For the few months leading up to my 21st birthday, my plan was get a couple of new piercings. At the time, I only had four. Two basic piercings in each earlobe, done at Wal-Mart with an ear piercing gun. I have been wanting a cartilage piercing for several years and started planning on that as what I would get. But for a while I had a dilemma. I have been frequenting BME for several years now and was introduced to the industrial piercing one day while browsing through the pictures. So, when it came down to it, my dilemma was to either get an industrial in my left ear or two regular piercings in the cartilage of my right ear. I finally just decided on the regular double piercing, figuring I would just do the industrial in my left at a later time.
At A Glance Author Kortnee Contact Kortnee@bme.anon When It just happened Studio Mystical Illusions Body Piercing - North Location Oklahoma City, OK I decided I would have this done on the Saturday after my birthday. Since my birthday fell in the middle of the week, my friends were going to throw me a party the Friday after. I took that weekend off so I wouldn't have to worry about going into work with a hangover, so Saturday seemed like a good time to go so the alcohol from the night before could get out of my system and I wouldn't do anything stupid to it while drunk. My friend, Brett, was going to get her tongue pierced then as well, but turned out to be a lot shorter on cash than she had expected. Though, she said she'd still go with me to get mine done.
At least, that was the plan up until that Friday night and Saturday morning, when a drunken idea turned into some serious consideration.
We were all over at Brett's on Friday night for my party. I went outside to smoke and another friend of mine, Josh, came outside with me to keep me company. We started talking about piercings. I told him about the ones I wanted (the cartilage of my ears) and one I was thinking about (my nipples). He was curious about the nipple piercings and we started talking about them. At some point, I thought, "Hmm...I should do that instead of getting my ear done."
I woke up on Saturday morning at 8:45 am and couldn't go back to sleep. Everyone else was still asleep, so I laid there on the couch for a good hour and a half thinking about my drunken conversation with Josh. I had been thinking about getting my nipples pierced for several years, but lumped it into the category of "It would be nice, but I'd never have the guts." The idea was pushed out of my mind because of this. Recently, I started thinking about it again. My boyfriend has mentioned that he likes nipples piercings on females and that made the idea surface in my mind.
So, there I was, the only one awake at Brett's house with nothing to do but think. I went over it in my head, weighed the pros and cons, thought over what I knew about the piercing. I came as close to making a decision as I could without knowing more about it and decided to at least do some research on the computer once everyone had gotten up, plus I wanted to run the idea by Brett and my boyfriend before making a final decision. My boyfriend had no complaints. Brett thought it was hilarious and just warned me not to become a copy of a female friend of ours who constantly flashes her breasts and pierced nipples to everyone, whether they want to see them or not. My mind was already made up by that point, but I still got online and came up BME to do a bit of research to make sure I knew all of the facts. What I was most concerned about was aftercare and the pain of the actual piercing itself. While most of the stories said something to the equivalent of "It hurt like a mother fucker," there was the occasional story by a 17 year old that said "IT DIDN'T HURT AT ALL!!!111" I was more inclined to believe the 20 something's that said they blacked out during the process. Yes, I am a cynic.
It took me awhile to work up the nerve again to have it done after reading. We played some Halo, then after a few games, Brett, my boyfriend and I went up to Mystical Illusions to have it done.
I was surprised that it was not very crowded being a Saturday. There were only a few people there, so we were helped right away. Within fifteen minutes, a copy of my ID was made, the forms were filled out and signed, and the $60 was paid ($30 for each nipple, as well as jewelry and sea salt). It took him just a few moments to get everything set up and a few more for the piercer to become available. Both my boyfriend and Brett went back into the room with me, which I practically insisted on. I was very nervous and was fully expecting myself to chicken out at any time. Plus, they helped keep my mind off things by making comments and Brett poked fun of me at times, which made me laugh and relax.
He got everything ready, puts the disinfectant on my nipples, marked them and I laid down for the piercing. He started out on my left nipple. When he went to put the clamp on it, I fully expected the pain to start then as a few of the stories I had read here said the clamps really hurt. Much to my surprise, that didn't hurt any.
"Okay, take a deep breath."
I took a deep breath.
"Exhale."
I exhaled.
"Take another deep breath."
I took a deep breath and at the same time I felt something sharp against the side of my nipple.
"Now let it out slowly."
When I was about halfway through exhaling, he slid the needle through. I let out the rest of my breath in a whoosh.
"That wasn't slow," Brett said, laughing.
"Bite me." It was the only response I could come up with at the time. My boyfriend made a comment to her that I was probably going to brutally maim her for the remarks, but it was actually some well needed comic relief.
I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt at all. But on the other hand, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. During the actual piercing, I felt the needle pierce through the tissue, which lasted maybe a few seconds and was followed by a burning sensation which lasted for quite some time. It didn't hurt, per say, it was just a burning sort of pain that is more annoying than anything else. When he put in the rings, I felt it, but it didn't hurt me. The piercing itself was done so fast that I felt it all in one quick swoop. My boyfriend said later that he was very impressed with how efficient the guy was at doing it. He expected it to be a slower process. It's probably when they do it slower that it hurts a lot more.
To me, my left nipple hurt more during the piercing than my right. My left breast is a little bit larger than my right, so I am assuming that is part of the reason. Even now, that side is sorer than the other, even though my right nipple has bruising but my left does not. I am normally a 34C, so while the size difference isn't drastic, I can definitely tell a difference pain wise, even though it is minuscule.
It is going on four days since I had them done and I am still very happy with how it turned out. There is hardly any swelling. If you didn't know what my nipples looked like before, you wouldn't even be able to notice. There is no bruising save for a very little on my right nipple right by the hole on the left side. I do the salt water soak twice a day, once when I get up and before I go to bed. I clean them with Dial antibacterial soap at least in the morning while I am showering and follow up with A&D cream. So far, this routine has worked out very well. I haven't had any problems with pain. They get a little bit sore after cleaning. Today was my first day back to work after my days off for the weekend and so they were sore when I got home, presumably from how much lifting and moving of my arms I do at work.
If you are thinking about getting your nipples pierced, I would highly recommend it. Though, I do have to warn you, the pain will definitely differ from person to person depending on your pain threshold and the size of your breasts (for females). The gentleman the pierced mine said it is always worst for males as they have more muscle tissue to go through. I definitely recommend starting with a higher gauge. Mine were done with 14g. The piercer said he had his done at 10g and it was not fun at all.
One thing is for sure. You have to have a good sense of humor to get this piercing. I realized this the morning after I had mine done. I was laying on my back next to my boyfriend in his bed, holding shot glasses full of sea salt water on to my nipples. The hilarity of the situation suddenly hit me and I had to keep myself from laughing too hard as I was afraid of dumping the water all over myself and into his bed.