I started my unsuspecting day off early as I'm a student and have multiple assignments due that I've been leaving to the last minute so this Saturday I decided I would get up early and get some shit done. After sitting at my desk in my extremely uncomfortable chair my mate text me asking if I was up for a bit of sun, coffee and intense cigarette smoking while shooting the shit. I sure as hell was by that time...remember I had just spent the last two hours trying to remember multiple Homoeopathy remedies with no success. So off came the unsightly study clothes and something a little more coffee drinking worthy and off I went to Starbucks with by ipod in tow...i'm in love with it I'm ashamed to admit.
At A Glance Author Tracy Contact Tracee_l@hotmail.com IAM Tracee When It just happened Artist Renee Studio Trendz Location Hamilton, New Zealand So I meet up with Greta (the mate) and we downed a coffee each and bitched and moaned about been poor students, having lousy jobs, mutual friends and general stuff. I have to admit Garden Place was an interesting place to be that day, we witnessed some guy staring his push bike with his arse, a whole bunch of emo kids trying to jump a fairly low brick wall with their expensive bikes and an old woman busking who's music consisted of country, country and more country...If we weren't poor students we would have given her money to shut her up.
So just as the conversation was drying up a little I suggested we go over to Trendz to see if they finally had my PTFE bars for my nape piercing...I've been waiting since before xmas for them. Well they did and they had my piercer there too so I was in major luck.
Then I had to decide to get it done then or wait later, well I decided that I had the money I had my friend and it wasn't a piercing I would have to cover up at work and I was in perfect health so what the heck lets get stuck. Well once I said yeah lets go for it I got slightly nervous. It's a big then when I get nervous because I hardly ever do, so be even slightly nervous makes my knees a bit weak. But I filled out the form and my signature looked just like it always does so I must have been okay. Off to the room I was lead... "Follow the yellow brick road...."
Since I've been waiting for SOOOO freaking long for these bars all my placement options had been discussed, thought about and then thought about some more. So my first bar was to be a 14mm PTFE (after that I'm getting a 20mm and then another 14mm just as long as everything goes to plan). So Renee got cleaned up, gloved up got a new packaged needle, freshly autoclaved clamps and cleaning stuff then changed gloves and unpackaged the bar and unscrewed one of the balls. All this stuff I make sure I watch happening because even if you really trust a place you health is yours alone to look after and people forget to do things or become lazy or just plain don't do it...so I watch like a clean freak house wife that's addicted to ritlin.
I wasn't sure how Renee wanted me to sit for this one but all I had to do was jump in the dentist's chair and sit with my chin practically on my chest, it sounds uncomfortable but it wasn't too bad. So by then my gut felt like it was about to either empty it's self in my lap or was going to explode while still in me so I started chatting to keep my mind off it. Renee started marking me up gave me the mirror and I liked the placement but turns out she didn't so then her and Greta stood behind me for a while and straightened up the dots and showed me again and... PERFECT! The great placing made me a lot less nervous. Out came the clamps but Renee decided that this one was going to be free hand, this is when I thought its now or never baby and decided to stay where I was and accept this one was going to hurt like a bitch. I asked for Greta's hand (something I've never done before) she gladly lent it to me (such a good friend) and I started concentrating on my breathing.
The atmosphere had certainly changed in the room. Renee pinched the back of my neck a couple of times until she had a good grip and then I felt the needle. On entry it felt as though my skin was resisting it a bit and then I felt it give way and the needle started to slide through, this is where I thought the pain would start but no this feeling was quite pleasant, like my layers of skin been slowly separated in one small movement and there it was out the other side it just slid the whole way like it was riding a wave or something. I felt no pain at all. So now I had a receiving tube in my neck while Renee was getting the jewelry she asked me if I was okay which I was...elated more like it! And Greta asked me if it hurt cause it sure as hell didn't look like it and I didn't squeeze her hand or move at all, my response...Fuck no! my god damn septum hurt more than that! Both times!
Renee told me that was because I was brave and slid the PTFE through and screwed the ball on, I have to admit that was a little uncomfortable then she cleaned me up. I asked if there was much blood...There was. So a few tissues later I got to stand up and check it out. I fell in love with it at first sight and the blood that was still running down my neck a little just made it look so much more awesome. So Greta took a PXT and Renee covered it with a plaster and out we went to pay.
It cost $30 and Trendz don't take tips so I just thank them a lot. I got some tea tree oil and an aftercare sheet that I know word for word anyway and Renee did inform me that surface piercing's are likely to reject and will grow out. Both these things I already knew but it's always good when you're told them by your piercer.
Greta and I went to have another smoke and I walked her home since it was on my way. I felt no pain at all afterwards and when I got home my neck had a nice patch of dried blood on it so it would have been a sight for anyone that had happened to look at my neck, so I cleaned it up best I could and went back to my assignment with no throbbing or burning pain or anything, I could even turn my head and not feel anything different.
I had a shower that night and got rid of the rest of the blood and cleaned it again with tea tree oil. I accidentally rolled onto my back that night in my sleep and woke up lying on it and still no pain...I was finding the no pain thing odd because every thing I had heard about nape piercing's just sounded down right painful but hey maybe it was just supposed to be.
Its been about two weeks now and I've still had no pain, its still a little red around the entry and exit holes but that's normal I'm told and I'm still cleaning it like a crazy possessed person which I'll keep doing for a while now. I've managed not to catch it on anything either which is either luck or me been extra careful...maybe both. So hopefully I'll be back in the chair next week for the next installment if all goes well.
Pain... What pain?