Well, I've wanted my nipples pierced for a while and I decided to do it myself for a number of reasons. First of all, I live in a rather small area so doing it professionally would be expensive and I wouldn't have much of a choice of where to go, so the actual professionalism anywhere around here would be questionable. I've had other piercings done "professionally" here, which turned out being not-so professional and quite expensive in the end. I've pierced my own ear lobes before and they turned out perfectly fine, although I know the difference between ear lobes and nipples is quite a big one... I just figured I could do them myself too.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A month ago Artist myself Studio my bedroom I ordered some captive rings that I saw on eBay that I really liked, partly because they matched a navel ring that I have and I thought together it might look cool. I also ordered a 14 gauge needle off the same person and got a really good deal. Altogether it only cost me about $7. Waiting for it to arrive was like waiting for Christmas morning, I kept checking the mail box every day even when I knew it was still too early to arrive. You know that "itch" you get, wanting a new piercing, when you know what you're going to get you just can't wait to do it... I was on piercing withdrawal. The little ear lobes weren't doing it for me anymore and I was running out of room there. I won't get any other piercings done professionally around here because I don't trust the places here.
So anyway, it finally arrived one day and I decided to do it that night. I did the left one first. I started by freezing my nipple with a can of frozen juice. I just held it there and waited for what seemed like forever. Eventually I figured it was cold enough and I took the needle out of the package and tried pushing it through. I realised then that all that "freezing" was pretty much pointless. It still hurt quite bad, but I continued to push the needle through. It was terrible. I was too chicken to just push it through really fast, so I stood there struggling to move it through very slowly. I could just feel all that nipple tissue stuff being cut through. It wasn't pleasant.
About three quarters of the way through, it seemed to not want to go any further. And to make things worse, my brother came in my room and almost saw what I was doing. That was not cool. I just pulled my shirt down and turned around, although I bumped the needle in the process and that kinda hurt. The good thing is that it didn't seem to have much of a problem going the rest of the way through after that. When it was all the way through I thought there was no way I was going to get the ring on, because it seemed like it would hurt just as much as what I had just endured, so I left the needle sticking through my nipple for a few minutes until I calmed down. Finally, I decided I couldn't just leave it like that and I thought since I was at least half way to a pierced nipple, I had to take it out. It bled quite a bit at that point, but nothing too scary. Getting the ring through was surprisingly easy, considering I couldn't even see the hole I made through all the blood. The hardest part was just before the needle was all the way through, just before it poked through the other side of the nipple.
Luckily, It turned out just fine. The only time I accidentally hurt it was the next day when I was laying down and my cat stepped in it. I was too paranoid that I would bump it if I slept without a bra for the first little while. I still get crusties but less and less now. I tried to wait a while before doing the right one, because it was self-done and all, but I gave in to temptation and did it too, three days later. That one gave me more problems because I knew what to expect pain-wise, and I tried to push it through faster. It ended up kind of crooked. Sometimes I find it likes to flip itself over so that the ring is pointing up, which is weird. It also hurts more healing and to clean it, and it gets more crusties, but I think it will be fine if I decide to let it heal rather than redo it.
So in the end I ended up with one good job and one semi-good one. I will probably decide to redo the semi-good one later, just so I can be more proud of it.
I definitely don't recommend anyone to do their own piercings, no matter what kind of piercing it is, unless you are qualified. I was fairly lucky with my self-done ones, but you never know what can happen - you might not be. I would have definitely done mine professionally if I could have. It's definitely not cool, and now I would rather lie to people and say I did do them professionally.