el Piercing Experience

It's been two years since I had my navel pierced, but the memory hasn't faded any, and I know that it never will.

I still haven't decided whether I prefer spontaneous events to planned ones, but this was probably the most spontaneous thing I've ever done. I'd had an interest in doing something drastic, purely for shock value. I was only sixteen, so when my parents said no to the idea of a nose ring, I seriously had to consider their opinion. The idea of a belly-button ring hadn't really appealed that much to me, there isn't much shock value in something people can't see.

I had a huge crush on a beutiful blonde at the time, we were good friends, so as a result we spent a lot of time together. She was with me on that night, in fact she was probably the reason I actually went through with it. We dropped by a couple of hair dressers who we knew used to pierce noses with guns. They wouldn't do a navel piercing, for which I'm thankful, I might have actually gotten it done with the gun. We only went to see them out of curiousity, I had no intention of getting a hole punched through my skin. We figured that while we were out, we might as well go visit the town's only tattoo parlor, who also advertised body-piercing.

When we came in he was busy planning a Metallica tattoo on a guy's back. I felt intimidated around him, he was a big, long-haired, stoned biker. I asked him a couple questions about the equipment he used, the procedure... and how much it cost. I thought forty dollars was too much, but I was still considering it. He said that if we both got one done he'd drop it to thirty-five, not a big drop in price, but it was all I needed. She needed a little convincing, especially since she didn't have the money and I was offering to pay. We agreed that it would just be a loan, and that I would go first.

I was so nervous! I was sure it would hurt like an SOB, so the adrenaline was flowing like a river. I hadn't anticipated the need to shave my stomach, but it didn't suprise me too much. He had a good laugh about the mole I have in my belly-button, but then he got down to business. I didn't understand most of what happened, the forceps where a foreign idea to me, I didn't even realize the needle was hollow. My body was tensed like a clock-spring, and then when he put the needle through... It didn't hurt in the least bit, I was watching him do it, and I couldn't believe it was actually through, and I hadn't felt a thing. I got off the bed, walked around, looked in a mirror, saw that some friends of mine had shown up to see if I'd gotten it done or not, they told me I looked pale, I said I was fine, and fell flat on my face.

I've always been a little embarassed about nearly passing out (ok, maybe I did pass out).
Lately though, I've learned a lot more about body-piercing, and realized that it was the rush that put me down, and that was worth it.

Jason McCarthy

Return to navel piercing