On the 10th of February, my girlfriend and I were both turning 47 and in a fit of mid-life crisis, she decided that we should both get our navels pierced. I did extensive internet research before agreeing and I was very, very apprehensive about doing it. I was mostly afraid of the pain and the fact that I was 30lbs overweight and did not know how a piercing would affect me. My girlfriend is thin. I am currently on a diet and steadily losing weight and was going to use the piercing as a reward once I reached my goal weight.
At A Glance Author CA Contact CA@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Jolie Studio Chronic Tattoo Location Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA
After calling around to get prices and such, we decided on a studio that belonged to one of our former clients. We left work early and went down to Pacific Beach to the studio. We met Jolie, our piercer, and she had us look at body jewelry. She let us handle samples so that we would know what it felt like.
I volunteered to go first because I was the most frightened and I knew that if I watched my friend go first, I'd chicken out. We went back to a white room that was surgically clean and had she put on some soothing music as if I were going to have a massage or a facial. Then she had me stand in front of her as she examined my belly button. This took a good ten minutes because I did not have a defined 'lip' above my button and my skin is very tight. She then went through several glove changes before finally taking out her piercing kit and using a toothpick, put a spot of ink upon my belly where the piercing would go. I was trembling the entire time and working myself up for a meltdown but Jolie was an excellent talker and soon calmed me down. She showed me a hermetically sealed kit with a hollow slant needle, the toothpick, ink and a cork. My jewelry also came in a sealed bag.
She then had me lie down and massaged my belly, all the while talking. She said that she was going to pinch a bit of my skin and massage it for a while. I did not dare look. I felt a very small pinch and then to my surprise, she told me that it was finished. My friend went next. Her navel had the defined lip but she felt pain whereas I did not.
I was fine for 3 days and carried on as usual with my care instructions. I read more piercing boards and discovered that my wound was not oozing, bleeding, crusting or anything else. I did not think anything of it until the 5th day when my abdomen turned bright pink and had a red raised area 5" around the piercing. I went back to Jolie and she said that my belly had swelled and because I had no defined 'lip', the bar had sealed the openings to my piercing and nothing could ooze out so it became very infected.
She took out the bar and replaced it with a longer one. All the pain I had been dreading and working myself up for happened at that point. It was excruciating but over in about 5 minutes. It was particularly bad because she had to press down on my inflamed belly to unscrew the old bar. After she put the longer bar in, my piercing then started to properly ooze and crust. It has been 7 days since that incident and I am happy to report that after 4 days of intense pain, I am healing nicely. My belly has shrunk and a respectable portion of the new bar is showing. After 4 months I will have her replace it with a normal 3/8ths bar.
I don't know if I'll ever have the guts to change my jewelry myself. I'd much rather pay my piercer to do it for me. I have amassed quite a bit of jewelry now and only buy the very best that I can afford. I'm too afraid of another infection and will not risk using cheap jewelry. My girlfriend knocks hers around all the time and puts all kinds of stuff that is not recommended on it and swears that it is fine. She's also talking about changing it after a month. She also buys very cheap jewelry because it is cute. I guess we'll see who's the wiser when the time comes.
To all of you dieting people out there who are using piercing as a reward, don't wait! It's a great incentive to keep your belly shrinking! I look at mine every day and even though I'm not at my optimal weight I know that when I finally get there, I'll be already ready to show off my jeweled belly! -Ceryn