I had previously had my navel pierced, but due over a year of attempting to heal it and a lot of failure – it had to go. Move on over a year to, 26th February 2005 – repiercing day.
At A Glance Author Squibbles Contact Squibbles@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Quincy (Bob) Studio Studio 81 Location Preston (UK) For the last month or so I had been doing Vitamin E rubs on my scar tissue (for about 5 minutes every night) in hopes of breaking it down a little before getting my missed navel piercing back. I'm glad I did my rubs, but we'll get to that later.
The first time I called into Studio 81 by sheer accident. I was on my way back to Uni and mentioned to some friends that I wondered what the studio was like; Cat assumed that I wanted to go in and look, even though piercing isn't something she is interested in. Before I knew it, I was inside and being greeted by Quincy. I asked him lots of questions about my repiercing, about if I could bring my own jewellery, what length it should be, and he answered me more than satisfactorily. Though he advised I waited a little longer before I got repierced, which was fair enough, he knows his job. Something that really impressed me, was that he gave me a small laminated card with contact details for the studio on one side, and aftercare details on the other.
Piercing day – While I was at Uni, my boyfriend took a brand new bar (a titanium Screwbidoo) to Studio 81 for me, to be autoclaved. Later on after I had eaten lots of Chinese, it was time to go get pierced. I have to be honest, I was a smidge nervous, I'd never been pierced through scar tissue before and had no idea what to expect because pain for everyone is different.
We walked in and took seats on the sofas. I was asked to fill out the necessary paperwork, and was led into the back. I left my boyfriend and friends looking at the tattoo portfolios and designs. The studio was unusual for me as in was open-plan; this meant I could see this guy sat getting his back tattoo while I was stood with my shirt rolled up. I'm usually paranoid about my body but I felt really comfortable even in a room, which contained mainly male strangers. Quincy asked if I wanted my navel to be repierced through the old, visible scar or just over because it was very slightly off-line. I said I trusted his judgement, and we decided on through the old top hole. I checked the placement in the mirror and gave it my approval.
I lay down on the bed, and wondered if he was going to numb it or not. Something I didn't have to wait long to find out.
Quincy: "Right, I'm just going to put the clamps on"
Me: "Okay" *assumes this is just checking everything's lined up properly*
Quincy: "Deep breath in, then I'll pierce"
Me: "Sure......*deep breath*.....Fuck me!"
Yeah, it hurt. The scar tissue decided to put up a bit of a fight. I looked down and the bar was in, which was a shock because I definitely didn't feel that go through *phew*
I was told I could get up and look at my latest addition, but I decided I would wait a bit, for the first time ever I felt a little light-legged after a piercing. While I was lying there, he informed me that the scar tissue had crunched during the piercing...weird Some of my cartilage piercings had crunched, but my navel...
I wondered over to the mirror, with that silly 'I've just been pierced' grin, and my belly twinkled at me. Well, the top ball did, the bottom couldn't because I hadn't attached the Screwidoo jewellery yet. My piercing is perfect I'd say, as is the bar.
I should probably explain the relevance of the jewellery really. My last navel probably failed So horribly because I changed my bar a bit too soon, as I get bored really quickly. Unfortunately, I mustn't have tightened the ball on as much as I should have, which resulted in the ball coming off, and the external threading ripping the fistula quite a lot. With the jewellery I have now, I can change the appearance of the jewellery without removing the bar at all, which will hopefully stop previous mistakes for reoccurring.
Though I would have to say in retrospect that it didn't really hurt as much as I thought it did, because all my other piercings pretty much, had been numbed – so considering there was no numbing and it went through scar tissue, it was quite forgiving.
I would seriously recommend Quincy, and Studio 81. I felt really comfortable, and any questions I had were answered thoroughly. I will definitely be going back there, hopefully sooner than later.