I have been interested in body modification since I was in the Eighth grade. The piercing that I wanted constantly changed, but around eleventh grade I realized exactly what I wanted: a collarbone surfacing. The only problem was I was only 16 and would have to wait until I was in college and turned eighteen to actually get my piercing done. My parents are very against body modification and got raging mad when I told them I was stretching my lobes, so I knew this was a piercing I had to get on my own when I was of legal age to do so.
At A Glance Author erika-lee Contact erika-lee@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Mike Studio Needlewurks Location Saratoga, NY My 18th birthday occurred during Thanksgiving Break, so I was home and had to find a piercer. I had only heard good things about Needlewurks in Saratoga, NY, so I decided "ok, i'll go there." This was my first mistake. I didn't search out piercers in my area that had expertise and knowledge about surface piercings, instead, I just decided on a piercer because of word of mouth.
I took my boyfriend with me the Wednesday after my birthday to Needlewurks to get my surfacing. I was more excited than I can possibly tell you. I filled out the form and Mike (who was going to be my piercer) asked me if I had any other piercings other than my lobes, which I didn't. Being a concerned piercer, he talked to me about care for surface piercings and their high rejection rate. I was hell bent to get this done, and I had known everything he told me about surface piercings because I had done as much research as I could online. Mike was a little skeptical of my wanting to get a surfacing done because it would be my first mod, but when he showed me the jewelry he was going to use and I asked if he had any with flat disks, his mood towards me changed completely. Unfortunately he didn't, and the balls would only prove to bring about the demise of my beloved first mod.
Finally the time came for me to go into that tiny room and get my piercing! Unfortunately, the sterile smell of the shop made my boyfriend sick so I didn't even have a hand to hold while getting a needle shoved into my chest. Mike made me feel really calm even though the amount of adrenaline coursing through me kept making me shake. He asked me why I wanted it done, because apparently a lot of girls had been in that week looking for the same piercing. I was disappointed to hear that collarbone surfacing is a "trendy" piercing (at least in Saratoga, NY) but it wasn't a deterrent for me. I wanted to get this done! My parents hadn't let me do anything to my appearance while I lived under their roof other than the occasional coloring of my hair. This would prove to be my liberation!
It only took two tries to get everything lined up. Mike told me to take some deep breaths and count to three. In all honesty, I don't even remember feeling the needle go through my skin. I was so hopped up on my own adrenaline that I remember feeling a pinching feeling and Mike kept telling me to take deep, slow breaths. Before I knew it, I was pierced! I hopped up out of the chair to look in the mirror across the way and it looked so good. The ends stuck up out of the skin a little too much for my liking, but Mike explained that I needed that room in case my skin swelled and in a couple of months I could come in and get new, closer fitting jewelry. It was only then after I had been pierced that I realized I should have asked about punching and tapering.
Pumped about my piercing, I ran out of the shop and immediately got sea salt and Dial soap because I couldn't find any Provon or Satin.
I followed the aftercare to a "T", washing the piercing in the morning and at night and doing a sea salt soak every other day. Little did I know that I was cleaning my fresh piercing a little too much. Also, it became apparent that my jewelry not only stuck out a little too far for my liking, it was just pierced far too shallow. The weight of the metal bar pulled on my skin while I slept and the balls stuck out so far that they kept snagging on the littlest things.
In a week, I knew I had to give my piercing up. I was back at school (in Ithaca, NY) at this point and I decided to go to another place I'd heard was good. You think that I would've learned by now that I should scope a place out before just going to get something done. I went to Stiehls in Ithaca, NY and Danielle Stiehl, the owner, told me that there wasn't much I could do, but she would change my surface bar to a Tygon bar and hope that the flexibility would help it. Unfortunately, the agitation just sped up the rejection process by a ridiculous amount, and by that night I knew I should take my piercing out before it left me with some pretty nasty scars.
Now I just have two dots where my piercing exited my skin, and a whole lot of knowledge about what to do:
Look at many piercers before you get your piercing done. The amount of online research you do is good, but nothing beats actually talking to a piercer and seeing a portfolio of their work. Ask about different methods of piercing (needle vs punch and taper) and ask if you could sit in on a couple of piercings to see how the piercer operates. Weather might also have a good deal to do with the success of a piercing. I got my surfacing done during the cold months where I had to bundle up quite a bit, making it hard to keep clothing off my collarbone. Getting it done in the summer months will be easier for me to keep clothing off of it, lessening the risk of bumping or pulling it.
I've decided I'm going to get re-pierced, but I'm going to wait until warmer weather comes around, and I'm going to look at actual piercers and decide where to go next.