Modest girls can get nipple piercings too!

At A Glance Author Em Contact Em@bme.anon Artist I don't remember his name(I know, I know) Studio Bruce Bart Tattooing Location Ft. Lauderdale, FL

You know, if someone had told me a year ago that today I would have two pierced nipples, I would have told them they were nuts. But here I am with 2 metal bars through one of the most sensitive parts of my body. And I love it!! How did it happen? I'm not entirely sure, but it started about 8 months ago. My boyfriend(Justin) is heavily into body piercings, and we were discussing it one day and he told me he thought I would look really sexy with my nipples pierced. I said to him, "Well, I'm sure I would but no fucking way am I going to expose myself to a stranger just to have him stick a needle through my sensitive parts!" He said, "I know that, I was just saying..." and he didn't bring it up again. I don't want to give you the idea that he nagged me until I gave in or that I did it to please him, but he did put the idea in my head, and it stuck.

Over the next few months, the thought kept popping into my head, and the more I thought about it, the more it grew on me. I think what really sold the idea to me was the first time I saw a nipple pierced with a barbell, most people get rings and that's all I had seen. But I loved the way the barbells looked, and I also realized that the jewelry would keep my nipples from inverting. I hate it when they do that! It looks so silly, and I thought I was stuck with it until I started thinking about the piercing. I asked questions every chance I got, every time I met someone who had it done. I asked Justin about how it was when he got his done­he used to have them both double pierced, vertically and horizontally, though now he just has one horizontal ring. I visited the shop I usually use and got all the information out of them that I could. Finally, I admitted to myself that I really wanted to do it. The way I am, I take plenty of time and consideration when deciding whether I want a tattoo or a piercing, but I always actually DO it(once I'm sure I want it)on the spur of the moment. So from there, it was just a matter of waiting for the right time.

That turned out to be when I was on vacation for New Year's. It was one of the most fun times I've had in my entire life; traveling down the east coast to Florida, spending time alone with my boy, going to the beach, just getting some complete relaxation. And one day on the way to the beach, we saw Bruce Bart's studio. Justin had heard about it from his tattooist and wanted to check it out. From the moment we went inside, I felt really comfortable. I started talking with the artists and checking out the portfolio books, I got a particularly good feeling about one of the artists. It was busy then so we left and came back in the evening, and the place was nearly empty. I decided that it was time. I told the artist what I wanted to do, and he told me that he had one tattoo appointment, and it would take about 45 minutes, so we could do it after that.

At this point, I started getting really scared. I couldn't decide whether to get them both done at once or just one, I was afraid I would pass out, I really didn't know how it was going to feel. Now let me describe myself a little here. I'm not exactly a wimp. I have my navel pierced (no big deal, I know), and a small tattoo on my shoulder. Those are about 3 years old. I also have my right conch pierced. You may not know this, but that is one of the most painful piercings you can get, and I speak both from general knowledge and direct experience. I came reeealy close to both throwing up and passing out, right in the chair, thank god I managed to do neither. Finally, I have a large, beautiful floral tattoo that goes across my chest and shoulders, which took about 5 hours altogether. You'd think that after all that, nothing would scare me, but unfortunately that's not so. Those 45 minutes were really long! In the end, I decided to start with one and see how I felt.

Now for the gory details. We started with the right side. I decided on 16 gauge barbells because he was out of 14s, and I really didn't want a ring, and I figured I could always stretch it up a bit later. I went into the back room and sat down on the table and took off my shirt. I felt a little weird about that because after all, it was a strange man, but in the end, I figured hey, it's just tits, he's seen them before, and I'm never going to see this guy again, I'm 1000 miles from home, what the hell. He carefully cleaned and marked my nipple, then put a paper towel over it and asked me to hold my hand there for a few seconds. He explained that this was to warm up the nipple so it would be soft when he pierced it­I don't know if this is standard procedure or not, but it seemed to make sense. I closed my eyes tight(I can't ever watch myself getting stuck with needles of any kind, even for medical stuff), Justin held my hand, and the piercer told me to take a deep breath and WHAM there it was. Not too bad. I mean, don't get me wrong, it hurt, but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was worse then the navel but nowhere near as bad as the conch. I felt a little dizzy and he said I could lay down while he put the jewelry in, so I did. THAT'S where the agony came in.

Let me tell everyone out there, when you decide to get pierced, look around until you find a place that uses INTERNALLY threaded jewelry. This means the screw part is on the ball, not the bar, and doesn't have to pass through your fresh wound. I, unfortunately, was not so careful. You want to talk about pain? Possibly the worst I have ever felt, it went through my whole breast and arm, even thinking about it over a month later still makes it hurt, and it was my own dumb fault for not being more careful and waiting to find a shop that had the right jewelry(I just knew that if I didn't do it right then when I had the guts, I never would). I couldn't even get up at first, I was dazed and out of it.

At that point, I had decided that one was enough, so I finally got up, carefully put my shirt and bra back on, and went up to the counter to pay. But while I was doing this, a strange thing happened. It started to feel better! The intense burning faded to a dull, manageable pain in less then 10 minutes. And as this happened, I realized that I felt really lopsided. I decided, I might as well go ahead and do the other one because having the pain in one breast only was going to drive me nuts. So we went back and did the other one. It hurt just as much, but I already had so much endorphins running through my body that it didn't seem as bad. Also, when he realized how bad it was for me when he put the jewelry in before, that he suggested using a 14g needle for this one, because the 16g post can be put inside the needle, protecting my poor traumatized flesh from the sharp, rough screw threads. I said, well why didn't you think of that before! and told him yes, do it that way. So it was a bit easier. At the end of it all, I had two shiny little balls sticking out on either side of my nipples, and I fell in love with it immediately.

The aftermath: The rest of that evening, they hurt a lot, every time I got a chill or my shirt rubbed me the wrong way I cringed. When I got home, I saw that they had both bled a little(the one he used the bigger needle on bled more) but it seemed to have stopped. But after I cleaned them, they started bleeding again, so I decided to put Band-Aids over them to protect my clothes and sheets, and also to protect them from getting bumped or snagged. This was the only night I did this. After that, every day they hurt less. In fact, they were only really sore for at most 3 days. This really surprised me, I had been prepared for 4-6 weeks at least of major pain and annoyance and sleeping on my back, but the reality was much easier. After the first three days, it was nothing more then a minor annoyance; when the nipples would get hard, it would hurt a bit, but not too much, and the rest of the time I pretty much forgot about them. Unless they got snagged. THAT was bad. I learned to be supremely careful with the body puff I shower with, all the little holes in the netting are just the exact size for the balls to slip into and get stuck. Fortunately I never snagged them badly enough to rip anything. And after about 2 or 3 weeks, all the pain had faded. They still itch sometimes, from the healing I guess, and that's annoying but nothing more. So all in all, I feel like I got off easy.

I would also tell anyone who wants this piercing to go for it. It hurts, but not for that long, and it looks fab, and it feels really cool­my nipples have gotten quite a bit more sensitive. The positives far outweigh the pain, if you really want it. My only advice would be, go for the rings. They are smoother, and easier to clean because it is easier to move them back and forth, and there are no threads to worry about. If you decide that you really want the barbells anyway, again go out of your way to get jewelry that is internally threaded, and realize that you will have to be extra careful when cleaning them. They also snag more easily, so watch out for that. Oh, and if you decide to get both done at the same time, go ahead and wait for 10 or 15 minutes between them, it really was better that way, at least for me. Don't let the piercer bully you into rushing through them, it doesn't really make it worse like some people think it would. Other then that, no fear, and have fun!