I got my hand web, between my thumb and index pierced, about 6 months ago. For me, it was my first 'proper' piercing. I had only ever had my ear lobes done, and wanted something a little different. I come from a very boring part of town, where everyone is the same and has the naval pierced. I however, am a little over weight and cannot get this done. Thank god. Plus, I wanted a piercing that screams 'im not like you! Ha!' I had seen many different piercings and liked loads. My first thought was to get my lip pierced, snakebites. I quickly decided against this as it is becoming increasing popular, and well lets face it, looks a bit tacky on a girl. Then it went from horizontal ear lobe to septum, all with their share of down falls, I decided against them all. I was determined to get something done, so I turned to a tattoo. When I was looking at hand tattoos, I zoomed in on hand stars and noticed a small metal ball in between the girl's thumb and finger. I quickly switched pages and found myself on the 'unusual' piercings page. There I found THE piercing. I know 'love at first sight' is a bit of a cliché, but it was. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted it.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When Six months ago So I found my piercing, the next obstacle was getting the parents to agree.
The risks hadn't occurred me until my aunt told me there was a nerve in that part of my hand, which was directly linked to my brain. From there on, I was scared shitless. If they done it wrong I could loose the use of my left hand. I later learned, after my piercing, that this is complete crap. Hand piercings cannot cause nerve-related damage that would paralyse your hand!
So it was summer and I was 15. I had mentioned to a few people that I wanted my hand pierced and eagerly showed them where. I was delighted to see their faces of shock and horror. This made me even more determined to go ahead with it. I love shocking people and this seemed to do the trick. I didn't dare tell my parents what I was planning to do, as they disagree piercings and tattoos. After debates and discussions with both parents one finally agreed to let me have my hand piercing done. My dad gave me the lecture and mum was completely against the idea. As I was over 16, by 2 days, I didn't need parents there, so I took a friend. She had booked the appointment and bought me a spike for my 16th birthday.
Ok, so it's obvious that your going to be very nervous, most people are, but to be honest, there is really no need. After drinking my way through at least 3 cups of strong black coffee, I went to the studio. I didn't check it out before hand and, naively, I didn't know how clean it had to be. It didn't look that bad at the time, but looking back, it was a hole. So I followed the 'artist' in and sat down while he fluffed around with something.
Taking his instructions, I hopped up onto the rickety bench and pocked at my web. Next, a scared looking girl came into the room and asked if I had signed the form, which I did, and why I wanted this particular piercing done. She seemed amused that I was getting this one done as hers has just rejected. She said it was common for this one to reject and most only last a few months, if that. If it doesn't grow out, you will take it out, out of pure annoyance. She gave me advise on cleaning and how to help it last longer.
The guy came back in and repeated all of what the girl had said.
We arranged a suitable depth and place, and after marking it with purple pen, a little off where I wanted it, he applied 'numbing' gel, which only made my hand cold and done nothing for the pain I was about to experience.
After sitting for about 20 mins with numbing gel on my hand, with a shaky grip he picked up thin clamps and positioned them over the little purple dots. They were so tight and as my hands are fatter than normal, I felt immense pain. He used elastic bands to keep the pressure and told his assistant to hold them in place. He got out his needle. The clamps were hurting and my hand started to turn a little purple but this didn't seem to hurry him along. He sprayed my hand; with something I can only attempt to guess at was antiseptic spray. After replacing the gel and giving it a further 2/3 minutes to work, which to my dismay, didn't, he started to apply pressure on the needle.
I wouldn't say I like pain, but I was fascinated by it. I kept my eyes on the needle the whole time and felt every rip and tear of my flesh. I saw the needle peep out of my hand, it wasn't as much pain as I was expecting but the worst was about to come. With a white plastic tube he pulled out the needle and pushed the tube with it. This was the most painful thing I have ever had done. It wasn't the initial piercing that was painful, it was when he pulled out the white tube that I began to screw up my eyes and swear quietly to myself. He cut off the extra white tubing, which hurt likea a bitch! And the began sliding the curved bar through.
It didn't hurt that much afterwards, well not that I noticed. I was on such a high! I went straight home after getting savlon solution and greeted everyone with a big grin and a point to my newly pierced hand.
A couple of weeks after, the skin between the balls of my bar started going hard and became very painful. I was cleaning it like they had showed me and couldn't understand why it was going like this so soon. I couldn't move the bar from side to side but I just assumed that was normal. I went back and said that it was hurting me, they changed the bar to a bigger one and apologised because they put the wrong size on. With the bigger bar my piercing looked and felt a lot better.
The guy didn't say anything about when I shower and wash my hair, so I come up with a cunning, and probably unnecessary, plan. I covered my hand with a plastic bag for the first few times I washed my hair. I didn't want shampoo to get inside and plus I have one of them net scrunches and kept catching my bar in it. I also wear a studded belt which gets stuck on my bar sometimes and the belt loops in my jeans also catch it, but apart from that, its relatively comfortable.
So that's pretty much it. Im glad I got it done and even though it look awful for the first couple of weeks, now it looks great. It takes a lot of cleaning and washing but it's all worth it. You use your hands a lot and it gets dirty quickly, but if you keep washing it in antibacterial soap, it ok. I wash it twice a day with savlon solution and use carex soap all the time. 6 months so far and I hope it lasts a bit longer.