At A Glance
Author	snowmellen
Contact	snowmellen@bme.anon
IAM	snowmellen
When	A month ago
Artist	Jesse Villemaire
Studio	Eternal Body Art
Location	Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

I've always loved I love the look and idea of nipple piercings, I was never happy enough with my own pectoral endowments, however, (I'm a small person, and they "fit my frame"), to really want to draw attention to them with something like a piercing. So they remained unpunctured and unconsidered.

Conversely, everyone I knew who had them pierced absolutely adored theirs, and I was jealous. Then one day I came across a picture. The breasts in this picture weren't professional or silicone, or one of the women privileged enough to be naturally large and perky. No, these boobs were small, but exposed in exquisite photography; and beautiful. But mostly they were exactly, in every way, like mine. They could have been my breasts on the screen, except for one detail: they were pierced. Peeking out from either side were neat, tiny metal balls: petite, pert and oh-so-flattering. It set me to thinking, and it didn't take me long to go to thinking to wanting.

So I set about working to raise the money for them. After about 2 weeks of doing practically a commissioned piece of artwork a night (plus a wonderfully generous donation from mal and Diosa for some fun little doodles) I had the money. I had made the decision to make the trip over to Cambridge to get pierced by Jesse, who I'd met and talked to on IAM and whose skills and manner impressed me greatly.

First try...

I'd called to arrange for an appointment towards the end of the week, but unfortunately Eternal was in the process of moving to a new storefront location, so Jesse told me to come by early the next week as they'd be opening over the weekend. So I arranged for a ride over on Monday with a co-worker on her way home. It'd been a busy day, so I didn't get a chance to call ahead of time. I got dropped off near Eternal's old location and walked the short few blocks (Cambridge, Ontario isn't a particularly large place) to the new location.. which looked, well, rather like a work in progress.

I walked in slowly and was greeted by many persons all busily painting or involved in minor electrical work. I guess Jesse recognized me, since he came up and introduced himself and apologized for the state of the shop. Apparently they'd been working practically non-stop but still had lots left to do. We talked and chatted a bit, then he went to work on something, so I just kind of stood for a bit and chatted with everyone else who was in there working. It was pretty evident that there'd be no way it they could be set up by any time at night, but I didn't have anything planned for the evening and was reluctant to make the hike to the Greyhound station just yet. And I really can't just walk away from other people working. So I stayed, and worked, and painted and cleaned and chatted. I had a good time, and by the time I (generously) got a drive home, the place was actually starting to look like a shop rather than a construction zone.

Jesse was really apologetic, and I think he felt really bad, but it wasn't a big deal that I couldn't get them done. Even though they were opening in the next couple days, he'd be away at a tattoo conference towards the end of the week (the only time when I could get down again). So the plan was to do it early the following week

Second try...

The next Monday rolled around, and although I'd been planning to go closer to mid-week, the coworker that could drive me could only do so on Monday without me having to take time off. This time she was in a bit of a rush, so I had her drop me off on her way through town, several blocks from the store. It was one of the first beautiful days of summer though, so it didn't matter much, after a day cooped up inside I was glad for a nice peaceful walk. Did I mention Cambridge is a pretty small town? I was baffled by the amount of cars and trucks with occupants who hollered, whistled or revved their engines as they drove past me. Had they never seen a female before? I went into "total ignore mode", the same that I use when jogging in the morning (when I also need to deal with an exuberant amount of catcalls). I continued down the main street, giving not even an eye flicker to any of the cars or their noisy passengers.

Wouldn't you know it though, one of the hollering cars contained Jesse. I'd forgotten that Eternal was closed on Mondays, since they'd been pseudo-open the previous week. They'd been heading over to Building Box, and by fluke had just happened to be driving my way. I had, of course, completely ignored them (they thought I must've been wearing headphones). Thankfully, they did a big U-ey and met me just as I was getting to the shop to (heartbrokenly) find it closed.

Mercifully, and being the sweetheart that he is, Jesse opened up for me. We popped to the back, to his newly set-up piercing station where he proceeded to start prepping as we chatted.

A pair of gloves or two later, he had me take off my shirt and sportsbra. My nipples were measured with a pair of calipers and he took out ½ inch barbells, and then asked me about the balls. We both agreed that smaller would be better. He got those out from sterile packets as well, and then after a bit more prep, swabbed me down well with disinfectant scrub (not Betadine, it was clear, and I didn't ask what it was exactly). Then with gloved hands and a purple marker I stood straight, trying my best to hold my shoulders in a neutral position as he carefully made his marks. I turned towards the mirror to OK them, and they were almost perfectly, fantastically level. One of the dots was larger than the others, so gave the appearance of being a little off, but Jesse took a close look and we both agreed that piercing towards the top of the dot would make it ideal.

I hopped onto the chair and prepared myself. I think we talked about pain (or maybe that was before hand). Something about male nipples hurting more, and him almost passing out from his daith peircing. I asked him about his opinion on clamps a split second before he whipped them out, and I was really satisfied with his answer. I'd pierced myself about 6 months earlier, and clamps had not been part of the equipment I had, and it certainly would have made it far easier. The clamps were applied to my left nipple first and clicked into place. I can honestly say that I really didn't feel them. Maybe a bit of pressure, but certainly not painful.

Jesse lined up the needle and had me take a deep breath, and on the exhale and with a smooth, precise motion he slid it through. I can truthfully say the only reaction I had was the calm utterance of "Oi". Jesse went slow enough to be perfect and precise, but fast enough that it was mercifully short. It wasn't so much painful as intense.

I had had an IUD inserted into my unyielding cervix barely two weeks before, and that experience was burned into my mind as very near the upper limit of my pain tolerance. It was almost 20 minutes of laying strapped to the table, gasping for breath and desperately trying to relax my abdominals against the waves of searing, nauseating internal pain as my gynaecologist did battle with my hideously unreceptive cervix. I just lay on that table and prayed it would be over. Afterwards I was left shaking, cramping and washed with alternating waves of sweating and freezing; blacking out when I tried to stand for the first 20 minutes. In terms of pain, I would say it definitely reached proportions of 9 out of 10, definitely reaching the area where I wanted to scream like an incoherent animal or pass out. In terms of damage, I spent the next two days bleeding considerable amounts directly from my cervix, cramped and tender from the procedure. (Not to bash IUD's, insertion typicall y is not this bad, it was an idiosyncrasy on my part and I'm very happy with it as a birth control method)

Back to the piercing, however, and I would say it that compared to the IUD insertion as only about a 3 or 4. But best of all, it was so quick that I barely had a chance to register the intensity, and I certainly don't recall it now. Nothing like the searing memory of that IUD. Jesse had me take another deep breath in and out and slid the jewelry through. I admired his skill: this was the part that I'd had intense trouble with on my own, and just one more reason why I'd prefer to go to a professional. Jesse asked me how it was, and asked me if I was OK. I made some comments about how little it had hurt in the grand scheme of things, and he made the offhand remark that the second hurts more. "Oh, really?" , I questioned, and he quickly backtracked, but I knew he'd meant it and what was coming.

Again, the lining up of the needle, and the deep breath in, piercing on the exhale. This one I definitely squinted for. It was more painful than the first, perhaps a 5, but definitely nothing intolerable. I definitely felt more this time, including the slicing feeling of the bevel. Then inhale, exhale, and jewelry in.

Trying desperately to keep my endorphin-filled giddiness under control, I hopped up from the table to take a peek. I could see the bars protruding from either side of my nipples, and Jesse commented that that would likely be the last time I saw them like that, since they'd swell now, and even with them healed the shape of the fistula around the bar would take up some of the extra space.

I then got back into the chair and Jesse put together some gauze-and-tape-that-wouldn't-stick bandages to protect my bra from bloodstains on the way home. Then they drove me home!

Actually, we went to the Building Box first, looked around for stick-on floor trim, and then I got dropped off. But wow, how's that for service, eh? Jesse gave me one of the most interesting aftercare talks I've ever had. It was a rather distracted affair given as we drove, but it was so since he knew that I knew how to take care of myself and new holes in general, and if I ever had any doubts it was all written up on the aftercare sheet that I'd gotten as well as a little baggie of sea salt and a jar of J&B aftercare balm. Jesse recommends the stuff for nipple and navel piercings because of their propensity for getting dry; which I definitely agree with as my navel wouldn't heal completely until I made sure that it was kept moist-ish through the final stages to prevent the last lingering crusties from tearing up my almost-healed fis tula.

Throughout the car drive, and at the Building Box I was in no pain, and even hugging (although done carefully) elicited no more than minor discomfort. When I got in I changed into pj bottoms but went naked on top (after peeling off the bandage tape which was much stickier than I though it was). Initially there was very little blood, barely a trace around the very new-looking holes. Still a bit of barbell peeking out from the sides, although less than had been immediately after the piercing. I opted to let them alone for the night, I changed my sheets for good measure and climbed gingerly into bed. The extra care wasn't needed though, as sleeping on them I found to be no problem, despite my usually sleeping position of half-side, half-stomach, curled up with a pillow.

Healing..

The next day I awoke to a small amount of dried blood one either side of the left one, and nothing on the right. They had swollen overnight as well, and now took up the entire length of the bar. I cleaned them gently in the shower (the final step in the shower, giving them time to soak) with 5% chlorhexadine surgical scrub (the active ingredient in Provon), without attempting turning or moving the jewelry due to tenderness. I just carefully cleaned the area and all traces of blood away, then patted dry with a fresh towel. Than afternoon after work I performed my first sea salt soak with a pinch of salt in a shot glass of warm-to-hot water that I suctioned to my anatomy. It felt soothing and good, and again, I didn't try moving the jewelry around, just gave each a quick rinse after about 5 minutes of soaking each and patted dry and put on a tank top with built-in light support to let them "air out" for the rest of the night

Over the next couple days I cleaned with chlorhexadine in the shower in the morning, soaking in the afternoon and evenings. Bruising developed on the underside of the left one and extending down my breast; bright purple to begin with, but fading quickly to brown and then yellow. The hard swelling went down considerably, but I discovered another peculiarity. Under normal circumstance, my nipples like to flatten out and become almost indistinguishable from the rest of my breasts. When they did this, not only did I lose any protruding nipples shape, but the tissue that makes up my nipples also spreads out and blends in. It almost then appeared as though the piercings passed about 1/4" deep through my areolas. I was a little alarmed at first, until on closer inspection (requiring removal of more clothing, and thus exposure to cold, and thus creating nipples once again) I could see that when that tissue was not relaxed it was recruited to be part of my nipples, so the piercing s indeed did pass through the very base of my nipples.

In the following week, the yellow-brown colour of the bruising on the left one (thrillingly) persisted. I switched from the chlorhexadine in the shower to the milder antibacterial soap Spectro-Jel, which was on the list of those recommended by Jesse as well as for aftercare of several other piercings of mine. I was now tentatively turning them in the shower as I cleaned, both rotating and moving the barbells back and forth, both with soap on, and then more extensively while under the water stream to rinse. I began applying the aftercare balm to the areas around the holes after the shower, using a fresh q-tip with every dip into the pot to prevent contamination of the lovely-smelling goo. I couldn't say at this point if it helped, but it certainly didn't hinder and it did have quite the pleasant aroma. The days got rather hectic, and I was staying late at work so didn't get much of an opportunity to perform salt soaks when I arrived home, as well as the real hot summer wea ther had hit, so I was indulging in cold showers when I got home, and thus performing my morning cleaning routine at night as well. I think if I had run into any troubles or needed the soothing feeling of the hot salt soak drawing any impurities from the healing wounds I would have happily indulged in some.

I was wearing my usual comfortable sports bras during the days, and for the most part either only a light tank top or nothing at all in the evenings (it was sweltering hot all that week). I hardly had any further bleeding, only once; during a long car trip where the shoulder strap of the seatbelt would rub or bump against the left one did I have anything substantial. From here, it seemed as though the left one; in particular the sternum-side hole would be the problem child of the bunch. It appeared slightly deeper-set in my areola than the rest, although it could have simply been due to the fact that there was greater swelling around it, which was certainly evident when gently palpated.

One month later, they're feeling particularly fantastic and rather substantially healed. I find it hard to believe, since it took a good 6 months to heal my navel, and they are supposed to act very similarly (3 to 6 months of healing time). I dropped into the basic routine of cleaning with Spectro-Jel in the shower in the morning, and then just scrubbing with my normal salicylic acid-containing body wash, likely what I'll do for the rest of their life. I've had no problems with them at all and am able to move and manipulate the jewelry now with ease both wet and dry. The left sternum-side did have a bit of swelling to it that receded about week 2, but indeed, when my nipples are hiding it does seem more deeply set into the areola. However, I've noticed that that is deceptive, since that tissue is recruited to form part of my nipple when nipply situations arise. The placement is still perfectly level, which I find wonderfully attractive, and with the slightest raise of m y shoulders I can cause them to tilt so pleasingly inwards. The barbell posts themselves only poke slightly out from the sides, more so when nipply; but on the whole I'd say that the jewelry is a good fit and I have no desire to change it.

In all, I'm rather amazed by their progress at this point in time, and barring further large, unforeseen complications I see this as their permanent state. I'm immensely happy with them, and I do find that it gives me a little more confidence about my body to have something of beauty on them, and these piercings certainly compliment, rather than overpower my chest. The only unpleasant part I'm left with is the horrible nagging question: "Why didn't I do this sooner?".