I recall back to when I was a young girl, just starting to go to venture out to the mall, and I got a glimpse of what was out there in the world. I saw people with piercings wandering about and saw some places selling various earrings and body jewlery and such and knew that one day I would get something pierced.
At A Glance Author Catherine Contact Catherine@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Dave Studio City Ink Location Philadelphia PA My extremely conservative paretns did not go for this at all, so when I was about 12, I decided to pierce myself. Using a safety pin and some vaseline, with the help of a friend, we had sucessfully pierced both of my lobes. This greatly upset my parents but eventually they let it go.
When I was about 13, I had decided that was not enough, so me and the same friend pierced my lobes again, using the same method. Amazingly all of these holes are even. Thus upset my parents even more but they again let it go.
So about a month or two after that we did third holes in my ears and they turned out fine. Then when I was about 14 I went to some studio that pierced people even when they were underage and got two carilage piercings in each ear as well as both tragus.
Then I became bored with that and I came to the conclusion that I needed a real body piercing, but I didn't want anything too serious, so I figured I'd go for my navel. Unfortunately I had to wait until I became of age because the studio i was going to go to had closed down.
So while I waited to turn 18, and over that time the navel piercing idea seemed boring and cliche, so I glanced around on BME and found some pictures of navels pierced more than once. When i saw these I found it very unique and different and befitting me, and I immediately fell in love with the idea.
I then went around to a few studios in my area and when I went into City Ink they were very friendly and they knew what they were doing there, so I discussed getting the double navel piercing. They said they could do it and the price they gave me was decent.
So I picked out two 14ga CBR's for the initial piercing because he said these would be easier to clean and would heal better. We then went in the back room and he took all the supplies from the autoclave and got everything ready. The two needles he used came from sterile wrapping and he was very clean and professional.
I layed back in the chair and rolled my shirt up and my pants down a bit, and he marked the two spots to be pierced. One in the top lip and one though the bottom lip of my navel. Then I layed back and relaxed and he told me to take a deep breath. It felt like a strong pinch and a slight burning. The same tihng happened one more time and when I looked down I had two shiny CBR's dangling from my navel. He took pictures of this and they are now hanging up in the studio.
I was sore that night and I found it difficult to sleep because I usually lie on my stomach and I ended up sleeping on my side. I also couldn't wear certain pairs of pants because the waist rubbed against it and irritated it. As for the aftercare of it, I washed it in the shower with mild soap and I did saline soaks after the shower before I went to sleep every night. But then the holes were very crusty and red and when I tried to move the rings a bunch of whitish fluid leaked out and I just thought it was normal and left it alone and kept doing the saline water soaks and washing it in the shower with mild soap. Then a skin bubble formed over the top hole in the top piercing similar to the one that formed on my tragus, but it just kind of went away after a few days. Since this was not my tragus and I knew what could happen to me if it was a serious infection in my navel, I got paranoid and I called the studio back and asked him what I should do and he told me to keep my dirty hands off of it an keep up the salt soaks and it would go away. So I did this and after a few days, sure enough, it did and now it looks fine. I do keep doing the soaks daily to keep it looking this way.
Overall I am very happy with the piercings and when they are completely healed I plan to go and get the left and right of my navel pierced to complete the project as well as the addition of more body piercings. I suggest to anyone considering getting a navel piercing to go for it and don't forget to do the salt soaks, it works wonders. I also think that in physical appearance it is a very good looking
piercing. :)