At A Glance Author Anonymous Contact Anonymous@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Joanne Studio Passage Location Toronto, Ontario 6 months ago, back in June, I had my nipple pierced. (Can My Shy/Inverted Nipples Be Pierced?) It was a big step for me to allow someone to see my breasts. I have flat/inverted nipples that I am extremely self-conscious of. I had wanted my nipples pierced for quite a while, but it took a long time for me to draw up enough courage to walk into a piercing studio, explain that my nipples were flat/inverted, remove my shirt and ask the piercer if my nipples were pierceable. Eventually I worked up that courage and was excited when Joanne from Passage told that my nipples could be pierced. However, Joanne recommended that if I did decide to get pierced, that I only do one at a time to see how well they healed and if the piercing would last, as opposed to rejecting. When I was told that I could be pierced, I walked out of the piercing room where my consultation took place and into the reception area where I booked an appointment for a few hours later.
When I got home I covered my left nipple in Emla cream. I had never used Emla cream before, but decided to use it with my nipple piercing as I thought that my nipple may be subjected to a lot of tugging, in order to make the nipple protrude enough to have it pierced. It turned out that there wasn't a lot of tugging and I could have gotten away without the cream. Oh well, it had helped to reduce some of my anxiety. The same day as my consultation, I left Passage, happily, with a new nipple piercing. Little did I know that I would only have my nipple piercing for 4 months.
My nipple piercing healed well. I am used to cartilage piercings and was therefore surprised at how little this piercing had hurt and how few crusties there were, during the healing process. My nipple piercing did not get infected, form a dreaded bump, get knocked around or anything that I experienced with my ear piercings. My aftercare was simple – I cleaned it with glycerin soap in the shower and did the occasional warm water or sea salt soak.
For a while my nipple piercing was my most favourite piercing. It helped with my self-confidence. The nipple piercing helped my flat nipple to protrude more, which helped me feel more 'normal' and less self-conscious. These positive feelings lasted weeks, but eventually they began to dwindle and were replaced with negative feelings. Eventually I decided that I no longer liked my nipple piercing as much as I previously had. When my nipple was hard (which was only when I was extremely cold) there was no signs of me having flat nipples. However, when my nipple was not hard, which was most of the time, I didn't like the appearance of the piercing – I was slightly pierced through the areola and this was very visible when my nipples were flat. I had mixed emotions for a while – liking the piercing one day and hating it the next. Over time, the possibility of removing my piercing crept into my mind and, not without great thought, I decided to retire my nipple piercing.
As I have said in a lot of my other BME experiences, jewelry changes make me feel sick. I have no idea why. I tolerate piercings extremely well, but when I think about jewelry changes I cringe and a feeling of nausea creeps over me. Of course, when decided that I was going to retire my nipple piercing and thought about removing the jewelry, I experienced these feelings. However, I made the decision that I was going to retire the piercing, so I was going to have to deal with my fear of jewelry changes.
I wanted Joanne to remove my jewelry, since she was a female and because she was the one who pierced my nipple. I walked into Passage, up to the reception area and was informed that Joanne was on vacation until January. I was told that Matt, the other piercer, could help me out, but I politely declined the offer. Being self conscious of my breasts, I didn't want another person to see them. I decided that I was going to remove the piercing myself, with the help of my long-term boyfriend who had clearly already seen my nipples.
On the night of October 27th I decided it was the right opportunity to remove my piercing. I had a nice long shower and cleaned my piercing thoroughly with glycerin soap. As it still wasn't completely healed I wanted to make sure that there were no crusties around the barbell that would get pulled into the piercing when the jewelry was being removed. Also, I wanted to ensure that the barbell wasn't sticking to the fistula. I didn't want to tear the fistula, which could be painful. Lastly, I wanted to make sure there was no bacteria that would be trapped inside my body when the piercing had healed. When my shower was finished I headed to my room.
Once my boyfriend had washed his hands very well, we were ready to remove the jewelry. However, this did not prove to be an easy task. My boyfriend was unable to loosen either of the beads on the barbell. Due to the fact that he has large fingers and he was trying so hard to loosen the beads, he accidentally was pinching my nipple between his finger and the barbell bead. On numerous occasions I said 'ouch' and eventually asked him to stop trying. We then tried using an elastic band to help him get a better grip on the bead. Unfortunately, this didn't work either. I then decided that that I needed to suck up my dislike for jewelry changes and try to loosen the bead myself. It took me months to change my navel barbell on my own, and I still won't even change my nostril screw. Therefore, this was progress for me. I keep all of my unworn jewelry (which is quite the collection), aftercare products and so on in an art tool box. I happened to have first aid gloves amongst my stash and, using a pair, I was able to get a good grip on the bead and lo and behold, it loosened. My boyfriend wasn't in the room at the time so I immediately called him in to pull the barbell out of my nipple.
I was terrified when his hands approached my chest, convinced that this was going to be a negative, possibly painful experience. He reassured me that it wasn't going to be, and despite this reassurance and a few deep breaths, I was still scared. To take my mind off what was about to happen, without thinking, I actually started singing 'Old McDonald Had A Farm', during which he pulled the jewelry out. The first thing I realized was that there was no pain. However, there was a small amount of blood coming from the entry and exit points, as my nipple had undergone a lot of tugging during our attempts to loosen the barbell beads.
With the jewelry out, I hopped back into the shower for another cleaning. When I got out of the shower I carefully dried the piercing with a paper towel. I knew that wounds, piercings included, need air to heal. Despite this knowledge, I taped a piece of medical gauze carefully over my nipple and areola, because I didn't want any bacteria from my bra or clothes to get inside the piercing the first few days that it was healing. A few days later I paid for doing this, as I developed a pretty serious rash from the medical tape and had an itchy red square around my areola for about 2 weeks.
It's been almost 2 months since I retired my once-beloved nipple piercing. The piercing healed over well and now I can barely even see the marks where it was once pierced. As with all of the other piercings I have retired, initially I was happy that my piercing had been removed. However, since then, I find myself wishing that I had kept the piercing. It gave me no problems, there wasn't even the slightest indication of migration/rejection. Though my boyfriend really liked my nipple piercing, he loves me just the way I am right now. Nevertheless, he did say that if I wanted to get my nipple re-pierced (or even get both done) that he would go with me, not just for support, but to get his nipples pierced as well. This may happen, as I haven't gotten a piercing in 6 months and I'm starting to get that familiar piercing itch once again, to which many of you reading this can relate.