When I was 15, there was a new piercer at the shop I went to. He thought I was 16, and "hardcore" and asked to do a corset on me. 6 piercings, just for show. I said "Sure", but it never happened. Damn. I brought up a corset a few times with my new piercer at Artistic Impressions, Lee (who later moved to Sonic Tattoos, and no longer piercers unfortunately) and she said she'd do it, but we never got around to it. Eventually I started getting work done by Pierre so I asked him. He said sure, if I had the jewellery. As luck would have it, I had received ten 14 gauge CBR's in the mail a week before.
At A Glance Author San Contact San@bme.anon IAM BlueStar When A year ago Artist Pierre We decided that logically it would be best to do a ten piece corset. Pierre said he'd autoclave the jewellery and we set a date, and time. My digital camera sucked, and my SLR was too hard to use (It was a Canon AE-1 from 1979) so I brought a crappy Polaroid I had picked up for $12. Pierre had his brand new SLR camera that I was really jealous of. (However, I got a brand new Canon Rebel 300 for Christmas, so I was happy.)
To the procedure. That day was really hot out. I wore jeans and a baby t-shirt (a BME one, actually). I had to run around the city with my friend. She lives in a small town by me, about 15 minutes away, so I went to her house to drop off a DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) pad and we went to go get the game from a video store in Niagara Falls. There was a lot of traffic and I kicked myself for not taking the highway. We got the to store and it was checked out, and I wouldn't use my credit card to get someone else a membership. I drove as fast (and, uh, carefully) as I could back to my house. I called Pierre to make sure we were still on. We were. So I drove around the corner to his house.
I went inside and we talked for a few and then he set up. Gloves, paper towels, ten 14ga needles, my CBR's, etc. He wiped my back down and asked if I wanted it in my lower back. I said yes. So he marked ten dots for the piercings, all underneath my bra. He said that the lower back would be the worst part. So of course, we started with my upper back!
I had hoped to be laying down for the piercings. Usually I'm very quiet and motionless when I get pierced (tattooed, branded, cut, implanted, etc..) but I wasn't expecting what was to come. He had me lean over a chair. Pierre tried to clamp my skin but it was too tight. (By the way, the piercings were being done vertically and the corset was shaped like this: )( .) So he grabbed my skin with his fingers and asked if I was ready. He pierced through the top layer of skin and I jerked, a lot. I moreorless moved forwards into the chair. He finished the piercing. I have no idea why I reacted this way. It was completly involuntary.
I moved up in the chair so my entire front was touching the back of the chair and figured that would help. I was stiff, however. Making it even harder to grasp my skin and pierce it. Pierre put the first CBR in with no problem and then went to the left side of my back. He was doing it right side left side, then down, right side left side, down, etc. He didn't put the bead in the CBR, he was doing that last.
For the next piercing. I focused on my breathing and staying still. Same reaction, except not as bad. I said "Shit! Sorry" as he pierced me. He said I had skin like leather, which I experienced in the next piercing. He started to pierce it, and I twitched a bit, and the needle wouldn't go through. I said "It doesn't really hurt, but I can't stop flinching!". He said I had leather skin again and the needle wouldn't go through. After a lot of force I felt the sharp burn of the needle exiting. This was what the last seven piercings were like.
I eventually leaned forward and rested my head on the couch and was more relaxed, until about the 6th piercing, when I had to sit up, because the skin couldn't be grabbed at all. I moved very little for these couple of piercings. He was right, the pain increased as we moved to my lower back. I got used to the feeling and stopped flinching. That was probably a relief for both of us. I was probably just really uptight that day, on edge or something. I had my entire back tattooed (a faery, complete backpiece) and didn't move a muscle.
Finally, the piercings were over. Pierre closed the CBR's and put the beads in. He ran the pink ribbon I bought through the piercings and tied it, loosely. Then we took a bunch of pictures and I tried to look at it in a mirror. It looked really nice, I wanted to keep it, but knew I couldn't. (An old piercer of mine, was going to do a corset on me with surface bars with slave rings, so it would last longer.) Eventually the time came, Pierre took out the rings.
I wasn't bleeding. Pierre and I wanted to make a blood print so I let him kinda mess with the piercings a bit. Eventually they all bled enough to get a blood print. I keep it in a little box in my room. The next few days were fine. The holes scabbed over and closed. There was no scarring left. I had a lot of bruising because of my skin being so resiliant.
If I could change anything about the experience, I would have rather been a lot more relaxed. Listened to music that I liked, (no offense!) like Tool, or A Perfect Circle, which I find very soothing. I would have rather been lying down. It did turn out to be a positive experience and I have some nice photographs of it that I should scan one day.