Every story has a bit of background information to get it started, so I may as well get that out of the way now. My day started out with me being convinced I had to work 5pm – 7am. No room for doing anything fun there! I headed off to work only to find out I had a co-worker who was willing to work my first shift. With one lucky break, I thought I just might be entitled to one more so I called up my other job to ask if I had to come in to work. Christmas must have come early because I suddenly had a completely free night! It seemed like it was finally time to go finish off my little nipple project: two sets of diagonal barbells making X's.
At A Glance Author Darcy Contact Darcy@bme.anon IAM badlittlemonkie When A week ago Artist Dave Studio Mos Eisley's Location Grand Rapids, MI
By the time I had gotten all cleaned up and ready to go it was 6pm. Sounds like plenty of time except that I had an hour and a half drive ahead of me! I don't trust the shop in my area for several reasons, my foolish friend being the main reason. He went in originally to get some ink done when the owner admitted to being "too drunk to do a tattoo" but claimed to be able to still perform a piercing. Needless to say, it was the ugliest ill-fated eyebrow piercing I had ever seen. So I called Mos Eisley's where I had gone previously for my septum and first half of my X's. I asked if 7:30 pm was going to be too late to stop in to get two nipple piercings done. After getting the go-ahead, I jumped into my car and made two quick stops (for cash and gas) before I was on my way. I made it into Grand Rapids only a little bit behind schedule but I hadn't counted on forgetting which streets are one-way...damned one-way roads that go the wrong way! After scoring a none too legal free parking spot I ran up and around the corner to try to get into Mos Eisley's before they decided I wasn't showing up. I was so relieved to see the lights on and people sitting inside.
I went up to the counter, mentioned I was the girl that called earlier about the nipple piercings, and asked if I had managed to make it in time. It turned out that I had, barely. I explained that I had been to their old location five months before for the first set of diagonal nipple piercings I already had and wanted to get the second set put in. I felt sheepish for not mentioning it earlier on the phone when I found out there weren't any barbells left in the length I needed. Fortunately, Dave (the piercer) offered up longer bars as an interim substitute. Sounded like a great idea to me! He went to set up his room for me while I munched on a sandwich I had bought on my way there. I hadn't had anything to eat that day and after getting pierced on an empty stomach before I knew it wasn't something I wanted to repeat. Hello dizziness!
He poked his head out to let me know it was time but I needed a point in the right direction for the restroom. It was time to Cruise for Crusties to make sure none had cropped up in the past couple of hours. The last thing I needed to do was dazzle people with my amazing lymphing skills.
I followed Dave into the room and he turned around to fidget with his tools so I could take off my shirt and bra in semi-privacy just like last time. I hopped up on the table and let him know I was ready. He had me lie down to clean everything off and put the marks on. He handed me a mirror so I could check their placement in relationship to the piercing, but I didn't really feel like I needed to look. I trust him to do everything right, but seeing as how I had the purple dots and a mirror...I looked anyway and was happy with where they were. I did the classic nervous rambling while he pulled out the clamps. I shut up long enough to hear him say how he preferred to leave the jewelry in so he would know exactly where everything was so the clamps would probably hurt a bit more.. And yeah, he was right. This time the clamps were definitely a foray into the world of "eeech."
It was significantly more pinchy than ever before so I was relieved when he didn't waste any time pulling out the needle and telling me to start taking deep breaths. In the past I've always been pierced on the third deep breath, but I think my piercer decided to mess with my head a bit because he waited until the fifth or sixth breath. It was a very sharp sting, a lot like when being bitten very hard. I couldn't help but let out an "Owwwww." I had a bit of a breather before he put the barbell in. Anywhere EXCEPT Mos Eisley's jewelry insertion has been the worst part for me. There, it's an absolute breeze. A bit of a tickle feeling when he screwed the ball on and we were halfway done. He trundled his tray over to the right side and I was thinking it wouldn't be so bad as the first because my right nipple healed faster and better than the left and I said so. Then he reminded me that this was the second piercing. I can't believe I completely forgot about the second one always being the worst. I'm not sure if I really did cringe, but I sure felt like it!
This one seemed to go a lot faster. I was expecting the pinchy clamps, started breathing and Dave pushed the needle through. Two words: Good Gravy!! It was definitely worth the five seconds of searing pain, but still. I completely stopped breathing I was so shocked. This time he just went for it and put on the jewelry instead of letting me put it off like wimp. It worked out a lot better that way because I didn't have time to dread it.
He handed me a mirror to look at my new metal and I wasn't 100% sure about how I liked them because it definitely made my nipples look different. They stuck out a lot more and were still a bit crushed from the clamps, but a week later I'm definitely loving the way the look!
Staying put for a bit until the wobbly feeling went away seemed like a great idea, so that's exactly what I did. Even though it was really late Dave didn't make me feel rushed at all which I really appreciate. After a few minutes I hopped down, got dressed and went out front to pay. Now this is the surprising part, he asked me if it was my BME experience he had read a few months ago about diagonal nipple piercings and when I admitted that yup, that was me... he thanked me for writing it. I don't think It's possible for a guy to be more polite.
And so, my X's are finally here. They were comfortable enough to gingerly sleep on the first night and still have yet to start lymphing. Oddly enough my older piercings reacted in a big way and had blood crusties for the first couple days. I was a bit worried but not enough to call Mos and ask about it. I just figured they were annoyed by the clamping and felt vindicated in my judgment three days later when they were less crustie and stopped bleeding completely. The new barbells have made the ones on top sit a bit differently but I've been eyeballing them regularly in case of migration and they haven't even thought about moving yet. In three weeks, I go to get shorter barbells put in and then they will be perfect.