I have always wanted my nipples pierced, however after one failed attempt I was beginning to think that my dreams were going to be dashed. I try not to mess around with my body too much, and if a piercing fails once I usually give up and try and learn from the experience.
At A Glance Author Sarah Contact Sarah@bme.anon IAM porcelina When Three months ago Artist Fi Studio Primitive Body Piercing Location Perth, Western Australia However, this was not a piercing I was going to give up on. I had taken out my previous piercings two months prior to getting them repierced, and was certain that I wasn't going to repeat any of the mistakes I had previously made, and would give these piercings every chance they had of healing.
My last piercings failed for a number of reasons – the biggest factor (I believe) was that they had been pierced with the incorrect jewellery. That, coupled with too small a gauge, eventually resulted in terribly uncomfortable piercings that just didn't want to heal.
This time, I made sure that everything was done as perfectly as it possibly could be.
First – I chose a better piercer. I had been to Fi at Primitive for a number of piercings before, and knew that if anyone could give these piercings a better chance of survival, she could. I had absolutely no doubts in my mind about her ability as a piercer so I went into this experience feeling a lot more positive than I had in my previous one.
Second – I made sure that the proper jewellery was used. Last time I had been pierced with 14ga 12mm steel barbells (they may have been implant grade, but I seriously doubt it). This time I wanted to have not only the right jewellery, but also barbells that would look good and thus I wouldn't try and change the jewellery too early and cause more problems (I rarely change my jewellery before I have to but last time I changed it way too early and caused a lot of problems).
Usually my piercings are done on the spur of the moment, however this one wasn't able to be done straight away as I wanted to make sure that my body was as healthy as it possibly could be, and I also needed to make sure that my body was definitely suited to nipple piercings as I didn't want to go through the same hassles all over again.
So one day after work I dropped in at Primitive to have a chat with Fi and to have my nipples measured up and also to check that the scar tissue had gone down enough for repiercing. I had originally wanted to be repierced at 10ga however as I have rather small nipples Fi didn't think that I would have enough tissue to support a thicker gauge, so we compromised at 12ga. I put in an order for my jewellery that day – 12ga 5/8" blurple titanium barbells, and after that all that was left to do was wait.
And wait. And wait. I'm not used to waiting for piercings so by the time two weeks had passed with no word as to whether my jewellery had come in yet, I was starting to feel rather impatient. Finally, I received a phone call saying that everything was in and all I had to do was make an appointment! Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it until the end of that week so there was more waiting.
Finally, the day arrived! I went into the city after work and walked in the door of Primitive with my stomach churning. I try not to get nervous about piercings but this would be the first time in over a year that I had had more than one piercing in a session, and the fact that the needle would be going through scar tissue didn't make things any easier for me!
I walked in and soon (much too soon) I was walking up the stairs to the piercing room. Unfortunately I had chosen to be pierced on Friday night which, I know now, is one of their busiest times and Fi was the only piercer on that night so I had to wait for a while, this of course wasn't helping my nerves at all and I was so ready to run back downstairs and go home. I was not looking forward to this piercing at all, I was absolutely petrified.
After a little while, Fi came back upstairs and it was time to start preparing. She spent a good 10-15 minutes marking my nipples and making sure that everything was straight and in the right place – one of my breasts is larger than the other and my nipples are slightly lopsided so that obviously didn't help matters. I was glad that she spent so long though, as when I had them pierced previously they were crooked and at uneven depths.
I sat back in the chair and waited, every second my brain was trying to convince me to run away. But I knew if I left I'd regret it forever so just wanted to get it over and done with – once its done, its done and you never even remember the pain anyway so its pointless worrying about it.
Fi lined up the clamps on my nipple and made me take deep breaths in and out, and as always she would pierce on the out breath. I felt the needle slide through and I felt a jolt of pain go through my body. I looked down to see a needle sticking out of my nipple and couldn't help but smile.
After checking that I was okay, it was time for the next one. By this stage the adrenalin had taken over and I was about ready to jump out of the chair I was that hyped up. I felt a much sharper pain this time as the second needle went through, and started to feel like my body was trying to jump out of my skin. I started to get the shakes and then got this amazing rush. It was quite a shock for me actually because I haven't experienced that since my very first piercings, but I suppose no matter how many piercings you get your body never quite gets used to it.
I had to stay lying down in the chair for a while as I was feeling very dizzy and light headed, but after a few minutes I felt well enough to get up and walk downstairs. I gave Fi a big hug on the way out and then practically skipped downstairs.
My nipples were throbbing all the way home and bled a bit, but as soon as I got home I got in the shower and then did a salt soak and they felt better after that.
As with all my piercings, I cleaned my nipples in the shower twice a day with castile soap and then I would do a salt soak once or twice a day.
It had been a little bit over 3 months since I got my nipples repierced, and compared to last time I haven't had any problems. Crusties have been minimal, there has been no pain or swelling and they are not showing any signs of rejection.
I know that my nipples are along way from being healed but so far they are looking great and I'm hoping that they will heal perfectly without too many problems. With most piercings, I slack off with aftercare after a week or so, but I'm still keeping up with my salt soaks as I had to lose these piercings once and I don't want to go through that again.
All in all, I'm really glad that I tried this piercing again. I learnt from my mistakes last time and used my knowledge to have a much more pleasant piercing experience.