I loved my nipple rings for their short duration, less than 2 months. I didn't think I would like them as much as I did - the fact was, I was scared to get them done.
At A Glance Author anonymous When A month ago Location Near Philadelphia PA Nip rings had always intrigued me, but I was very afraid of the pain. But, the day after my 18th birthday, I sucked up my courage and went to the piercing parlor. I had made an appointment, so it was all ready to go. I chit-chatted with the piercer, a woman I'll call Jane, and I took off my shirt and bra and we got started. She look at my nipples and held up the rings that she wanted to use - they were 16 gauge CBR that looked small to me!! They looked about the size of my navel ring. Well anyway, I didn't know any better, so I thought they would be fine, I mean, she was the piercer after all, and I thought she knew best. So after I got my nipples hard, she opened the ring and marked where the enter/exit holes would be. She started with my left. Then she put the ring on the marked part, to make sure it would be even. So then she put on the clamps, and got the needle. Then, she pushed it through. Hot fudgies!!!! Pain pain pain!!! But, the pain only lasted a second and I sat u p all the way with the needle going through my nipple while she got the ring. It bled a little, but not that much. Then she did my other nipple, exactly the same way, nothing too special. I paid my $80, and left with a smile on my face!!
Now, I didn't write too much about the actual experience because there's a million experiences on there, and they're all pretty much the same. The 2 months following my piercing was when all the weird stuff happened.
I slept with a sports bra on for the first 3 weeks or so, and for the first 2 days kept a paper towel in my bra because it would bleed every once in a while. My piercer had told me to use iodine on them, and to make sure the iodine got inside the piercing. My left nip was doing good, healing normally, but my right one wasn't happy hanging below my nipple, so for the first few days I let it sit above. Then I figured it would heal that way and I'd never get it to behave, so I painfully pushed it into position. There were crusties on my right ring more so than my left, because by the 4th week I was cleaning crusties off my left every other day, whereas my right I had to clean several times a day. I didn't think there was anything really wrong though, because they were 2 separate piercings. It started to heal normally, or so I thought.
Then one day just before New Year's, I woke up to a startling discovery - I had a purple burn blister looking thing on my right nipple!! I panicked and freaked, then tried to rationalize that it was just a zit. Yeah, ok. A zit purple zit on my nipple. I squeezed it and some pus and blood came out. Gross! I took a quick shower, but by the time I was out, the thing had grown bigger, and hurt (it was on my enter hole). I high-tailed it to a nearby tattoo/piercing parlor with a good reputation (Imperial, in Bethlehem PA), and waited to be seen by a piercer. He took one look at my nipple and said in disbelief "you got pierced with this??" He proceeded to tell me the ring was entirely too small, that women shouldn't be pierced with anything smaller than a 12 gauge, and the ring was too small in circumfrance for my nipple. He said that my nipple had started healing AROUND the ring and was essentially eating it. He removed it for me, and I couldn't replace it because I didn't have t he money for a new ring, besides, he didn't want to put in a new one with that gross purple thing there. I couldn't afford the other $5 for him to take out my left ring, so I took it out myself when I got home. I took it out because I figured the same thing would happen again, even though it appeared normal and almost healed.
Now, 6 weeks later, you can barely tell that I've had them pierced at all. There are 2 smaller red bumps where the enter/exit holes were, but you could only notice if I pointed them out. I don't plan on getting it done again though, because I don't think the healing time was worth it. So, a word from someone who knows - make sure your piercer knows what they're doing and how big of a ring to use!!