My hand webbing piercing.
At A Glance Author AL Contact frostyrider@hotmail.com When Six months ago Artist Scot Studio My Chemist Location Melbourne, Australia I was not new to the world of piercing when I got his done. I already had my tongue, 3 piercings in my belly button, and stretched ears.. so I was past the point of getting nervous, and I definitely new what was going to happen to me. I hadn't planned on getting it done that day, I knew that I wanted it, but never considered getting it until I stumbled across this new place in the city. Because I had never met before, I asked him about his experience and training, and found out that he owned the place, an recently owned a different place and that he did apprenticeships, so I felt comfortable with him. But when he said, "my piercings don't bleed" I figured he was just showing off.
I had seen photos of hand webbing piercings on BME before and decided that I really wanted it. I chose my left hand because I figured it would be restricting while it was heeling and I'm right-handed. I didn't really look into hand web piercings (which i should have), I was just giddy at the fact that we had found a store that had just opened up so all of the piercings were discounted. All piercings were 50 dollars AUS. Even surface and genital piercings.
When I walk into a piercing room it always makes me feel uneasy, just because it's so sterile- and you can sense how many other people have been here and felt nervous. That sense of adrenaline. I was asked to lie down because i had advised the piercer that I had a tendency to faint around needles. The piercing was fast, and it didn't hurt much. It hurt more than my tongue piercing though. I hate the part where they slide the tube out once the jewelry is in. You think that the pain is all over and then they do that and it really stings. I was really happy once I got it done, it looked great. It was 14 gauge. It didn't swell much and it didn't go red at all. My piercer just told me to spray it morning and night with this stuff I had bought from him, and to come back in 6 weeks if I wanted him to change it. He never gave me any other information about it.
I couldn't flex my hand for the first day and a half, and I couldn't pick up anything heavy or unscrew jars. It was really restricting, but after a while it calmed down. I loved it for about the first 2 weeks, but i guess that's when i started getting lazy with it. Before I was careful not to bump it, but it started to catch on everything, it got ripped so many times and became infected. I went to a different piercer to take a look at it after about 3 weeks of getting it done, because it was really sore. They told me that i should probably take it out, and that it was never meant to be a long term piercing. I decided to make the most of it before I took it out, and I changed it to a purple titanium bar with spikes. That didn't make it any worse, it looked pretty cool, but the piercing never got any better. It never fully healed and after about a month I decided to retire it. It just hurt too much and was way too annoying. Its not a long term piercing and I wish I had have known that before I spent the money on it. It was fun while it lasted.
People's reactions: I was surprised to see that a lot of people didn't know it was a regular piercing and thought that I had done it myself. A lot of other people thought it was gross and felt uneasy just looking at it (i.e. my own brother, who is pretty squeamish). Most people had never seen it before and thought it was pretty cool. Everyone wanted to touch it and sometimes I would get home from parties and it would be really irritated from all the excited people poking and pushing it.
Regrets? I don't really regret it, because I know that I wouldn't have been satisfied until I had gone through with it. Plus I was in love with it for the first 2 weeks.
Advice: This really isn't a piercing that you can keep for a long time. If you don't get sick of it in a month like I did, then it will probably grow out or have to be taken out form infection soon after. Also, don't let everybody touch it, because it gets irritated and sore. Always research before you get a new body piercing.