When I pulled into the piercing/tattoo studio parking lot two days after New Year's, it marked the culmination of several years of consideration. I'd wanted to have my nipples pierced since my freshman year in college, but had never worked up the nerve to get it done. After spending several days in New Orleans, I'd made a resolution to get my nipples pierced in the New Year. On January 2, I decided that sooner was much better than later, and finally went through with it.
At A Glance Author slim Contact slim@bme.anon When A month ago Location IL I walked into the studio, and found that the piercer was tattooing someone. His assistant gave me the necessary paperwork to fill out, a task which was not accomplished without a measure of nervous shaking on my part. After I was done signing my nipples over, she brought two barbells out for me to choose from. I had decided before going in that I wanted to be pierced at 12g, but she had not offered me this choice. After telling her my preference, she conferred with the piercer and told me to come back in 45 minutes, at which time the autoclave would have finished its work and everything would be set up properly.
This delay gave me time to reflect, and time to eat. I reassured myself that this was something that I had wanted to do for a long time, and besides, it was a New Year's resolution, and no one ever breaks those, right? After eating and watching TV for a while, I made my way back to the studio, where the piercer was taking a break from his tattoo work.
A few minutes later, the preparations in the piercing area were complete. As the piercer washed his hands and put on gloves, I saw two individually packaged needles, and a pair of 12g barbells. These looked a lot bigger than I had imagined. I was somewhat surprised to find that I was markedly less nervous than I had been before when I removed my shirt and sat in the chair. After cleaning my nipples with some unknown-to-me cleaning agent, he marked entrance and exit holes for the piercing, and made me stand up to ensure they were level.
After these preliminary preparations were complete, it was time for the first supposedly painful part of the piercing. I prepared for the worst as the piercer clamped my right nipple, but the clamps were about as painful as a mild pinch. I thought to myself that it was somewhat surprising. He then lined up the needle for the moment of truth, and what a moment it was. As he pushed the needle through, it met only a moderate amount of resistance, and was quickly through the other side. While the initial pain was quite intense, it was short-lived and not as bad as I had expected. In fact, after the initial shock, the feeling was quite stimulating.
I looked down, despite the piercer's mild warning against doing so, to see the needle sticking through my right nipple. Apparently this causes nausea in some cases, but it didn't bother me at all. After sliding the barbell through and tightening the ball, the piercer moved on to the other nipple, which was completed in much the same fashion, and without any more pain than the first. I had been conditioned to expect the second one to be more painful, and was not disappointed to find that to be untrue.
After paying ($65 for both nipples) and tipping the piercer, I was on my merry way, none the worse for the experience, but with a couple of non-standard pieces of jewelry that no one would expect me to have.
For the first few days after the piercing, the holes bled slightly, mostly at night. This bleeding was contained to immediately around the holes, and thus was never really a problem. Since then, I've used salt soaks as necessary, and otherwise cleaned in the shower, with little difficulty.
There has been, for the most part, no pain, and sometimes I even forget that there are barbells through my nipples. When in a crowded club, however, it is a big reminder whenever I brush against anyone, and not an unwelcome one. The sensations are also interesting whenever I am out in the bitterly cold winter weather, as the metal seems to conduct the heat, or lack thereof, quite well. It, however, has never been terribly uncomfortable, just noticeable.
Two months after the piercing, my nipples are not yet fully healed, but I'm very happy with the investment already. I haven't told many people, and those I have told have been surprised, but I didn't do it for them, I did it for me, and it was worth the wait. Will I replace the initial jewelry? Maybe. Will I get more piercings? Probably. I haven't planned that far ahead yet, but I doubt any of those events will be as long in the making as my first piercings.