Although I no longer have the piercing, I figured it was long overdue to do a write up on my experience.
At A Glance Author Cherry Contact Cherry@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Wednesday Location Burnaby, BC I've always loved the look of surface piercings. Since I was about 15 years old I've toyed with the idea of getting 3 surfaces bars horizontally on each of my arms, but due to very strict parents, and not having the proper funds to do so, it was pushed to the back of my "to get pierced" list.
I finally decided that I was going to get it done in the summer after watching a friend of mine get his own surface piercings done. After a few months of trying to decide on placement, what shop to get it done at, and jewelery length I was given a rather unique opportunity. I was told by a piercer that she would pierce me in exchange for doing her hair [making her synth dreads/installing old ones she had, etc]. I immediately jumped at the opportunity, instead of paying somewhere near $100 for a surface piercing, it would be 1/5th of the cost, and a few hours of my time. I felt like I had nothing to lose.
For the days leading up to getting the piercing done I was quite honestly a wreck. I couldn't decide if this was actually something for me or not. Christmas would be in a few months, and I would have to visit relatives who definitely are not mod friendly, and my boyfriend didn't seem to take to the idea too well either... as well as everyone telling me how horrible it was going to scar when I removed it. I decided that I was going to get it no matter what, this was for me, not other people.
The day of the piercing I was nervous all day, I had a friend visiting me from out of town, who I'm sure was less than entertained that day as well. I had two hair clients in an area just off of the main part of the shop, my jewelry was autoclaved and then it was time to be pierced.
Accompanied by a big fluffy stuffed chicken, I stepped into the piercing room. The space had to be rearranged a little bit, but after about 5 minutes I was seated with my arm across a sort of desk type thing covered in a dental bib and asking about the procedure. Wednesday told me that she'd be using clamps, and that they would probably be more painful than the piercing itself. She tried to convince me to get it pierced vertically, but I was dead set on horizontal. She put her gloves on, and I watched her set up. She cleaned my arm with soap, then an alcohol swab, and took out a pen to start the marking. Once we were both satisfied with the placement, the clamps were put in place.
She definitely was not wrong about the clamps being the most painful part. It felt like she'd shut them completely on my arm. I think it's safe to say that I flinched while she was putting them in place. A deep breath later and the needle was through and the clamp removed. [which I think was the best feeling of the whole experience] The jewelry was inserted with ease, although there was a bit of fumbling with the balls, and some wincing on my part. I was ecstatic though, I finally had one of my three planned forearm piercings!
I had absolutely no problem with healing the piercing. I was very careful not to bump it, and babied it. Unfortunately, my boyfriend had a penchant for catching his watch on the bead on the left side, which ripped it. I consulted with Wednesday on what to do, and she said to leave it in and continue cleaning it as normal. A month later though it looked horrible still, and I made the decision to retire it. After 4 months of loving it, and feeling much closer to being complete modification wise, my first surface piercing was gone.
In terms of scarring, it's minimal. No nasty bumps, and now there is just two little purpley red dots as a pleasant reminder of what used to be there. I do feel as if I suffered some nerve damage though, as the left side is still very sensitive, even after being out, and healed over for quite some time now.
In the future, I intend on having it redone, but with the punch and taper method, and flat disks instead of beads, to minimize the chance of it getting caught on anything. Overall, I was very pleased that I decided on getting my arm done as my first surface piercing, and don't regret any of the experience, even though I no longer have the jewelry in.