I don't know why, but I absolutely dread getting blood taken and getting shots but piercings don't bother me at all. The getting blood taken and shots part might be because I always sick as a kid and having to deal with stuff like that. I don't know. It still doesn't explain the not minding the piercing needles part.
At A Glance Author Ashleigh Vindictive Contact Ashleigh Vindictive@bme.anon Artist Wesley J. Moore Studio Checkered Past Location New Cumberland, Pennsylvania Anyway, I got my first piercing on November 21, 1998, when I was fifteen and in ninth grade. It was my eyebrow and at first I was nervous as hell but afterwards it was like nothing. He cleaned the area, clamped it, stuck the needle in, put the ring in and it was over. It barely even hurt. We paid and left. Later that night I had went to the mall with this girl Jess, that I used to be friends with and people kept saying "Wow! When did you get that done!?" and I was just like "Huh?" I couldn't even feel it. So yeah, that was my first piercing.
My second piercing was my tongue. The date was November 5, 1999, the day before my sixteenth birthday. I had gotten home from school and there was a message on the answering machine from my mom saying "I decided you can get your tongue pierced. Call Checkered Past and make sure Wes is working and if he is, we'll go when I get home from work." I called and he was working. I was way excited. My mom got home, changed out of her work clothes and we went and picked up my bestfriend Lin-z and went to Checkered Past. Checkered Past is also where I got my eyebrow pierced, it's a great place. We got there and I picked out a barbell and sat down. Wes had me rinse my mouth out with this absolutely vile yellow Listerine. He then told me to stick my tongue out as far as I could and he took a fine tip purple marker and put a mark where he'd be soon sticking a large needle through my tongue. He told me to shut my eyes and at first I did but I then opened them because I wanted to see the size of this sharp object that was about to penetrate my tongue. I open them just as he was about to stick it through and next thing I knew it was in and out and the barbell was on it's way through. It was a little pinch and it was done. He once again had me rinse with the disgusting Listerine and we paid and left. The next day I woke up and it hurt pretty bad. When he said it was probably going to swell to the size of the barbell he wasn't kidding. I broke up some ice and sucked on it and that help a little. It was then my birthday and my dad called to say happy birthday and was like "Why the hell are you talking alI weird?" and I told him and he sounded somewhat disappointed and I had no idea why. He had no problem with me getting piercings.
About a week later I went to see him and he gave me my birthday presents and one of them was a gift certificate to Checkered Past for the amount of a tongue piercing. That's why he had sounded so disappointed on the phone. He had went to checkered past the same day I got my tongue pierced and got the certificate. I just figured I'd use it for clothes the next time I went, or maybe I'd try talking my mom into letting me get something else pierced. I tried and she had said no at the time. I really wanted my lip pierced. Lin-z had it done and I loved it. It was so neat. After months of bugging the hell out of my mom she finally said I could get it done. About five months of bugging her to be exact.
It was now May. It was May 5, 2000, the day of the fair at the elementary school down the street from my house, also the day of the prom. Woohoo! Who cares about the prom, not me. Fuck social school events. I didn't have school that day because of the damn prom, and my mom didn't have work so we headed to Checkered Past sometime in the afternoon. It was really hot that day. We got there, picked out a ring and Wes once again went to work. I had picked out a 14 gauge ring. He had me rinse my mouth out with that horrible yellow Listerine like he had before, then he cleaned the area on the outside of my mouth and once again marked where he'd be shoving the sharp object though my sensitive lip. This time I was sort of nervous. Everyone I had talked to said it hurt. He told me I might want to shut my eyes and I did and this time, I kept them shut. He said to me "Are you ready?" and I told him yes and my body tensed up and my hands clenched into a tight fist. With that the needle was in and out and the ring was in. It felt like a really bad bee sting. It burned. It wasn't the worst pain I've ever felt but it hurt. He again had me rinse with the Listerine.
It's funny the looks and even the comments that you'll sometimes get when you have a facial piercing. The whole fishhook thing is the one I hear the most. It amuses the hell out of me, when you're out in public and parents grab their kids and pull them closer when you walk by. It's just funny, it like, automatically makes you a horrible person. To conclude this, I'd like to say that out of the three piercings I've had (eyebrow, tongue & lip) my lip was the most painful but it's no doubt my favorite. Hopefully my septum is next.