CORSET PIERCING
At A Glance Author Batty Contact Batty@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Patrick Rutter Studio Incline Location Cape Town, South Africa A month ago I had a piercing done that I have wanted for many years. I originally saw it in PFIQ magazine(Piercing Fans International Quarterly) and was struck by its beauty, originality and particular relevance as regards my own personal style.
The catch was finding the right piercer and making sure my body was healthy and strong (I suffer from Anaemia and lymph gland problems).Although it is by no means my first piercing (ears full of metal, nose ring, belly button bar and what I call my vampire teeth; 2 tiny studs below my lower lip, see picture) this was by far the biggest project I had ever embarked upon.
Finally I met Patrick Rutter, and because of his professionalism, integrity and his attention to detail in all the work he did, from the simplest piercing to the most complex, I knew he was the man to pierce 12 holes in my back! Plus my health was excellent, so the scene was set.
I showed Patrick the original picture and we discussed the shape of my back in comparison to the woman in the picture. Patrick then felt along my back looking for where there was the most flesh that could be manipulated. As the beauty of the piercing is in its shape (ie. that of a corset), Patrick measured my back in great detail. Exactly how long the surface bars would be and the indented holes at the bottom had to be perfectly worked out to his extraordinarily high standards. A week before D-day (P-day?) I lay flat on my stomach and Patrick drew on my back and measured with a metal ruler so that I could look in the mirror and have a good idea of where the corset would start and the shape etc.
We juggled a few things around until we were both satisfied and then I was firmly instructed not to lose any weight that week. So it was all systems go.
What I would like to mention here is how lucky I was to find a piercer with such creativity. Patrick (a former machinist) handmade all my surface bars from monofilament. We tried PTFE but the bars were too short. Monofilament holds a thread well, has a low rejection rate and is very flexible (this is important as the back has a lot of movement). Patrick had been experimenting with monofilament on himself as he is prone to keloiding and the results had been very successful. Also, and I was particularly pleased about this part, aesthetically it would look very interesting to not see even the tips of the bars, only the balls.
On the day, I was unfortunately working and then going straight to the studio, but with hindsight, this was better as it took my mind off what I was about to do. I made sure I had breakfast and later a chocolate so that my blood sugar wouldn't drop too far from the shock my body was about to experience.
The piercing itself was a promotional piece for the studio and obviously for Patrick's portfolio, so there were going to be 4 of us in the actual piercing booth: me, Patrick, the photographer, Alan, and my partner, who would be acting as "nurse" by handing Patrick various instruments during the procedure.
Other interested parties who had come to watch were restricted to the doorway and the window; obviously for reasons of space and sterility.
Patrick began by explaining that he would prefer it if only he, I & my partner spoke as he wanted minimal distraction. He reassured me that he would be explaining everything to me as he did it and should I , at any stage, feel faint or unwell, I was to let him know immediately.
The first step was to mark my back, this might take even longer than the actual piercing, as it is essential that this part of the procedure be as accurate as possible as it directly affected where the holes were to be placed.
I stood, arms by my side, relaxed pose as Patrick went to work with steel autoclavable ruler, tape measure and surgical marker. This took approximately 45 minutes and then I lay face down on the "dentists" chair. At this stage I felt strangely calm, although my back was tingling, almost as if in sympathy with what was about to happen!
We started with the bottom 2 holes on either side, as they would be the most difficult. This was because they were angled and Patrick had a lot of skin to pierce at an angle, as opposed to the higher holes which were straighter and thus simpler.
What was reassuring at this stage for me was that Patrick told me he would ask me to take a deep breath in just before the needle went in, this was reassuring for me as this was the modus operandi of all the previous piercings we had done together and so I felt I was on familiar ground.
Pain. What can I say and where do I start? Different for all of us. Yes, the pain was immense. The clamping and pinching of my skin was manageable, but then it felt as if a fine very long red hot needle was being pulled through my lower back. And it went on and on and I kept thinking, surely it must be through out the other end by now.
As previously stated these two holes were a particular challenge because of the angle and the amount of skin the canula had to go under, and yes, I felt it, every millimetre of skin. It was at this point that disaster struck and the canula sheath broke, apparently it just feathered.
This happened twice on both sides whilst piercing these two particular holes, at one point Patrick actually had to pick the broken pieces of canula out of my back.
So we decided to change my position to give Patrick more leverage to work with. I arched my back and brought my knees up to my chest and this angle helped immeasurably. The canulas slipped into the grooves smoothly and the bars were fed through. I think, by this stage, the endorphins had kicked in and I felt strangely drowsy. Patrick kept checking on me, talking to me and shining a tiny arpillary arcbeam(very bright white LED) into my eyes to check my pupils for dilation.
The rest of the holes were like a hot knife sliding through butter compared to the first two. The bars fed through beautifully and I will go so far as to say that I was actually enjoying the sensation of the bar being pulled through and out the other end. Although the tension in the booth had visibly decreased after the first two were finished, I think there was a collective sigh of relief when the last bar was pulled through.
All that remained was for the balls and rings to be attached. This was baby steps compared with what I had just been through, although by this stage the sites of the holes were burning and the pain was intense when Patrick screwed the balls onto the thread. I didn't feel the rings being fitted at all.
My back felt hot although I was freezing. Patrick did his torch- in- pupils- thing and told me to sit up slowly and I was given sugar water. Now all that remained was the piece de resistance: the lacing of the ribbon through the rings, corset style.
I stood up for this, and Patrick took the ribbon from the UV box and laced me up slowly and gently. This was completely painless.
That night I went out to a party with it laced up and a backless dress to highlight it and people's reactions were very interesting. Most people just thought the rings were the surface piercings, but to those that were interested enough, I explained about the bars under the skin and I got the usual questions "was it painful?" (duh!) and quite a lot of guys paraded me past their girlfriends in the hope that they would succeed in convincing them to have it done. Everybody said it was beautiful, but I didn't need the affirmation: I felt beautiful.
My back was doing well, kind of sensitive, that familiar sensation of a new piercing, but towards about 3 in the morning the long day began to take its toll on me, and I began to fade rapidly. My back felt hot and swollen and those accidental, well-meaning hugs and pats on the back that had incurred throughout the evening started to make themselves felt in a searing hot back. Unfortunately my partner is a dj, so I had to wait until he had finished his set to go home.
And that's when the fun and games ended. From then on until up until 2 weeks ago, it has been agony with no ecstasy. The only relief I got was in the bath, believe me, if I could have lain supine in the bath 24 7 I would have. My partner drained the lymph from them every evening and every morning I took a saline bath. The swelling was the most painful, eventually Patrick took the balls off and taped down the ends of the bars. Pain wise, this was a big improvement and the entry points began to drain on their own. I had to keep reminding myself that the swelling was perfectly natural and part of the body healing itself and deciding whether it wanted to accept these alien bars or reject them. At this stage, there was still a big chance of rejection. The next step was to replace the shorter bars with very long ones and balls. This was to facilitate drainage (which was now happening naturally) and movement. After weeks of shuffling to make any Geisha proud, I woke up one morning and without thinking, lifted my arms above my head and stretched my back....and the bars moved with my back, with the muscles!! The body had accepted it, I could walk normally and virtually do anything except lie fully on my back.
So this is where I am at the moment: very long bars with balls on the ends and as soon as the entry points have healed up completely Patrick will put in shorter bars and I can add rings if I want to. I apply nipple cream to the entry points every night to facilitate healing and softening and from here on.....until 3 years down the line when they come out, hmmm gives me and Patrick a bit of time to start thinking of the next one...