I had 3 piercings at the time(tongue, lip, prince albert) and wanted something a little more different from my trendy piercings. So after many nights of surfing the net (much thanks to BME!), I came across surface piercings. When I first saw them I thought to myself, OUCH! But for some reason I was drawn into them. I did not really like the idea of a barbell through my skin but after a little more research I came across Surface Bar piercings.
At A Glance Author JoseMartinez Contact JoseMartinez@bme.anon When A month ago Studio PiercedOut Location San Jose, CA Surface Bars are staple shaped barbells that have internally threaded bead(or disk) caps on each end that peeks out the surface of the skin. I decided to go ask a piercer face to face about these piercings even though I had read much about them. When I told my piercer about it, he immediately told me(just as I had read) that these piercings almost never work and are most likely going to reject after a couple months. Not really a surprise, but I still wanted them. He went on to explain that the place I wanted them (the inner forearm) was a really bad idea considering that the skin is always moving and is very soft. Hearing it from a person instead of reading it made this seem like even more of a bad idea, but regardless I still had that urge many of us experience!
A few days later I figured I would go through with the piercings but instead of the inner arm, I'd go with the outer arm in between the cuts of my forearm muscles since this skin does not move much.
When I walked in to the studio that Friday afternoon(when I always get piercings or tattoos), I had told my piercer where I wanted them and he seemed really stoked about doing them. He took me to the back room and there we placed the "dots" on my arm where the bars would go. I had them placed to be vertical when I had my arms at my side. He placed them pretty far down my arms but as far away from the elbow bone as possible. He had me move my arms in all different directions to make absolutely sure they were even, and they were! The time was here...
He unpackaged the needles and began to clean my arms up. I laid on my back, put my arms across my chest and waited to the sounds of what I remember was a great song, but with the rush and adrenaline pumping I completely forgot what song it was. He casually warned, as he always does, that this may hurt a little, but was quite wrong to my surprise! The needle poked into the skin and I could feel the cold steel slide through my skin and poke out the other side of his pinch. NEARLY PAINLESS! If I really had to pick a "worse part", it would have been the pressure of the needle pushing through the skin, but the pain was quite minimal. I felt the guide tube slide through after the needle and heard him snip it. Then the second arm to match. I wasn't very nervous at this point since the first one was almost painless. I was right, it went just as smooth as the first piercing and again almost painless. He then inserted the bars which felt very weird. He told me that the spot I had chosen was the first time h e had seen them there. I remember one of the other piercers saying, "Dude, I'm gonna go get something to...Whoa! Wicked spot to get those!" At that point I was walking on clouds!
He cleaned me up and had me pose to check out how they will work. He said it was a perfect fit and I "could not ask for a better fit". With good care, he said it would last a while and that if I was lucky I might even get them to stay. It has been a month now and they seem to be in GREAT condition.
For some reason I had the feeling that I should use the L.I.T.H.A. method to heal and so far it was worked. The only times I clean them is in my morning shower - I just wipe soap suds over them and rinse. I went to my piercer last week for him to check out how they're doing and he said they look really good. They don't hurt nor do they feel sore. I do get them caught on all kinds of things though(blankets, car doors, table ends), but they're well worth it. People see them and are in complete awe. I'm a little in denial that they won't last for too long, but I think that when/if these reject I'll get another set above the scars from these and so on until I'll have dot scars up my arms and onto the side of my hand...I can't wait!