I saw a picture about seven months ago of a nape piercing. Instant love. I trotted into my neighborhood piercing haven, Lucky's, a couple of weeks later on impulse. Shaking like all hell, I informed the woman at the counter that I wanted my nape pierced, and I wanted it now. I was incredibly nervous. I'd never done more than a cartilage piercing on my upper ears, but I found the look of the nape piercing so beautiful that I went for it anyway.
At A Glance Author Beloved Contact Beloved@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Penelope Studio Lucky's Location Northampton, MA The piercer, Penelope, swabbed the area down and informed me that most likely the clamp would hurt worse than the piercing itself. It was wickedly fast. I expected there to more of a delay, as she had to push it through muscle and a wider area of skin, but it wasn't much slower than my later tongue piercing. I didn't even really feel the clamp, and the piercing was like a sharp pinch. The only part I sort of felt as pain was when she inserted the jewelery, and that was really more of an odd feeling of metal being threaded against flesh that had never been directly touched. I got it done low on my neck, almost on my back because I have to be able to hide it from my family. I wanted it to be invisible under a high neck t-shirt.
She told me to clean it with Provon or soap of similar strength a couple times a day, but not too much or I'd irritate it. Dial and other regular handsoaps don't really cut it...a medical grade soap is much better, as they have a much higher rate of success with killing bacteria. She also handed me a small baggie of sea salt, and suggested salt water soaks multiple times a day. Moving the piercing is bad, it's not like a through and through ear piercing...moving it around just annoys it and creates scar tissue and increases the rejection rate.
The healing period is long for this piercing, I think around six months, and it's a tough one to keep clean. It's awkward to do a good salt water soak on the back of your neck all by yourself a bunch of times a day. I tried a Dixie cup and only managed to drip water down my spine and all over my floor. I then tried a cotton ball soaked in salt water. The cotton ball caught on the ends and gummed the bar up and stuck and pulled when I tried to remove them. I never did find a happy medium. Also, if you happen to sleep on your back, or have a fondness for highbacked armchairs like I do, you're gonna be in for a long vacation from comfy sleeping/TV watching, or anything else requiring you to lean back all the way. Also, scarves catch on it like nothing else.
I loved the piercing and it sure as hell drew a lot of attention. It's one of those odd piercings that tend to flip non-piercers out at first, and then strikes them as strangely beautiful. Unfortunately, about two and a half months in it suddenly started rejecting. I noticed it getting gradually closer to the surface of my skin and it had clearly never completely healed. About a month later it began to hurt and the ends began to protrude more an more. After visiting Lucky's for advice, I decided to take it out so as to avoid further scarring, since it was clearly not going to heal correctly. I still miss the feel of it moving underneath my skin and seeing it in the mirror when I'm getting dressed. I don't miss catching my hair in it and catching it on clothing tags though. One piece of advice, nape piercings survive better higher up on the neck, I got mine right above the nob of my spine and have since been told that that may well have contributed to the rejection.
It's been about three months since I removed the jewelry. It's still purple and slightly tender when I press on it, from all the scar tissue beneath the skin. When I run my fingers over it I can feel an indentation from the areas where there is flesh missing underneath. It looks like a really bad oddly shaped bruise in a really odd place. I had to take it out myself which hurt like all hell and I think I may have torn it slightly at the edges, which has contributed to the amount of scarring.
I'm thinking about getting it done again, but higher up this time, since the placement of the last time probably wasn't the best idea, seeing as it caught on almost every piece of clothing I own while it was trying to heal.