My nape was my first surface piercing. Yes, I got it done with surface bars. To my surprise, my piercer does not use surface bars. I am sure this is why I hear so many people that have rejected surface piercing. I am not sure why he does not use surface bars, short of people in our small town probably been too cheap to pay for them to use in their piercing. Anyway, I always brings in my own jewelry for piercing (always ordered from BMEshop). He does, however, use that tygon flexible material. I hear this is the next best thing to surface bars. I mean, obviously, it is superior to (goodness forbid it) straight barbells or curved barbells! I mean, he does use the next best thing and I guess I can understand why he doesn't bother buying more expensive surface bars when surface piercing are not too popular is our small town and also when most people would not want to spend the money.
At A Glance Author rainbow bunny Contact rainbow bunny@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Adam Studio Adam's Body Art Location Brandon, Manitoba He spent a lot of time making sure I could move my head this way and that, so that any movement would not be kicking at the surface bars. He did this by marking the dots on my neck, after measuring out the length. I was very impressed by this! He finally had it marked out perfectly and we were ready to begin.
It did not hurt that much, although I would say short of my genital piercing, it was one of the more painful piercing I have had done. I think this is just because the skin is so thick at the back of the neck. Anyway, it was all worth it. He lost grip of the one needle (I got two done) and had to reopen it with a taper, but he managed to do this and insert the jewelry fine. It is a bit of a different experience being pierced at a place you cannot see. I did not think of this when I went in for the piercing, but it is actually quite true that it is a bit of an odd position to be in. (I guess it works out fine for those who do not like to look anyway-- hehe...)
I have had my nape pierced for five months and it has settled down a lot. Now, I have a lot to say about this particular surface piercing. Take my advice or not; I know BME has a disclaimer saying advice presented does not reflect their views and should be taken with a grain of salt (in more legalistic terms, of course—hehe).
1) I felt like removing it often. It was very unbalanced, above all things. The posts on one side stuck out more than the posts on the other. I think a large reason for this, particularly with a nape piercing, is because we all tend to shift our head to one side or the other. When sleeping, talking on the telephone, etc., our necks get shifter to one dominant side. After about month three, this balanced itself out. Now both posts sit equally. Don't give up; don't be worried if it looks like the posts are not even to begin with—it seems they need time to "balance out".
2) I used sea salt as my aftercare. I still have little bumps though not as much as initially, but tiny bumps around the entry and exit holes. I was not told this by my piercer, but someone else informed that hydrogen peroxide can help with the bumps (not to use it as aftercare, of course!!!). (As aftercare, it will obviously dry out the piercing and eliminate any of the "good bacteria" that is beneficial in healing.) I have used this once every three days and the bumps are going away!!!
3) Regardless, the nape is still a "high traffic" area. It gets slept on and hair gets tangled (which I remove after every shower) in it when shampooing. This doesn't make it impossible, but it does require (I have found) about five times the effort of healing any other piercing. I would recommend being persistent though. I still now and again consider removal, but it is improving (little by little) and so I will persist. I really love the look of it, so I don't want to give up! =)
And enjoy the comments! People from my small town are always baffled as to what my nape piercing even is!!! I have even had people think it was four "screws" (whatever they could have meant by screws... ???) instead of two surface bars! I also had someone think it was four "dots" (again, people around here don't really know about surface bars, evidently) that were placed for acupressure. LOL Oh man, well you can either get irritated or have a good laugh. Mostly, I try to have a good laugh.