At A Glance
Author	Bellatrix
Contact	teenvoguekills@hotmail.co.uk
When	A month ago
Artist	The girl. I forgot her name >_<
Studio	Studio 13
Location	Edinburgh, Scotland

I woke up one morning last month and decided "today is the day I get my medusa pierced!" Which, the thought itself, was a bit strange as I'd never really liked them. An old best friend of mine had her medusa pierced and, to be honest, it never really appealed to me.

But that day, something inside me changed. Suddenly, medusa's were one of the most beautiful piercing out there and I just HAD to have it done that day.

Not being one to decide and then leave then and there to get it done, although I'd love to, I came online to BME and a piercing forum I frequent and had a look around at pictures and stories so I knew what I was getting myself into.

And it was decided. It was definitely something I wanted to do so, an hour later, I was ready to go.

But then I realised something. I had given my mother my money the day before in case I lost it [I'm forever losing things] and she had left for work hours before.

I was stuck! I couldn't go and get my medusa that day.

It's a bit of an understatement to say I GUTTED.

Before I knew it, the next day had rolled around and I was sure to get up super early (5:30am!) to catch my mum before she left for work and got my money from her.

I was ready to go! The wait from around 6am to when I could leave, at around 11am was terrible. It went SO slow. Minutes felt like hours.

Finally, 11am came and I was able to leave.

Sitting on the bus on the way into town, my stomach was overtaken with butterflies. I'd read a lot of stories on here and elsewhere that the medusa HURT. A few people had told me it was their most painful piercing.

Anyway, I got into Studio 13 and told the woman behind the desk what I wanted. She got me the consent form and then went downstairs to get ready.

I liked that, on the consent form, they require your ID number so they can be sure that you actually do have ID. I liked that they do that. I'd just seen a 16 year old guy cursing outside because he forgot his ID and they wouldn't pierce him.

Poor guy.

So I finished filling in the form and she disappeared downstairs to get everything ready.

I couldn't help but notice the strange range of people in there.

There was the usual tattooed, heavily pierced people you'd expect to see along with a small group of 'emo' kids [clearly nervous about approaching the desk as they didn't look a day over 12] and... a group of old people?

Yes, even I was a bit surprised to see 4 or 5 old [over 50] people in there.

Anyway, after around 10 minutes or so, the piercer returned from downstairs and asked me to follow her down.

I was sat on the dentist like chair and I was REALLY hot so she offered to bring the fan over for me, which I was super thankful for.

We spent a good while just marking up then, when she thought she had got it centred, she passed me the mirror and asked if the placement was okay with me. I said it was perfect [which it was. Don't ever be afraid to tell the piercer you're not happy with the placement. They wont be offended. After all, it's you who has to live with it] and then the clamps went on.

The clamps were a bit uncomfortable as it pulled on the piece of skin where I would have a "smiley" piercing [my brain is failing me on the name] but it was nothing unbearable.

After getting the needle ready, she spent a while lining the clamps up so it would be pierced as straight as possible and, after a couple of minutes, she asked if I was ready.

I told her I was and she pushed the needle through.

I wont lie; it really did hurt.

I could feel the needle going through each layer and feel it... crunch?

But it was VERY bearable. Not much of a pain, really.

Until she got to the final, outer layer. Holy F*** that hurt. I was fine before then but my eyes started watering on that final bit.

Then, finally, the jewellery was put in. This is the bit I hate most out of the whole piercing procedure. Just the thought of pushing a bar through a fresh hole in the skin freaks me out a little.

But the jewellery went in fine and there was very little pain.

I was cleaned up and I went upstairs to pay.

The piercer wouldn't accept a tip; she told me just to go back there for my other piercing and that will be her tip and I told her I would.

Now, out of my septum and bridge, the medusa is my favourite out of the three for SURE.

It's definitely worth the pain to get it done.

And I'd recommend Studio 13 in Edinburgh to everyone.

I wouldn't go anywhere else.