At A Glance
Author	anonymous
When	Three months ago

I hate my boobs, and my nipples. For about a year and a half I thought about getting them pierced, so that they would look prettier and I would feel better about them. One night a couple months ago I decided I was going to get my nipples pierced, tomorrow.

I and a bunch of people I know have been pierced by the local piercing lady before and although there are a lot of off-putting rumors about her (such as, she used to pee in a bucket between customers before she got a toilet in her studio), being underage she was the only real option I had. So my friend picked me up and we went there.

The shop was set up differently to how it had been when I'd last been there, there was a new receptionist and also a bunch of customers. I felt soooo embarrassed telling the receptionist girl what I wanted pierced, while a trio of girls next to me who were waiting to be pierced giggled and listened in. More embarrassing when I realized that when I was ten I had gone to school with one of them...

I paid, I think it was a bit over $100, filled out a form- the receptionist didn't say anything about my age or ask for ID, and listened to aftercare information. They recommended their own cleaning solution and said that salt soaks aren't necessary. I took their advice with a grain of salt, pun intended.

The piercing lady took me to a dark back room to put numbing pads on me. I undid my shirt buttons and bra looked away. She seemed to spend a long time looking at my boobs and had to readjust the numbing things a couple times. Then she sent me off to wait for about an hour.

When it was finally time to come back the studio was thankfully empty. I was taken into a room I'd been pierced in about a year before sat down. I undid the top few buttons of my shirt and bra as before and was told this time I'd had to take it all off. Cringe. I did so and sat there feeling exposed and uncomfortable. She started rambling on about cooking pots and soup or something, and I tried to pay attention but really just wanted to tell her to hurry up!

Finaaaaallyyyy she got around to setting up needles and jewelry and things. I tried not to look. She measured my nipples to see which size jewelry to use. After a while I was asked to put my left arm behind my back so my chest stuck out. She marked my nipples with a toothpick and I shut my eyes while she tried to clamp the left one. It seemed to be taking a really long time. Eventually she said I could open my eyes and I thought what, its over already? Unfortunately not. Apparently my nipple couldn't be clamped, it was too flat. She said the only way it could be pierced would be if my boob was squeezed and she pierced free hand. Oh god.

She called out to her receptionist, something along the lines of "Oi its inverted!". The girl came in and she demonstrated what she needed the girl to do- grab my boob, really hard. Her long fake nails dug in and it was physically painful, and even more so painfully embarrassing. The reception girl looked almost as uncomfortable as me, she held my boob lightly though. I shut my eyes and told myself it would be over soon (yeah, it wasn't.)

She told me to breathe out deeply, like I was blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. The girl squeezed my hand (and, my boob) as the needle went through. It stung for a second but didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it was going to. I didn't notice her put the jewelry in. This seemed to take a lot longer than it should have.

Then it was time for the other one. The same process, and the same amount of pain. The pierced told me how good it was I had come to her and not someone who didn't know what they were doing. Right.

The girl left the room and my friend who was waiting by the door said she was bright red and muttered "That wasn't in the job description!". The piercing lady told me that I might need different jewelry and to come back if they were the wrong size. I'm thinking, she wouldn't be saying that unless they were the wrong size, as well as hell no I am never coming back. Then she cleaned the blood off my shiny new piercings, which looked uneven. I didn't complain, just wanting to put my shirt back on. I thanked her, left the room, thanked the poor girl and got the fuck out of there.

The whole thing had taken about forty five minutes, not including the hour wait before hand. Most embarrassing 45 minutes of my life. My boobs hurt for about an hour, and bled slightly for the next couple days. They look slightly diagonal, and one has scar tissue on one side. Despite this I'm happy with them and so much more comfortable with myself than I was before.

I kind of wish I had waited til I could go to a piercer I actually felt comfortable with, that wasn't so expensive and that acted a bit more professional. But y'know, at least I got a good story out of it, plus some pretty piercings.

P.S. A few weeks later I had to serve the reception girl at work. It was awkward.