It was in 1992 that I first encountered navel piercing. At that time it was rather uncommon. My cousin, a women in her late 20's with two children, had hers done and the family completely hated it. I heard them talk about her behind her back. This made quite an impression on me given I was only 8 years old. I wanted one myself but not only did I recognize that I was too young but I feared my family's reaction.
At A Glance Author Uberkitty Contact Uberkitty@bme.anon IAM Uberkitty When Two years ago Location North Carolina
Luckily as the years went by navel piercing became more and more common. When I was 13 I finally told my parents I wanted one myself. My mother said I needed my ears pierced first and that if I could care for those then I could get my navel done. Of course these were gunned at the mall (ick...I will *never* do that again) but somehow they still turned out ok and I was given the go ahead for the navel. By this time I was 14 and my mom and I began looking into shops. Every place we found willing to pierce someone my age was quite obviously disgusting. A tattoo artist finally told us there was no reputable studio in the area willing to pierce anyone under 16.
I waited not 2 but 3 years before we found a studio that we both considered good, although in hindsight the place showed a few warning signals and I would never go back. We talked to the piercer and I was asked what time I would be coming in. When I said around lunch he told me not to eat that day "so I wouldn't throw up." Of course at that time it seemed pretty reasonable to me (I nearly threw up when my ears where gunned years before.)
We arrived at the studio at about 11:30 am. The piercer had just left to get lunch so we waited about an hour. Once he arrived he had my mother fill out the forms and compared the address on our divers' licenses. I was called into the back room and my mother stayed in the waiting area. I lifted up my shirt so he could clean my stomach with alcohol and mark it with a purple marker. He asked me to check the placement in a mirror but it was impossible for me to see the bottom mark. I okayed it anyway and lay down in the chair. He went to change gloves and accidentally dropped the entire lot on the floor (I theorize every piercer must drop something in front of you at least once) so he had to go fetch a fresh box. The delay was getting to me. At the time I was completely terrified of needles and this was to be my first true piercing. When he returned he began to get to work. I saw him remove what I thought was a huge needle from a package so I stopped paying attention to what he was doing. I didn't want to see it. He clamped the ridge of my navel. It hurt quite a bit and he seemed to spend forever moving it around in preparation. Once it twisted pretty bad and hurt quite a bit. I thought he had pierced it already so I calmed down. Then I heard him say "...and pierce." I didn't even have time to think anymore than "wait...it's not already?" before I felt the sharp pain of the needle. He told me to stay down while he put the barbell in.
I returned to the waiting room and my mom was freaking out. She swore she heard the pop of the needle going though even though I didn't think it was that loud. The piercer explained the aftercare to me. I was told to wash it with dial soap twice a day (he said nothing of sea salt soaks). We paid and left.
In the car I started feeling odd. I began to feel dizzy. The red faded out my vision, then the oranges, yellows, and finally down to greens and blues until I only saw black and white. My ears started ringing. It became louder and louder until I couldn't hear anything else. I felt my limbs get heavy. For some reason I thought "I need to taste something" so with quite a bit of effort I managed to unwrap a piece of gum. It was really a struggle to chew. I was so close to blacking out my jaw felt too heavy to move but I somehow managed to pull out of it. This was of course due to low blood sugar from not eating yet that day. Before you get any piercing or tattoo be sure to eat!
I followed what aftercare I was given. After about a month I noticed the dial soap was *insanely* strong. It was making my fingers peel. If it was doing that to my hands who knew what it was doing to my fresh piercing. I stopped using it and having no idea what to do switched to the LITHA method by default.
It took over a year to heal. It's slightly crooked. Despite the fact that I wanted this piercing a full 9 years before getting it I really knew little about it and wished that I waited until I was as educated about body mods as I am now. I still enjoy my navel piercing. I've started stretching it recently and hope to be up to 10 gauge in a few months. If I can recommend anything to you it would be research. Really. Massive amounts of research.