It's 2:41 P.M., and here I sit, nearly 24 hours after getting a needle stabbed through my navel. Those of you who know me well are probably thinking "You? Get a navel piercing? You didn't!". But alas, my friends, it is true.
At A Glance Author Nicole Contact Nicole@bme.anon IAM The Stolen Child When It just happened Artist Meg Studio Intricate Decor Location Mount Pleasant, Michigan Let me give you a bit of background.
First, let me say that I am indeed in a wheelchair. I will be in a chair all my life. No, it wasn't because of a car accident or any freak accidents of that sort. I was born with a very mild case of cerebral palsy. If you don't know what that is, look it up.
Being in a wheelchair, I was rather worried that if I got a navel piercing it wouldn't heal correctly because of the fact that I am constantly sitting. However, I still chose to get this piercing because of the fact that, even though it is rather common, as talked about below, it is still a pretty piercing and I had wanted to get it for quite some time.
But I digress.
I have very fond memories of when I first saw a navel piercing. I believe I was about 12 or so when I saw one on a friend of my mom's. I'd thought it was pretty, but since I didn't even have my ear lobes pierced at the time (I still don't to be honest, and I have six piercings now.) and I was afraid of needles, I never gave it much thought. But a little part of me knew that I wanted one, and over time it grew on me.
Throughout my junior high school years navel piercing wasn't really all that common. Instead, all the girls were getting their cartilage pierced. It seemed like everywhere you looked someone had them. I didn't want a cartilage piercing though. I wanted to be different. I wanted desperately to adorn my plain belly button with a sparkly little jewel. I'd asked my mom time and time again if I could please get my navel pierced, but each time the answer was always no.
That is, until I turned 15. My incessant begging and pleading with my mom finally worked! I could finally get my navel pierced, under one condition - I had to pay for it. This presented a problem. I very rarely had money at the time; and when I did, I was, more often than not, an impulse spender. I mean sure, when I did get the money, I always told myself, "I HAVE to save this to get my navel pierced," but later on I'd see something that I really want. I'd tell myself, "I HAVE to have this," and proceed to spend the money on that very thing. Because of this I had always talked about getting it done but never went through with it.
This was also the time that navel piercing became popular, and as I cruised through my freshman year it seemed like more and more people were getting navel piercings. It seemed like everyone had one except for me. But because of the money situation, I put it in the back of my mind for the time being and proceeded to concentrate on other things.
In the beginning of 2003 I got my first piercings - tongue and ear cartilage. They all healed successfully and within a few months I was just itching for more. But of course, my mom had to step in with the "No more modifications until you're 18" rule. So I had to wait.
This brings us to the present time. As my 18th birthday approached I had planned on using my money to get my boyfriend John up here for spring break. But due to unfortunate circumstances on his part this was not meant to be. We were going to still try but things did not work out in the end. That's when I finally started to think about getting more mods - maybe a tattoo and some piercings. I felt bad for spending the trip money even though he and I both knew that him coming up here wasn't going to work out. But John was very supportive of what I wanted to do and told me that if I wanted to spend the money on mods then I could very well do so.
It was then any doubts I'd had about spending the money vanished. I quickly got a hold of my friend Addy and asked her if she would take me if I paid for her gas. She said yes and we set our date: March 6th.
I had thought about what piercings I wanted to get for quite some time before the day of piercing. I'd knew I planned on getting more than one piercing but I knew some of them had to be fairly hideable. That's when the idea of a navel piercing came back and I decided to get it (I also decided to get my septum and lip done but those are stories for another day).
We were going to go with a friend of mine to Flint and get pierced there, but things fell through. I'll spare you the boring details of how that happened. In the end, Addy and I decided to go to Intricate Decor in Mt. Pleasant. I was planning on getting tattooed and pierced on the same day, but fate pointed itself in my direction when I called and they said I had to come in and make an appointment. So I talked to Addy and, being the wonderful sweetheart she is, she agreed to take me this past weekend to get pierced and we'd make the tattoo appointment while we were there.
The week dragged by quite slowly and getting pierced was really all I could think about all week. I'm sure I annoyed Addy with my constant talk about it. I woke up on Saturday morning and began to get ready. It wasn't too long before Addy came to pick me up. We stopped for gas and food, then headed up to Mt. Pleasant. We spent a little time in Goodwill before heading on over to Intricate. I was quite nervous at this point but for the most part my nerves calmed down as soon as we entered the shop. It wasn't really all that busy when we first got there. We were greeted by a friendly girl (who I later found out was named Meg and would be piercing me) who asked us if we needed help with anything. I told her I was getting three piercings at once and her eyes widened. She started shaking her head no and at first I thought she was going to tell me I couldn't get them all done at once. But that was not to be and instead she told me I was a tough little shit (my shop nickname is now Balls because I went through with all of them and we exchanged forms and ID.
She copied my ID and came back just as I was finishing the form. I picked out my barbell (and we went into the little piercing room just next to the lobby. We discussed which order we were going to do the piercings in (navel first, then lip, then septum, but since this is a navel experience I'll just be talking about that here) and got down to business. Meg was very chatty and explained the whole procedure to me (even though I already knew it) I'm not going to explain the whole procedure here since a lot of us probably know it already but for the newbies here at BME that are just starting to do research I'll give a quick rundown (steps 2 and 3 might be mixed up since I can't remember which one came first).
1. I laid down on the massage table
2. She marked me while I was laying down (being that I'm in a wheelchair I couldn't be marked standing up)
3. She cleaned my stomach with iodine
4. Clamped me
5. I took a deep breath in
6. Blew it out
7. Needle went through
8. She corked it
9. Threaded the jewelry through
10. Screwed the ball on and cleaned me up
The clamp was rather uncomfortable but it wasn't painful at all. But boy, was I ever wrong when I thought the piercing itself wasn't going to hurt. When I blew my breath out and she started to push the needle through, I couldn't help but cry out a little in pain. This honestly was more painful than my septum and lip piercings combined - and I have a pretty high pain tolerance! She had me take another deep breath and pushed the needle through the rest of the way. I'd thought it was all the way through when she pushed the first time but apparently when my stomach muscles tensed up they literally grabbed her needle and she had to get me to relax again. After the needle was through, she threaded in my jewelry and we took a break before commencing with the other piercings (again, another story for a different day). After those were finished we went to Meijers to get aftercare stuff and headed home.
So far everything has been going well, I have been cleaning it twice a day with antibacterial soap. The barbell has gotten caught a couple of times but nothing major. I am hoping it doesn't migrate out or anything because of the way I sit in my wheelchair. But I have been told the placement looks really good for it so if it were to migrate out it probably wouldn't be because of that. I have grown to love my navel piercing and it looks really good on me. Whether or not I will suffer problems from it I'm not sure but I guess I will have to find that out in time
If you're scared about getting a navel piercing, don't be. Yes it hurts but if I had to do it again I definitely would. And if you're in a wheelchair (like I am) and are worried about not being able to get pierced because of it, again, don't be. They may have to make a slight modification to the normal procedure (i.e.: being marked laying down instead of standing up) but chances are you will be able to get pierced with no problem. If you have any questions you can e-mail me at the address above. Please put BME in the subject so I don't disregard it.
Thanks for reading