at my piercing, I think Paul felt a bit left out as he was just pierced as well(!)The aftercare went well, using salt water solution and making sure I cleaned regularly, as I'm used to cleaning up piercings by now(!) and it seemed to be healing very well given the placement.
Since then I have taken my piercing out, my work did not like it, as it was still in a viewing area, and so I proceeded to take it out. But as soon as I get a new job, that is more lenient on body mod's, I am having it re-pierced, maybe slightly higher so it is more noticable. I loved this piercing and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to show off, shock people, or gain a little bit of attention using their bodies.