"Hi! I have an appointment to have my nipple pierced?" I said brightly to the man standing behind the counter. He smiled welcomingly and asked if it would be my first. When I told him yes, he went into his speel of the health and feeding of a piercing, closing with proper cleaning. "We recommend you should use a cleaning agent. Do you have any Hiberclens?" He asked. "And are you allergic?"

 My research had not covered this and I stood there looking a

little perplexed. I was armed with a lot of book knowledge and little else. Actually, nothing else. I didn't even know anyone personally who had a piercing.

 I'm allergic to penicillin, but I had never heard of

Hiberclens. I told him I didn't think so, and he produced a bottle from under the counter. It had been a long drive for me to the city to have this done by professionals, so I went for the bells and whistles and bought the stuff. They even showed me a video on how to use it; now that's what I call service. Keep it clean and don't fiddle with it until its healed. Use the Hiberclens religiously and all should be well in a few short weeks.

 My nipple was still in pain after a month.  My research

didn't really cover lasting pain, so I figured it was because I was a wimp. I increased my doses of Potassium, Zinc and C and the concentration of Hiberclens.

 A month after I called the piercers and told them it was

still hurting. They couldn't suggest anything over the phone and asked me to come in. `But don't take it out', they recomended. I made plans do it on my coming days off.

 Now, this was about the time when a seemingly, unrelated

problem cropped up. Jock itch. I started with powders, then ointments to finally this gooey herbal concoction my roommate cooked up. The itching had grown so intense that I felt if I scratched enough I would orgasm. My will power finally gave out and I had to leave work early as the itching drove me insane.

 The day I had planned to go to the piercer, I went to the

doctor. He confessed he knew nothing about piercings, but gave me some antibiotics to clear up the puss, as for my flaming scrotum, he concluded I had scabies. Tiny little mites that borrow under the skin. Wonderful. He gave me a lotion and said it was two doses, but I should only need one and the itching would stop in a couple days.

 My doctor is no intern, he knows his stuff.  I figured I was

good as healed.

 Both doses and a week later my nads were hell fire and my

poor, sore nipple was threatening to leave. I didn't know what to do. It was looking as if the money I spent on the piercing was going to go to waste. I was going to have to take out the piercing.

 Back at the doctor, a new lotion to kill those scabies and

more anti-biotic. He had done a little research and concluded that taking out the piercing wasn't going to solve anything, so leave it in.

 Coming back from the doctors my wife and I dropped

unexpectedly at her parents house who asked us to stay for dinner. (Hold on, this is important.) I was hot and miserable and decided to take a shower. Away from home I was without my Hiberclens, but I figured that at this point, one day wasn't going to kill me.

 Now, my in-laws have this huge mirror in their bathroom and

while toweling off, I noticed there was a bright, red stripe that ran from my sore nipple, to my crotch. Although I have been classed as a person of color, other colors don't come casually. This was my first clue that there was a connection between the two. Hey, I never said I was smart.

 That night, I noticed there was an ease in my nipple and in

my groin. It didn't take an Einstein to figure out it was the Hiberclens. I was washing my nipple in the shower and it was rinsing down into my groin. All of my sensitive skin was feeling the affects. I re-read the instructions and I had been following them correctly. But there was the fine print: `If rash develops..."

 Well, everything cleared up.  I went with plain soap and

water, not ready to risk anything else. I would imagine that under normal use, Hiberclens encourages a piercing to heal faster than any other product. Its just those damned allergies can take any form. I'm sure that if I had taken the time to go back to my piercer, he might have figured it out sooner. Oh well, live and learn. I'm now ready to have the other one done.

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