Yesterday, I felt inspired. Sufficiently inspired to have my nipple pierced. It's my own fault, I shouldn't have stayed up late reading 'Piercing: A Modern Anthology'. I now have a long list of planned future piercings (including an industrial, tragus and maybe even a vertical hood).
At A Glance Author Lloer Contact Lloer@bme.anon When It just happened Artist Gray Silva Studio Rampant Ink Location Nottingham, UK I live about five minutes walk away from the tattoo and piercing shop Rampant Ink. It's dangerously close, you can wake up one morning, think "I'll have my nipple pierced today", get washed and dressed, walk out of your front door and half an hour later you have a large titanium ring hanging out of your left nipple.
As I walk around the corner to the shop, I feel happy but nervous. I know its going to hurt but not how much. I have other piercings, two nostril and lots of ear lobe and cartilage including the most recent - an anti-tragus. I'm not a stranger to having holes made in my body but this one is more intimate. I reassure myself - I've breastfed in public - I can bare my breast to a piercer.
The most difficult part of the whole thing approaches. I walk into the shop. 'I've come for a piercing' I say as I notice the young lad sitting in the waiting area. 'What sort?' the girl asks. 'Nipple' I mumble. Why is asking for this so hard?
Sitting in the shop, while the tattooist/piercer is working on another client, as the tattoo machine buzzes in the background, I flick through portfolios of flash and the nervous anticipation builds. The young lad is smoking and it starts to annoy me – I sit as far away as possible. Time passes. I get up and pace around looking at the jewellery displays.
I must admit: this is half the fun. I enjoy the nervous anxiety, the apprehension of the pain that I am soon to experience.
A couple of coarse and raucous guys walk in and browse the flash. They look like a father and son. Their brash manner barely hides their own nervousness. I wait and wonder what they'd say if they knew what I was about to have done.
The buzzing stops and a satisfied client leaves. It's my turn. I already know that Gray, the tattooist and piercer has a lovely 'bedside' manner as he did my tattoo a few months previously. He's really reassuring and calming, making small jokes that produce a smile.
Something I hadn't anticipated - there's another guy - Pete - present during the piercing. He's being trained. I'm asked if I want him there and I am told in no uncertain terms that it would be fine if I don't. I think about it briefly, my first instinct is to say that I don't want him there but I think some more. What difference will it make? And how else is he supposed to learn? I say yes - they asked so nicely - I think that was what swung it.
Gray talked Pete and myself through each step as he did the piercing. First, he cleaned my nipple which also had the effect of hardening it ready for the piercing. He measured the base of the nipple and calculated the jewellery size - 12 mm needs a 16 mm ring to allow the piercing to heal properly. An anaesthetic spray was carefully applied while Gray explaining the need to use it sparingly to avoid frostbite. The hole is made with a needle then the jewellery is inserted. When the jewellery is inserted, some skin is pulled inside the hole so that has to be pulled back out again. A dressing is applied and that's it.
The use of anaesthetic meant that it was just about the right amount of pain for me. While the initial piercing was a short, sharp and hot shock, the most difficult part was when the jewellery was put in but it was still just enough pain. Just as I thought I couldn't take anymore it ended.
I walk home again, grinning. I can feel the strangely wonderful heat of the pain under my bra. I walk past people and think "You don't know what I've just had done!". I'm looking forward to returning to work (for a large and very conventional IT corporation) on Monday, to walking around with a 'Guess what I've got under here' grin. I love it.
Looking back, the part that caused the most anxiety for me is the thought of walking up to a stranger and asking for an intimate piercing. The calm, reassuring manner of the piercer accompanied with a gently humorous approach is enough to put me at ease. I know that in the future I will be able to tolerate having a genital piercing, I just don't know if I will be able to go and ask for it in the first place!