To begin, I'd like to give you a little background, as a bit of a warning. If you're thinking of getting anything pierced, make sure you research the piercing itself and the intended studio. Never get a piercing done somewhere just because it's cheap, because when it comes to piercings, you really do get what you pay for.
At A Glance Author Rini Contact Rini@bme.anon IAM rubber_duckie When A month ago Artist Peter Sheringham Studio The Piercing Urge Location Melbourne, Australia On the 17th of June, I decided I'd get my sternum pierced. I'd looked at photos on BME and decided that it was time I got it done. Throughout all my looking and admiring, I never actually thought about the jewellery, I figured the piercer would know. How very wrong I was.
I visited a little place in the city, where other people had gotten 'standard' piercings (ears, nipples, nose etc.), asked for a surface piercing, showed them where and got exactly that - with a curved barbell. Immediately I could see the pressure it was putting against my skin, but thought it was normal (having never seen a surface piercing on anyone in person, I didn't know).
Well, I walked around with this thing (that's the only way it can be described) for 5 weeks. It was red and angry looking the whole time. It never healed. It wasn't until it started oozing puss and the bar seemed to be getting longer that I visited Pete at The Piercing Urge who confirmed my fear, it was rejecting.
Immediately after talking to Pete, I removed the bar and was greeted by a large amount of puss. It stunk. I was, however, comforted by the fact that I could have it redone within a matter of weeks, three to be precise.
Skip to August 10th. The day of redoing. Having had 3 weeks to build up my nerves and make myself feel very scared, I was very nervous. I was a little unsure of what exactly would be done with a punch and taper, even though I'd read the explanation on BME, and there was also a fear of another rejection.
By the time I'd finished choosing the jewellery (shiny, clear jewels – I need cleavage bling) and filling in a form, my teeth were chattering, I was sweating. I was cleaned, and then marked up. Now, I'm lop sided (one boob is bigger than the other, and they're rather large) so it made it difficult to mark me up, as soon as I lay down, the marks were swallowed up by the cleavage monster and had to be redone. So after redoing the marks a few times we were ready... I should say that Pete was ready, I was just nervous.
He put the punch against my skin, and began to twist and push, I yelped and squealed, which both my boyfriend and Pete found very amusing. (I'll say this now, it was painful, very painful, but I would definitely go through it again, it was no more painful than having it done with a needle, the procedure just takes a little longer) I'm not sure if I felt the taper or not, I don't remember it, so I may have felt it and not realised, but I definitely felt the first and second punch. I was impressed by the little chuck of flesh that came out of me. A little bloody piece of creamy stuff, stuck on the end of Pete's gloved finger. The jewellery, apparently, didn't want to go in at first, (I'm not sure I couldn't see), but it felt like it went in smoothly. I was surprised when Pete said he was done, I had expected it to take much longer than it did.
I was cleaned up, given some sea salt, told about care and cleaning and then paid. I also got a tissue, as I was still bleeding a little. It was a bit weird having a piercing bleed as none of mine have. When I got home, I wiped off the dried blood with a moist cotton bud (q-tip), I don't like to give fresh piercing a sea salt soak, I find that they don't like it, and I don't like it very much either. The day after is always best for me, and that first one was very interesting. I got very wet, as did everything else.
It's been just over a month now, and it seems to have healed really well, I've been paranoid to the max of it rejecting, but it's looking good, and not moving out of my skin. There's been no oozing or crusting. I like to clean it just after doing my make up to avoid any foundation, blush etc. from entering my wondrous piercing – the responses I get from people are great, they all believe I'm crazy, but agree that it looks much better than the first one.
Happy piercing, and remember to do your research!