Ok. I'm 15, and aside from the single earlobe piercings you'll find in just about any western girl, that's all I had up until maybe six months before my 15th birthday.
At A Glance Author Ruth Contact Ruth@bme.anon When Six months ago Artist Don't recall his name, I'm afraid Studio Deep Blue Location Eastbourne, UK At some point I'd started stretching these, but my parents wouldn't allow me any other mods. Strictly.
So. Being me, I didn't listen. Three months before I turned 15 I got a sternum piercing, and over the next few months got both my nipples and did my right nostril myself [yup, not entirely intelligent. I wasn't sober at the time, but amazingly, it came out ok].
I'd liked septum piercings for maybe a year, at this stage - I'd always planned to get this piercing and that piercing the second I turned 16 [the legal age here in the UK], but eventually I decided it couldn't wait.
The piercing studio I chose was...well, not the MOST respectable...I mean, I was underage...but, they'd done my nipples and sternum and repierced one of my ears, and I was relatively happy with them overall. They had the basics of piercing hygiene down, anyway.
So...I was just wondering how to hide it from my parents. They didn't see the nipple piercings for obvious reasons, and I didn't wear anything low-cut around them, which hid the sternum, and I wore an incredibly small PTFE retainer in the nostril piercing, rendering it totally invisible. I knew septum retainers existed, but Deep Blue didn't happen to stock any. However, I was determined to get it RIGHT THEN regardless.
My then girlfriend was also not too happy with the idea - we'd talked about it a bit before, and she told me she thought it would be ugly. So, I didn't exactly TELL her beforehand...
Me and my friend Chels, my piercing-buddy of sorts, went to the studio after a spot of shopping.
I was nervous. I'm always like that. For days before I get the piercing, I bounce around going 'I'm getting [insert piercing] done soon, wowowowowow' but then I get into the studio and my stomach goes funny and I get increasingly shaky as I wait to go in the back room. It's not too bad these days, but back then it was.
I got in. The piercer told me that he'd seen grown men faint after having this done, that he didn't do it very often, and that it would HURT. JUST what I needed to hear.
I babbled. Nervously. He sat me down, cleaned me up, asked me if I was sure, to which I babbled. More nervously. He carried on. I shook like a small dog with some sort of palsy. He put the clamps on...I was about to tell him to stop, when he told me to breathe in...I couldn't decide whether to or not, so I took a breath, possibly with the intent of telling him to stop? Anyhow. The needle was through in the moment of indecision.
I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. But, it didn't hurt much. I'd say my nipples hurt more. I'd say my sternum hurt about the same. And...well my ear was at 10 or 12 mm back then, and stretching that up hurt more. My nose hurt more, but only cause it was a drunken DIY piercing.
It was a strange pain, it's got to be said. For a moment ALL my world consisted of was a needle going through me. I didn't hear a pop or a crunch like some people described, but there was just me and this needle. Then my eyes started to water. Then there was a twinge of pain as a circular barbell was put through.
I was told I could flip it up, but...the positioning of the piercing and the size of my nose made this impossible.
This sucked. Me and Chels went for a Macdonalds, and on to the more reputable piercing studio in town, Jazz Body, where they tried a few things, eventually changing the barbell for a very small straight one, with two clear o-rings keeping it in place. It still showed slightly, and I worried, so when I went back to Chelsee's, I did the stupid [but inevitable for a teenager who's terrified of her parents and too in love with her piercing] thing, and fashioned myself a staple-shaped retainer out of one of Chelsee's earrings. This was AFTER taking the PTFE out of my sternum and trying that, first, to find it was too big a gauge, of course.
It bled, when I changed it. Quite a lot. It hurt, also quite a lot. But it was done.
It healed pretty well, but then two bubbles of pus appeared either side. Blowing bubbles in a cup of saltwater seemed to make them go down.
It lasted a few months, and then for various reasons, I had a freakout and removed all my piercings except my stretched left lobe.
It closed up fine, no troubles.
I might get it done again, I don't know just now. But I'm glad I had it, and I think that it's definitely worth getting done - for me, at least, it wasn't half as bad as people said it was.
Anyhow, good luck to y'all.