It was my second trip to Europe and my second time to Amsterdam. I had just spent 3 weeks touring much of Western Europe including Italy, France, Germany and Spain. At last, I was in Amsterdam, the home of the open minded. My previous trip to Amsterdam proved to be full of activity illegal in my home country, and I loved it. I was looking forward to the same party experience; and of course, some shopping.
At A Glance Author mandy When Two years ago Location Amsterdam Holland After a day of shopping with two girlfriends, one girlfriend decided she wanted to get a tattoo done here in Amsterdam. She wanted some way of remembering the trip. Off to the red light district we went. We passed the many "fun houses" and came to a tattoo shop. None of us had been to this place before but it looked clean. We figured it was the best we were going to get. Her thoughts were, what the hell! When else am I going to do this? She looked through the many tattoo binders and finally picked one out. So me and my other girlfriend that was with me watched her get tattooed on the back. At this point I hadn't had a tattoo yet so I was curious. I was interested in getting something done to remember this trip, but a tattoo seemed a bit extreme. I convinced my other girlfriend that was side lined with me to get a nose piercing done. At this point I had already my tongue, navel and 8 holes in my ears. I usually do my research though, so to me, this was spontaneous!
So there we are, trying to decide who is going first. Since I had more experience it was decided I would. So there I am trying to explain where I want the piercing done, to an artist who barely speaks English. It made me a bit nervous to say the least. He marks my nose and proceeds to get his utensils out. At this point my friend is looking a little pale and I'm expecting the worse. I found my navel hurt more than my tongue, however, my tongue was annoying with all the swelling; and of course the lisp. My navel seemed to hurt when I sat up or stretched it out.
So the clamp goes on my nose. As before, the clamp hurts. Not a ton but it isn't a nice feeling. Kinda like someone is pinching you. I can already feel the tears welling up so I grab a tissue. So he grabs the needle and pokes it thru. It was an immediate OUCH! But right away, the pain went away. The worst part was the crunch of skin and tissue. YUCK! It sounded disgusting. He then screwed in the corkscrew type of jewelry. It seemed to take forever to get that in and it wasn't totally pain free. I was getting impatient; I just wanted to see it! I bled a bit so after he cleaned that up he went thru the after care. I was done! I looked in the mirror and my nose was beet red! Haha...It looked great!
So it was my friend's turn now. She saw how quick it was and I think that helped her calm down. So she jumped up on the table and he marked her with the marker. She held my hand while he prepared the needle. It was neat watching her get it done. Hers was just as quick as mine was and she was done in no time. She seemed to bleed a bit more than me so she had to wait until it slowed down before she could really see it. We both immediately liked what we saw.
After waiting for our other friend to finish her tattoo all three of us went out for drinks! It was great. My nose healed very well. It seemed red for a while, and it felt tender but really, not bad at all. No swelling or bleeding after the initial piercing was done. I cleaned it two or three times a day with peroxide and I twisted the stud regularly. I was quite pleased. I did try to change the stud after about 3 weeks, which I don't recommend. I was pierced with a stud that had a metal ball on the end; I really wanted a small diamond stud. So after I found one I decided I couldn't wait to see what it looked like. Those corkscrew studs are difficult to get out! After some tears I did manage to get it out, my nose again was red for some time though!
I don't regret getting this piercing and its one that has a neat story behind it. Whenever someone asks where I got it done, I tell them, in Amsterdam!