I got it! I got the itch again. That itch to do something to myself (pull your minds out of the gutters) - the itch to pierce something.
At A Glance Author dandelion IAM dandelion When Six months ago Artist Steve Filpansick Studio Consolidated Ink & Steel Location Flint, MI
I'd lingered over the surface bar galleries on BME for the past two days, rediscovering the appeal of sternum bars. Daydreaming about how exotic those gleaming little pieces of metal would look between the vee of my bikini top. Thinking about how relatively easy the piercing would be to aquire and then hide from disapproving eyes. I called up Cody - my favorite piercing buddy. Starr wanted to tag along as well.
It was a Sunday in March, and I spent half the day calling around to piercing shops in the Flint area only to find out that they were either closed or not open very late. My favorite shop I knew was closed for the day, but I was dead set on getting this piercing now. I got ahold of my second-choice shop out in Clio, a thirty-minute drive away. The piercer failed to tell me when they closed, however, so by the time I got there, it was quarter after nine p.m. and the place was already locked up. I sighed. Cody and Starr said, "tomorrow."
Waiting the next morning until Consolidated Ink & Steel opened at 2pm was sheer agony! I had at least half the excitement from the day before combined with my anxiety today. As if to test my limits, the shop opened late. I must have driven them insane with all my calling - and by the time late afternoon rolled around, I'd finally gotten ahold of my piercer, Steve. Yes, he did indeed have a surface bar to stick into my sternum, and yes, he could wait until after I had dinner. I hung up, geeked all over again.
That's when the nerves finally struck - this was my first real body piercing. Something not in my head. In fact, this wasn't even a ring or a post at all - this was a bar that was going to travel beneath my skin and chill there however long I was able to take care of it. This was serious business, and regardless of how well I heal it, there will still be scars when I do take the piercing out. This was no longer a spur-of-the-moment, looks-cute-in-a-bathing-suit thing, this was a piercing. I put my game face on.
Cody, Starr and I headed out to Consolidated. We stopped in the parking lot to take some last-minute goofy-nervous pictures, then went inside and scurried downstairs to wait for Steve. "I don't think you remember, but you pierced my septum a year ago yesterday," I told him. He laughed, we confirmed that I was the one who'd called about the sternum bar, I pointed between my boobs to indicate where I wanted it placed, and then I flashed my driver's license and signed my form. I was pretty nervous by this point. Steve came back out from his workroom and pointed out that I would need to take my shirt off - but I could leave my hoodie on, unzipped, if I preferred. I opted for that, because even though they're just boobs.. I'm still too modest to go around flashing my best friends. I undressed in the bathroom, gave Starr my bra, shirt, and purse, and sat down on the piercing couch. Starr fell into the big waiting couch (which is the comfiest, smooshiest, cuddliest couch in the world - you simply cannot get up ou t of it once you have plopped down). Cody stood around taking pictures of everything, and joked that he could "see my titty".
We spent somewhere around ten or fifteen minutes just lining up where the piercing would go - first a ruler, then the four of us each took turns eyeballing it, all the while cracking uneven boob jokes. Finally, we settled on the placement and got down to business. I laid back on the couch, arms at my sides, talking to Cody and Starr to keep my nerves at bay. Steve tugged at the skin over my sternum to loosen it up, chuckling whenever Starr said, "Oh my gosh Lindsay! You're piercing your sternum. Who does that?" (which she said at least three separate times) Then suddenly the clamps were on and I was no longer talking, I was just focused on breathing, not being nervous, and trying not to think about what would happen if I flinched and Steve ended up piercing my actual sternum. Or a boob. Or you know, a lung. Steve had explained that it would take a little longer than a normal piercing to push the needle through, so I had to take a big breath and let it out slowwwly. I closed my eyes and listen ed.
Then it was time. "Deep breath in..." I exhaled, felt the needle go through, and heard Starr gasp. Cody's camera was clicking away.
"Good, now just for the jewelry." I barely felt the tugging as Steve worked the bar in behind the needle, and then ... it was done. "All done," Steve proclaimed as he cleaned it off. It stung a couple times as he was doing this, once when he wasn't even touching me (which means I received a weird look when I yelped anyway). Starr couldn't get over it. "Did it hurt?" It felt like a big pinch. "I can't believe it didn't hurt!" I grinned at her and said, "you just gotta think to yourself, 'eye on the prize. this is gonna look great when it's done.' " She told me she wanted to get hers done, now. Steve had me stand up and check it out in his mirror.
I was shocked at how cool it looked! When I had envisioned the piercing, I'd been picturing those cute balls with the gems in them for the ends of the sternum bar, but Steve had suggested and used flat discs. "I dig it, it looks totally sci-fi," Cody said, and that put it into words - my little android piercing. I did feel like a creature out of a sci-fi movie. I was grinning ear-to-ear when I turned around and stood up straight to show Cody and Starr. I thanked Steve profusely, paid him, and left with my friends. I kept peeking down the front of my hoodie as we drove around downtown.
Healing... the first few days, I could not raise my arms very high or turn my body or head very far or very quickly without feeling the tug in my sternum. Half the time I wasn't even aware of the metal between my boobs, and half the time I was freaking out because I'd twisted too fast and felt a slight sting.
That Thursday I ended up catching the top disc on the corner of my thumbnail while cleaning it - I freaked out and clipped all my nails off. It still looked fine the next day, so I baked cookies and dropped them off at the studio for Steve. I was so in love with my new piercing, and it seemed Starr was, too - she showed me off to everyone we met for the next month. "My friend Lindsay pierced her sternum." We convinced a girl at a diner to think about getting the piercing, and almost convinced a guy to do it, as well. I enjoyed letting people gently poke the area between the two discs to feel the bar (which is SO strange a feeling) and watch their reaction.
By the end of the second week, it had stopped being so tender, so I stopped doing sea-salt soaks as often and switched over to the "Leave It The Hell Alone" method. I swabbed it out after showers, avoided baths and had to store away most of my old bras, as they came up too far in the middle and I risked irritating the bottom disc, if not tearing out the entire piercing wearing them. By that time, I had developed an interesting way of washing and rinsing my hair in the shower - it required a lean and far more flexibility than I have, but I'd like to think it helped keep shampoo and conditioner out of my healing piercing. Since I sleep on my side, I slept with a pillow tucked under my arm to keep it from squishing my boobs together. I started hugging people with one arm tucked between us (as I had a nasty incident involving an overzealous hugger, and have had at least two more incidents since), and I still wear my seat-belt incorrectly (since the proper way lays right over my sternum).
At the time of my writing this, the piercing is five and a half months old. Things are looking good, and I recommend the piercing to anyone who expresses any remote interest. Though I do have some words of advice for women going for it: don't go braless all the time after you get it done, you really do need that support to keep movement in that area down. If you get it placed as low as I did (right between my boobs, not above) - watch the bra you do wear. I absolutely cannot wear pushup bras (egads! and I really could use them, too!) - so keep that in mind! Thanks, and... happy modding! :)