At A Glance
Author	anonymous
Contact	anonymous@bme.anon
IAM	Tofurkey
When	Three months ago
Artist	Self

About three months ago, give or take, I decided it would be a good idea to pierce my own nipples. I thought a lot about it and completely convinced myself that it would be perfect. It turned out really well, considering I was 15 and a little buzzed. This is how it all went:

I had been thinking a while about what I wanted to do next, piercing-wise. I decided on nipples because it would be hidden from my parents, kind of my own little secret. The pain wasn't an issue for me, and I was pretty experienced for my age in piercing. I was completely confident in myself. And now that it's all said and done, I'm very glad i did. This has turned out to be one of the very best piercing experiences I've had so far.

I made absolutely sure that I was as best prepared as I could be. A friend of mine had two unused 14 gauge needles for me to pierce myself with. I went to a local studio and bought two 16G straight barbells. I think they're a little longer than a half inch. But hey, I have little nipples, so they fit perfectly. While I was at the shop, I got my clamps autoclaved and ready for me to use. I also picked up some more essential supplies at the drug store: gloves, alcohol swabs, marking pen, lubrication for the needle, and some stuff to clean up afterward with.

The Procedure:
I set out all my supplies on some paper towels on my bedside table. I washed my hands and put some clean gloves on. Then cleaned the area with some alcohol swabs. I measured the jewelry and put the marks so that the bar would be somewhat snug, but leaving myself enough room for swelling and cleaning. Then came the fun part. The clamps. I found that it's true what they say: the clamps are the worst part. I took the needle out of the package, lubed it up, and took some deep breaths. With the help of a mirror, I lined the needle up with the marks and pretty much said to myself, "Ready, Set, Go." And that's all it took. I pushed it through fairly easily, thankfully for me. There wasn't much resistance, and no catching. I took the clamps off, slid the needle out, followed by the jewelry and a nice stream of blood. It took me a little while to get the bead on. It was small and my nipple was bleeding, but I got it on eventually. I used some medical tape to hold some gauze onto my breast to keep the blood out of my way, and let it settle down a little bit.

I changed my gloves and cleaned everything up and started on the second one. I did the same basic procedure on this one. Clean, mark, clamp, pierce. With one difference: this one hurt like hell! It took me a good three or four shoves to get the needle through my left nipple. It also didn't bleed. At all.

After cleaning up my chest and work area, I slept with a sports bra on all night and didn't have any trouble after that as far as sleeping went. I did, however, have some discomfort for a couple weeks during the day, like if I rubbed against my desk or someone bumped into me in the hall at school, or something of that nature.

To clean it I did saltwater soaks on them every day for about two months After that I just ran hot water over them in the shower. They have healed marvelously and I have no regrets about piercing them. Plus... they feel very nice, if you know what I mean. I didn't anticipate the entire experience to go as smoothly as it did.

The only types of problems I've had is when they get hit. Which happens if you aren't careful. I've been in a mosh pit and gotten hit and the one-month old wounds bled a good amount. That was poor judgement on my part, though. Another incident was in school, and I got hit with a volleyball that was travelling at a fairly high speed. Again, probably avoidable. No blood that time, thankfully, only a sharp pain and an aching tit for a few days.

I've gotten a lot of compliments on them, mostly concerning the jewelry choice, how straight they are, and 'how rad it is that a 16 year old has nipple piercings'. Now and then I have some 'crusties' on the ends of the bar, but they come right off with some warm water. I'd recommend this piercing, but probably not DIY unless you know what you're doing really well.