Picture this: it's Easter weekend, I'm sitting around my home, reading on BME, and thinking about how much I enjoyed getting my existing tattoos done. I realize that I have somehow, surprisingly, become open to the possibility of getting a piercing done somewhere other than my ears.
At A Glance Author bronzed Contact bronzed@bme.anon IAM bronzed When A week ago Artist Jon Studio New Tribe Location Toronto, On After much contemplation and pondering of the horror stories I have heard about navel piercings, and after realizing I am way too vanilla to have any use for genital piercings, I at last settle on my answer.
I will get my nipple pierced, I thought to myself.
This might not seem like a huge decision to anyone reading this, however, a nipple piercing was always the one piercing I swore I would never have done, as the whole process just terrified me. I have had purple nurples (aka tittie twisters) done before and I know what a sensitive area the nipple is. So, on the train downtown I thought long and hard about my decision to have my nipple pierced.
The train ride is 40 minutes, a lot of time for me to come up with a viable plan. I decide, I'll have a bunch of piercings done so that if I chicken out of having my nipple done I can later claim it was because the previous piercings had me too traumatized, and not because I was a giant wuss.
So, at long last I arrive at New Tribe and talk to the girl at the counter, explaining what I wanted done. She offered me the choice between 14 and 12 gauge for my nipple, I chose 14 because I thought the smaller size of the hole would be easier for me to handle the pain of.
A few minutes later, Jon calls me into the back. He does my lobe piercings first, which I shall not go into detail about, and when those are finished, I am still feeling quite brave. I think that knowing I could chicken out and get my money back helped me have the confidence to continue with things at this point.
I lifted my shirt and pushed down my bra, asking if that was ok because I was shy about removing them completely, and he said that was fine and not to worry. After a couple of breaths, the needle went in, and oh lord. I wont lie, it hurt a lot, but only briefly.
There was a pause in the pain while he got the jewellery ready and another surge of it when it put it through. He had to remind me to breathe at this point because I had been holding my breath. I couldnt help laughing as I hadnt realized I was doing so.
Moments later it was all over, I was reclothed and on my way out the door, after giving him a 20$ tip, and back to the train I went on my way home.
The whole train ride home I was flushed with the excitement of what I had just done, so proud of myself for not chickening out, and all around just flooded with adrenaline and thrilled with life. It was so difficult not to look at it to see again how it looked, but somehow I managed.
The rest of the day passed painlessly, until it was time for the first cleaning of my new piercings. Again, I'm not going to lie. It hurt so badly to clean the nipple the first time that I had to sit down in the shower because I almost passed out. It was worse than having the piercing done.
But, I persevered, and here I am almost a week later after cleaning twice daily with vegetable based glycerine soap followed by sea salt soaks, and with almost no pain at all.
All in all, I LOVE the piercing, and find myself staring at it often, lifting my clothes in the bathroom at work or when in my bedroom to admire it. Although I am by no means an exhibitionist, I took pics of it, and submitted one to BME, even sent one to a friend of mine, which I would never have considered doing only minutes before the piercing was done. It has allowed me to have more confidence in myself, my body, and to become proud of how I look.
Believe it or not, I am even thinking of having my left nipple done! The experience has opened up a whole world of piercings I would never have considered before, I feel almost like a new person because of it. I cannot wait until my healing is finished and I can pick a new place to embellish with a hole and a piece of jewellery.
And thats how in one day I faced down my worst fear, and ended up with a beautiful piercing to boot.