I had always been interested in piercings in high school but never went past my belly button and gauging my ears. I moved away from a pretty small town to attend college. I was highly influenced by the diversity and cultural differences in Tucson. The bizarre piercings worn by the people downtown really caught my eye and having piercing/tattoo shops on every corner didn't curve my curiosity.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact m9shell@hotmail.com When Two years ago Studio Fireblood Location Tucson, Arizona The first few months of living in Tucson I gained quite a few new piercings. I was reluctant to get the one that I felt was the most beautiful, a surface piercing on the back of the neck (nape). I had always researched all my piercings for the most part here on BME. I found no critical affects with the nape piercing, just that it could reject, or push itself out. Many shops here would not perform surface piercings due to the large number of rejects that the piercers had came across.
One day a tattoo artist told me of a shop that would do the nape piercing. So a friend and I went to talk to them about it. I ended up telling myself that if I didn't do it right then that I wouldn't come back. He told me it would be 60 dollars including jewelry, so after seeing his apprentices 3 nape piercings I decided to go ahead and do it. The only thing that had me a little worried was that he used a 45 degree curved barbell instead of the staple shaped bars I had read were better to use and less likely to reject. I wanted it done so bad that I went ahead anyway. It took him about 20 minutes to get the pen marks, where he would pierce it, even on my neck. He wanted to go a little farther up than most due to my skin being more flexible right below my hairline. Finally we decided the marks looked centered. I was pretty nervous that the pain would be great due to the spot but it really wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. I would say it was definitely less pain than a cartilage piercing. I loved the way it looked but I did wish that the bar was a little longer.
I decided about 3 months later to get another nape piercing below my first one. I heard about a new shop that had opened in town called Fireblood. I went to see if they would be able to do the piercing even though my skin was pretty tight below the first one. They looked at my neck and said that it would work. The shop seemed very clean and professional. The men who worked there had been piercing for years. It seemed like they would perform any type of piercing. I later attended one of their suspension shows that they put on here in Tucson. The piercers were very helpful with what I wanted. They said if I wanted to have a longer piercing I could use a synthetic flexible material called tygon or a staple shaped bar that was about 4 millimeters longer than the one I already had. They told me that the tygon would have to be replaced every 4 months so I chose the bar, which was a pretty good length. The piercer said that the cost with the jewelry would be 70. They had me stand to get the dots on so that they lined up with my neck and other piercing. This one would stick out about 2 millimeters longer on each side of my other nape piercing and it ended up being about ½ inch below it. They piercers had me lay face down on what seemed to be a doctor's table. With one of the men on each side I heard one of them count to three. All I felt was the pressure of the needle but no stabbing or stinging pain. It was much less painful than my first one. It was done in about 30 seconds and it looked great. I learned about a year later that Fireblood had closed due to lack of business.
My first nape piercing pushed itself out about an eighth of the way, so that there was a bit of bar sticking out on each side that I could feel but nobody could really see. I left it in until 2 months ago because I had started to get hard scar tissue on the left side. The scar tissue had been there for about 3 months but it started to become tender and I just didn't feel it was worth it getting bigger. Days after I took it out the scar tissue went away. I still have the longer nape piercing, which also pushed itself out a little within the first couple months but still looks great. Unfortunately, within the last 3 weeks I have developed scar tissue around the left side of this one too. The area of scar tissue grows larger every week. It is now about the size of the tip of my pointer finger. It is starting to become sore like the other one had. You cannot see it but you can feel the hardness of it. I really do not want to take this last nape bar out so 3 days ago I went into a piercing shop called Halo that I buy plugs for my ears from. They told me to rub oil on the scar tissue so I purchased some emu oil from them. I have been using it for only 3 days so there aren't any changes yet but hopefully it will decrease the rate that the tissue grows or even eliminate it completely.
If you too love the look of this piercing I recommend it. I'm a wimp and I don't think it was very painful at all. A large part of the reason I waited so long to get it is because of peoples reactions to surface piercings. They will tell you that it will migrate out within 4-6 months. I have had mine for 2 years and they migrated a little within the first few months but that was it. I also sleep on my back every night and that has not caused a problem. If you have any questions feel free to email me.