It's been about a year since I had my MadMax bar put in and I'm so pleased it has remained with me and healed well.
At A Glance Author Spitting Doll Contact spittingdoll@aol.com When A year ago Artist Quentin Studio Kalima Location Worthing I decided on this piercing after seeing pictures of it on several body piercing forums. 'Decided on this piercing' is actually not the way to describe it. I fell in love with this piercing. I did a search online and discovered Kalima (www.kalima.co.uk) who not only do MadMax piercings but make their own jewellery from surgical grade titanium. After exchanging few emails and phone calls with the studio and looking at their gallery of past work I decided they were the place to go.
Worthing where the studio is, is about an hours train ride from my London home. I got up early enough to have a good breakfast (fish fingers!) and spent the journey pinching the back of my neck to try and figure out how much this was or wasn't going to hurt. I already had a nape piercing but it was a few years old and my mind tends to gloss over pain! I always go on my own to get pierced as I like having some time to take in my new mod afterwards without having someone else in my face but in this case I slightly regretted not asking someone to come and hold my hand!
I arrived at Kalima to find a lovely studio and very friendly girl on the desk. I was offered a coffee but declined as my heart was racing slightly. I guess no matter how many times you are pierced you always get a few jitters. Quentin had a feel of the back of my neck while I was drooling over some of the jewellery and said I was lucky to have elastic skin as this would hold the piercing well.
He asked me how I had found my nape piercing and I said it wasn't too painful. He was very honest in saying the MadMax would be slightly more intense as it was a slower procedure due to the need for the bar to be placed correctly.
Now into the piercing room. I sat in an upright chair (with arm rests to hold on tight to!) and he marked my neck up explaining he would pierce first from the right side in, insert the jewellery and then the left side from the inside going outwards. He explained I would probably feel a lot of pressure rather than pain and only a slight sting as the needle exited. It was excellent to be reassured 'I won't do anything without telling you first.' Through out the preparation Quentin kept me chatting and before I knew it we were ready to go.
The first piercing was slower than most I have had done but by no means more painful. I felt a lot of pushing on my neck and a sharp sensation as the needle exited. I didn't feel the jewellery being inserted other than a bit of tugging but it didn't hurt. The second hole was slightly harder going. I had expected this as the body naturally tenses up when it thinks 'Ooo you're hurting me.' I kept breathing just. This one took a bit longer and there was a bit of a struggle getting the needle through. Just when I began to think 'OK this is too OUCH' it was done. Again having the jewellery fed through was fine with a sort of popping sensation as it finally slotted into place. Once the little cones were screwed in I was one happy girl.
My neck felt very stiff after being pierced and I had a bit of a psychological block against turning my head. This made crossing roads on the way back to the train station extremely difficult so for this reason alone I would recommend taking a friend if you get a MadMax bar!
The stiffness didn't last long though and after a night of 'How the hell do I sleep with this?' my body adapted to my new piercing. Healing was no problem. My lovely Mum who finds these things very frightening obliged by being my eyes until my body learnt where the piercing was and dabbed at it with salt soaked cotton buds. Regular salt soaks in the bath helped a lot as well.
Though a year on my Madmax has healed and is happy I do find I need to give it a good hot soak in the bath every now and then just to stop gunk building up around it. People always ask me if I get it caught on clothes and things but that hasn't been a problem. I have only caught it twice in all this time, once I gave it a hell of a yank in the shower when I was drunk *ah hem* and it didn't suffer much.
My boyfriend hates my Madmax bar but I adore it and it's here to stay.