Surface piercings. Images of PTFE bars, rejection scars, and memories of pain. All theatrics aside, that's what happened to me when I had my sternum pierced in October 2005. It began to reject after eight days, so I had it taken out rather than let it come through the skin completely. Two discoloured dots on my breastbone is all I have left of it now.
At A Glance Author Tanya Contact xsurrealityx@hotmail.com When It just happened Artist Chris Studio Cosmetics Plus [Chermside] Location Brisbane, Australia However, my sternum was not the piercing on my mind when I ventured to Chermside shops with my friend Kahlia yesterday [Saturday, 6 May 2006]. After about a week of indecision about piercings ["Bridge, clavicle surface, medusa? Arrrgh!"] I finally decided to get my clavicle surfaces done - just one, initially, to see how my body took to it - my sternum made me cautious.
However, my friend, the lovely Kahlia, had other ideas. While we were making our appointments, she offered to pay for another clavicle surface for me. I happily agreed and we made the appointments for a half hour away, then went to have something to eat, as per my normal routine.
Half an hour passed. We went back to the piercing place, and now my anxiety was getting the better of me. I felt nervous and sick, and I had cold flushes. Perfectly normal for me, but not the most pleasant feeling in the world. I told Kahlia she could go first [she was getting her sternum pierced] and I waited about ten minutes. Finally, she came out and it was my turn.
I went in - calm on the outside, freaking out on the inside. I told Chris, the body piercer, bluntly that I was quite nervous - I prefer to let somebody know rather than at the last minute burst into hysterics and back out of a piercing - which I have never done.
We talked while he prepared things and then we began to mark up my clavicles. I wanted them perpendicular to each other, the exact same distance from my trachea on either side, but not far enough so that the shoulder strap of my bag would catch on it. It took about fifteen minutes to get them marked up exactly [Chris was a perfectionist, and I just wanted them straight] and my anxiety slowly faded as we talked. At last though, I lay down on the chair and he put the clamps on and pierced the skin above my clavicle [left from everybody else's POV] first. It hurt quite a bit, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. While he put the 14 gauge PTFE bar in I sat back and felt adrenaline pumping through my system. Then, I sat up and had a look at it in the mirror, had some water and lay back down to do the left surface.
The left one didn't hurt as much - I guess because I wasn't focussing on the pain really. After it was done, I looked at them both in the mirror and definitely liked what I saw!
It took another ten minutes for Chris to clean my new surfaces - the right one was bleeding, so he put a gauze patch on them - but before he did that I rushed out to my friend Kahlia to show her and noticed the grins and looks of the people waiting to be pierced.
Half an hour later, I was starting to get a little anxious. My left clavicle hardly hurt at all, but my right clavicle was aching, and it had been bleeding steadily since I had left the piercing studio. However, it stopped shortly after and I headed on home, eager to show my [less than impressed] parents my new piercings. Needless to say, they weren't as thrilled as I was, but I'm not about to be kicked out of home any time soon, thankfully.
I headed straight into the bathroom when I got home and carefully peeled the gauze patches off, then had a shower and gave them both a sea salt soak to take the rather large amount of dried blood off my skin. Then, I headed to the computer as always, but I didn't realise I was bleeding again until my mum walked past, pointed to my clavicle and said, "You're bleeding." I looked down and surprise, surprise - blood was running from my right clavicle. It took ten minutes to stop the bleeding, in which I was considering going to the hospital if I couldn't stop it soon enough. Thankfully, it did stop - and good, because I was feeling rather lazy - and it hasn't bled since.
It's only been a day, but I've already fallen in love with my clavicle surfaces. They have given me no trouble at all - I can even sleep on my side without them being irritated, though I sleep on my back for now - I'm not one to tempt fate after all.