A long time ago I used to work at a body jewlery/piercing store (Finder's Keeper's Body Jewlery). I was sixteen at the time and I have lots of horror stories from that place, but this one is about the nipple piercings a friend and I had got done there.
At A Glance Author ModestPita Contact ModestPita@hotmail.com IAM ModestPita When Two years ago Artist Cheryl Studio Finder's Keepers Body Peircings Location Virginia Beach, VA After school one day friend of mine and I decided to go to Finder's Keeper's and get our nipple pierced (one nipple each), seeing that we were only sixteen and seventeen it would seem impossible, but Finder's Keeper's Body Jewlery didn't I.D. people if they looked eighteen. Plus, I worked there as Sales Girl on weekends, so the owner, Kim, always hooked me up.
The main piercer there was Cheryl, she was sixteen at the time and she went to high school with me, but she lied to all the customers (and the owner) and told everyone she was eighteen. My friend went first. She had previously had her other nipple pierced here a couple weeks ago and wanted to have both done. After watching the needle go through and the pain on my friends face I started having hot flashes and getting really really nervous. When it was done they noticed it was really crooked, so they did it AGAIN! I thought I was going to cry just seeing that.
So now it was my turn, I should have said 'to hell with it' right then, but I was a stupid teenager and just wanted to be cool. So I popped out my nipple and was ready to go. Honestly, the clamp hurt more than the actual needle going through my flesh. I smiled through the whole pericing, and had asked my friend what the big deal was, for her first one anyways. Mine turned out fine, thank goodness. I don't think I would have been able to get it done twice in one sitting.
After that, Cheryl did'nt tell us how to wash it or any procedures on how to keep it clean and disinfected, I know most places I had been give you a sheet of paper that tells you everything. My friend and I being so excited that we actually did it, just paid her twenty dollars each and ran off.
I came back a few days later and bought a small barbell because I thought it would look cuter than the hoop that they had originally put in. The owner of the shop told me it was fine to change it out now, even though it had been like three days and was not at all healed. A few days later my nipple got really infected. I had a huge white pimple-looking-thing on the left side of the barbell and it was getting bigger, so I popped it. It looked just like popping a zit, it was disgusting. I told my friend what had happend and she called me 'puss-nipple' for a couple weeks.
Hiding it from my mom was another big issue, I always had to wear padded bras or dark shirts to cover up the fact that you could see an extra bump from the balls on the jewlery, and I'm sure that while it was trying to heal, being suffocated did not help.
Eventually, my nipple became really sore and red. I had read a story on the BME website a while back about a girl who got a huge infection in her nipple piercing and had to have her breast removed, so i wasnt taking ANY chances. I took it out that day.
As for my friend, a week or two later her's started migrating out. Now at that time we had no idea what that meant. She told me the hole was getting bigger, so we just figured it had been stretched by something. As time went by, her's totally just fell out. She had to go to another piercing studio for advice because she refused to go back to Finder's Keeper's. She ended up having to have her nipple stitched back together. Just saying that out loud making me cringe.
I am really happy that nothing as extreme as having our breasts removed happend in this story. That was the last peircings I ever got done at Finder's Keeper's. It should'nt have even happend, not only because I was underage, but because that was not the first piercing they screwed up on me, I had had previously gotten like seven others that ended up getting crooked or infected. So, I partly brought this on myself.
All I can say is wait till your of age to get things like this done, and go to a trust worthy place. And always get as much information on what your getting done, like how to clean it and take care of it. And most of all, take care of it! Having the information does'nt mean anything unless you do it. Remember, peircings can be very dangerous when done by uneducated people.