At A Glance
Author	Spacy
Contact	Spacy@bme.anon
IAM	Spacy
When	Six months ago
Artist	Vampy
Location	Norwich

I've had spinal piercings twice before. You can read about these and them rejecting Here and Here. I've always loved them and the way they look, on me and the pictures I've seen of them on others. The reasons that the last two went wrong were mainly bad jewellery, but also incompetent piercers. After the last one grew out, I told myself that I would get it done again one day. When I read about punch and taper here I decided I would like it done with that method. I was a bit scared of getting it done, as the taper being used to separate the skin layers sounded painful. I heard from people that it wasn't, but I was still unsure about what the pain would be like.

I went to Norwich for a BE suspension meet. While I was there I was planning to get my triangle done. I'd been wanting it for a while, so I was disappointed when I found out I couldn't get it. To cheer me up, I decided to get my spinal piercing redone. But pretend it was my triangle (yes, I know, Spacy logic). Vampy had a suitable surface bar, so it was all on. Yay! I explained to Vampy my fears about the tapering hurting, she told me that it would just be like pressure, as it was below the nerve layer. A taper is used instead of a needle, as it splits the skin layers causing less damage than a needle which would cut them.

When marking it up, Vampy discovered that my previous piercings had been marked off centre to my back. I had to make a decision whether to have my piercing central to my back, or slightly off centre to cover the previous scars. We decided that putting it covering the previous scars would be best. The bar was slightly shorter, so it would sit inside the previous scars, covering them.

I lay on the table to get pierced. I think girl held my hands. Elisa videoed clips of it with my camera phone, which unfortunately since I've lost when my phone died. I was so gutted about that! Quite a few other people watched too, as they hadn't seen one done before. It started off with two 1.5mm dermal punches. They felt very sharp and burning like, but it was bearable. Then the taper was put into one of the holes, and pushed to separate the skin layers. Vampy was right, I really didn't feel anything except pressure. Though the people watching said it looked like it hurt lots, and when I watched the video it looked pretty harsh, like it should've hurt. I guess I should've pretended that it did, and then my calmness would've looked all hardcore! The taper was hard to get through because of the scar tissue, she went from the other side as well, and then finished off the last bit with a needle. The jewellery, a 1.6mm titanium surface bar, was then inserted. This felt uncomfortable to insert because of the bends in it.

Taper being pushed through

Jewellery through, taper pushed out. All done :)

I then got to look at my piercing. It looked so pretty. I made lots of vows to salt soak it twice a day, as I'm used to babying my surface piercings. It did so well though and didn't crust so I think I gave it one salt soak in the whole time before it rejected. I just cleaned around it in the shower and rinse with water, but I didn't use q-tips on it or anything. I think it appreciated not being messed with. A few hours after I got it done I accidently caught it with my finger, forgetting it was there. I think I forgot it was there because it didn't hurt afterwards. It pulled one side of the bar out a bit. This wouldn't stay back where it was meant to, and it still sticks out ever so slightly now. It seems to have wanted to settle like that. I didn't have to make many adjustments to my lifestyle, I was used to adapting from my previous spinal piercings. My bags needed adjusting so they sat further up, or lower down on my bum. Most of my waistlines fall below it anyway, my work trousers that didn't I rolled down. At first I had to avoid having sex on my back as it didn't like it much. It did really well though, at 2 mths on it looked good... No pain, no crusting, no sign of rejection, no redness.

At 2 months

Unfortunately, about a month later, I saw the first signs of rejection. This may have been because I'd fallen downstairs and landed on my back once or twice with it. At first the very faint red line joining the two holes came and went. But I started to see more and more of the legs of the bar. This in turn made the legs of the bars wiggle up and down when I rubbed on things (which I tried not to). This enlarged the punch holes. It also started to get more crusty, and needed cleaning with a damp q-tip in the shower. After another month it became painful when it rubbed against things. Not badly so, maybe a bit like mild sunburn sore. It grew out quite neatly though, because of the square edges on the surface bar. There was no growing out from the edges, just redness in the middle. Here are some pictures of the rejection, just before I took it out:-

I was interested to see how it would eventually grow out, but it got too annoying being sore and brushing on things. So I decided to take it out. I did it in the shower, and tried to push the holes together as much as possible. It was still quite uncomfortable to get the bends in the surface bar out though, and it bled a tiny bit afterwards. From what I can see now though, the scarring is minimal. The holes have no scarring around them, and all I can see is a line between the holes which hopefully will fade.

Mark after it was taken out and mark one month on

I recommend this method of piercing, especially for the reduction in scarring afterwards.
I am still, however, determined to keep a back piercing one day!