i had been hearing about various bme barbeques around the country and some in other countries. some of my friends went to the one in los angelas and had a blast. my friend derek (spicboy666 on iam) and i decided, mostly jokingly at first, that we should go on a "barbeque tour".
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon Artist brian Studio the NE BME BBQ Location bradford, massachusettes i heard about a barbeque in new england. i told the girl hosting the barbeque (little miss ghettofabulous on iam) that i would be there with some friends and a kickball and some vegan food. it was a smaller sized event than some of the others, but derek and i were going to go and a few people i talked to were as well. i heard that brian (xpurex on iam) from turnpike tattoo and piercing in hartford, conneticut would be there doing piercings. i had talked to him before about possibly having him do some surgical procedures on me (including subdermal implants) so i asked him what he would be doing at the barbeque. he told me he would gladly give me venom tongue piercings or re-do my septum. all piercings included jewelry, if needed, and only cost ten dollars, so i knew i would be getting pierced. since i am not eighteen yet, he told me i would have to bring a signed note from my mother and he would have to call her. so my mom wrote up a note saying that she gave him full permission to do my two venom tongue piercings and left her cellphone number at the bottom.
at the barbeque we had a lot of fun with lawn darts, and stories, and cameras, and guitars, and good food, etc. some people started getting pierced; mostly ear piercings i believe. i decided that venoms wouldn't be a wise choice for me considering i had another week left as a cashier before i moved... and it would take about that long for the swelling to go down. so after a while brian told me it would be okay if i got my septum done instead, considering i had already had it done.
by the time he got to piercing me it was dark and we had to do it under a light. a guy that was there (lollierott on iam) came in to take pictures and we zipped ourselves into the tent. the mosquitos somehow managed to get in quickly and the entire time they were crawling on us.
i had told brian a few days earlier about my concerns with steel jewelry. i had heard from a piercing apprentice that steel jewelry was finished with congealed pig fat. since i am vegan i have avoided all steel piercing jewelry. he called up his supplier and they told him that they did not use pig fat or any other animal products in any stage of their jewelry production. so, i went with a twelve gauge steel circular barbell. my previous septum piercing was a ten gauge nobium retainer but it was pierced too low. i had lost the jewelry in the year between the piercings and since it was free anyway, i went with the tiny barbell.
i had a bunched up blanket under my head and was laying down. derek was watching extra close because he wanted to learn how to do the piercing. the light was really killing my eyes, so i wore brian's girlfriend's sunglasses. he cleaned the area, marked it and judged it and went through some breathing routines with me. the needle went in and it was not bad at all. derek took a few pictures of me laying there with a needle through my nose and sunglasses on my eyes. brian put the jewelry in after he opened it up a little so i could flip it up for work.
i sat up and he looked at the piercing for a while and said it was a little crooked... it was mostly perfect, but the hole on the right side was ever so slightly higher than the left. that and slightly crooked jewelry made the piercing really obviously off center. he took the jewelry out and messed around with it a bit and put it back in. taking it out and putting it in hurt more than the piercing did.
finally, we decided he should repierce it. he said it wouldn't hurt much more, but it did so bad. he went really really slow, about three times slower, to make sure it would be straight. i bled, i cried, and it hurt so incredibly bad... worse than any piercing i've ever gotten. it looked a lot better when i was all cleaned up and brian didn't charge me at all for it.
the next day it was really swollen and i had a lot of dried blood in my nose. cleaning it and giving it a soak made it feel better but for about a week it was really really sore to the touch. it's just about healed now, and i am pretty happy with it.