Just a month ago, I submitted an experience about my navel piercing. However, just two days after I submitted the experience I had to have major surgery to remove my right ovary due to a serious cyst which had formed. This surgery was performed by laparoscopy, so an incision has to be made in my belly button. For this to happen, my navel piercing had to be removed. Before entering surgery, the surgeons and nurses promised they would replace my navel ring as soon as the operation was complete. However, upon waking up from my surgery I was informed that my navel ring was not put back in because it would interfere with the healing process. My father knew that I enjoyed having the navel piercing, so he immediately offered to take me to have it re-pierced.
At A Glance Author Sherri Contact Sherri@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Name Unknown Studio Lasting Empressions Location Dothan, Alabama I had only had the navel piercing two months, but it had already come to be a very much welcomed and loved decoration to my body. I quickly began to miss it. I decided to call the woman who originally pierced my navel. She instructed me to wait a month and then come back to see her for the re-piercing.
The month was a long wait. It seemed like navel piercings were popping up everywhere in the meantime, making me miss my own piercing even more. I researched and asked questions online about what to expect or if anything was different for a piercing which was to be redone. Of course the responses were mixed because everyone has a different body type and a different tolerance to pain. I kept thinking back to the first time I had it pierced and remembered, "It wasn't so bad! It was just a pinch." I was also thought of how much physical pain I had endured because of my operation. I then knew that even if the pain was a little more intense the second time around, I could handle it.
As the wait progressed, pain wasn't the issue anymore. I knew that I had loved the piercing and that the little pain I felt the first time was well worth it -- so of course it would be even more worth it to have it back!
The day finally arrived; my father drove me two hours to the same shop that I had my navel pierced at before. An hour into the trip, I took a prescription strength pain pill that I had left over from my operation. (I'm not sure if this is a very safe thing to do. However, I was not driving so I knew if the pain pill made me drowsy I could just fall asleep on the way back home.) Once we reached the shop, my father decided to stay outside in the car while I "took care of business". I walked inside, very confident and not feeling nervous at all. I walked up to the counter and the woman asked me nicely, "How may I help you?" I explained to her that I had called her exactly a month ago about having my navel re-pierced because of surgery. She requested to see the scar from the old piercing and she simply nodded her head after inspecting it. She handed me a form to fill out (after I verified my age with an ID) while she prepared the work area to pierce me. I then chose a swirly pink barbell to have put inside of my navel. I paid the money for the piercing and the ring and turned in the form.
I followed my piercer back to the room. She had me lie down on the dentist type chair. She told me, "I'm not going to mark you because we are going to use the exact same placement as before." She put on gloves and cleaned my navel with a cold solution. I watched as she prepared a fresh, new clamp and a new needle. She placed the clamp on my navel and said she was lining it up with the old scar. Unlike other piercers who I have heard of, my piercer did not tell me to take three deep breaths; she began to make small talk with me and before I knew it, I felt the small stinging inside my navel. I was surprised! I could hardly feel it even though se had pierced through scar tissue! She then placed the ring inside of my navel and told me how to clean it again. I thanked her twice since I was so happy to have the navel piercing back.
I left the shop almost as quickly as I had entered it. I told my father that it hardly hurt me at all, not knowing if the pain pill I had taken really had worked to numb the pain or if I was just so excited to have it back that the unimportance of the pain factor made the piercing itself seem to hurt less. (After all -- people have said that it only hurts as much as you fear it will!) I believe that since I didn't fear the pain, I hardly felt it.
I think anyone who is contemplating on getting a piercing but says to themselves, "I'm afraid of the pain... " should just go for it! If you want something bad enough, the little bit of pain you feel will seem to be nothing. It's completely worth it!