My third piercing, my first report. I swore this time I would come back from the shop, sit right down, aching nose and all, and write it up, and so I did.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When It just happened Artist John Alford Studio Tribal Rites Location Boulder, CO First off, you have to know that I am not an attractive woman. At all. For years it never occurred to me to get body mods because--well, didn't you have to be proud of your body to decorate it? Wasn't it just for the young and thin and beautiful? For years I thought of getting a tattoo but feared I'd be laughed out of any shop I dared to show my face in. Then I hit some invisible point beyond which I just couldn't do that any longer and turned my entire life upside down in a matter of a few months. When I came out of it, I had a new job in a new state, a new apartment, a new life--and a new tattoo. And after that, mods were something I could do too.
The first piercing I got was an eyebrow ring, last July. I'd been half-expecting it to reject--didn't "everyone" say they didn't last?--but it healed up perfectly. My helix piercings were second. Most people seem to start on the ears and move to other parts of the body, but my ear was almost an afterthought. I considered it for a long time before acting. Two rings in my right helix, about as many months ago, and then--
And then what?
My job was pretty cool about the brow (a lot of our customers are modified), but I didn't really want to push it with another obvious facial piercing. I had worries about gum erosion from oral piercings. I thought of a vertical hood--quite a bit--but I didn't have enough confidence to waltz in and ask for one. A septum, on the other hand--
That seemed more and more appealing as I thought it over. The appearance could range from nearly invisible to in your face and everything in between, depending on the jewelry. Easy to take care of, stick nose in salt soak and it's done (I never did figure out how to soak the upper part of my ear. What was I supposed to do? Dunk my head in a sink?) Hidden from coworkers and the public with a retainer--did Tribal Rites pierce with a retainer? I called them and yes, they did. And once I'd called them, I knew I was going through with it.
I went the very next day on my lunch break. Here's a wholehearted endorsement for Tribal Rites. It's a long-established, clean, friendly, comfortable and well-maintained right down to the reef tank in the waiting area. I expected to see Mat, who I've seen for my other piercings, but he wasn't in and for the first time I met John. That's what I get for not posting earlier experiences, can't go on about Mat (who is a wonderful, quiet, calm, soft-spoken piercer) but on the other hand now I can go on about John. He was immensely friendly, upbeat, professional, cracking jokes to relieve the tension and explaining what he was going to do thoroughly beforehand. He quizzed me on my aftercare routine, and when I told him I went for sea salt soaks he applauded.
I took longer picking out my jewelry than I did actually getting pierced; I'd wanted a 14 gauge retainer but they only had 16s. For a moment I wavered about getting a 14 gauge curved barbell instead but I grew worried that it would show more so I got the retainer, deciding the virtues of having the piercing hidden outweighed the minor inconvenience of stretching it up a size later on. I waited while the tools and jewelry were being sterilized, watching the fish putt around in their odd little lonely bit of ocean on the high desert plains of Colorado.
The piercing itself went swiftly. John did preliminary marks and handed me the mirror for my approval, swabbed out my nose and had me recline all the way back in a dentist's chair. Although I like the focusing effect of piercing, I decided at the last minute I didn't like it quite enough to watch and I shut my eyes. The first attempt to push the needle through failed on stubborn cartilage, and blood oozed calmly out of my nose while John finished the piercing on the second try. A sharp dark burning pain, a moment of panic and another moment in which I accepted there was nowhere to go and the panic ceased, and then it was over.
So now I've got a piece of metal in my nose and an adrenalin rush to get me through the rest of the workday, can't beat that. My mods have changed me. For the first time in my life, I'm body-proud. I dress better, I let my hair grow out, I carry myself differently. I cut out the junk food and, though I'm still supersized, I've lost about 40 pounds in the past three months. Getting modded introduced me to places and people who don't despise me for how I look, and I no longer find those who do have any effect on how I view myself. I'm going to think seriously about that hood again, I'm spending a lot of time in my sketchbook designing my next tattoo, and right now I have a sore nose--and I wouldn't want it to be otherwise.