Having read a lot of the postings on this site, I could be forgiven for thinking that only young, independence-seeking teenage girls desire to have their navels 'done'...but then we come to the clientele who go to Marion, South Australia, and it's obvious that even older ladies feel the urge.
At A Glance Author anonymous Contact anonymous@bme.anon When A week ago Artist unknown male piercer Studio Essential Beauty Location Marion, South Australia The Essential Beauty shop in the Marion mall is fully stocked with many lovely examples of navel jewellery..dangles, barbells, crystals, fluoros..the lot. The chief clientele of the mall is mature women, and teenagers only really flock to it in the holidays. Someone is buying all that pretty jewellery in the meantime! So, when I finally summoned up my courage for the 'stabbing experience' I knew I would have company about my age.
You may ask, 'Why?' in the first place. I still do, a bit. A couple of years ago I lost 10 lbs very quickly, and discovered my adolescent shape was not far off. Then, I hit a tricky patch at work, and losing weight for a second time seemed pretty easy to do..just ignore the endless cakes for morning tea, and bring an apple. So I took off another 10 lbs, and decided to give myself the impetus for the last 5 by making my tummy the star attraction. I'm tall and basically thin, and I knew I could do it given some motivation, and besides, my daughter had had her ears pierced twice, so I knew it was no big deal: why, the second time, she hadn't cried once!
And then there were all the gorgeous bits of yummy jewellery.
My daughter, a ten year old going on thirty, laughed callously at my plan, so I told her nothing. Instead, I went to a shop far away and bought a nice barbell, steel with garnets. This sat in my room for six months while I gathered the courage to shed more weight, knowing a piercing lay at the end of it..but finally, ten days ago, i passed the Marion shop, and decided the time was right.
The supermarket shopfront sees a lot of passing trade, and the piercer..a nice man, about 35, was very confident about the whole thing, which is to be expected. He asked for a couple of minutes to clean up his room, and we selected a titanium cb ring. I assume he sterilised it; I went off for a couple of minutes and when I returned he was getting out his gloves. He asked me to stand in front of a mirror while he marked the spot to pierce; we agreed on it, and then I lay down.
I have a nicely insensitive navel so I didnt even feel the clamp, but I certainly felt the piercing..exactly like the bite of a large ant. And, through not looking down, I dont know if he used a gun or a needle..too squeamish to notice, but I think he said 'gun', so there you are. But that was all Ok. Then in went the ring...ow, that was a loooong ant bite! But after 3 long seconds it was in.
It was a bit of a shock to the system, so I hung around a little, before paying my $AU50 and disappearing into the crowd. I felt very proud for doing this long awaited thing, and surviving the pain...hehe! Oh well, not everyone does this.
The nice man had given me a care sheet so I read it carefully, and then ignored it a bit. My daughter's ears had become infected and I suspected the spray was the problem, so I sprayed not my navel. No antiseptic, no soap..it got washed in the shower, and I didn't rotate the ring once. I knew the skin cells were migrating under the wound, and I had no desire to stir them up. So, bar a tight waistband one day ( which I rapidly undid, then spent all day tugging up my jeans!) I left well enough alone. I got a bit crusty, but that washed off. On day 5 I noticed pus forming on the top hole, so put a little peroxide on it, and it was gone the next day. ( I do wonder how well he disinfected that ring..ah well)
I still exercised, walking and bike riding, and had no trouble. When not too busy I trawled the net looking for lovely barbells for my tummy, when it looks like Britneys used to, and a week post-stab I went back to the shop and got a lovely crystal daisy.
Now, at day ten, the crusts are gone, the holes are red rimmed, there is no pain, itching, and I keep forgetting I have it. Hopefully I will be able to put in my pretty daisy soon and get out a bikini, and not look too bad by the pool! It'll be interesting to see how many other mature ladies have had their little piercing done too! I do believe, with a bit of motivation, you're never too old.