At A Glance Author paula Contact I3loodyIcecream@aol.com IAM paula When A month ago Artist my boyfriend, Chris. Studio my bedroom. Location Coventry, RI, USA I thought about getting my nipples pierced for a long time, but kept them low on the priority list because I'm 15. For one thing, my mom would definitely not like the idea and I don't think a professional would take the risk of piercing 15-year-old nipples -- but, hell, I decided to ask anyway. I asked my mom if I could get them for my 16th birthday. I already had 11 other piercings at the time (3/4" lobes that are now at 7/8", 8 gauge lobes, a 2 point industrial, conch, a labret that I got when I was 14, my bridge, and both nostrils). She told me to "save the more 'extreme' piercings for yer 18th birthday." A few weeks later, I had become obsessed with the idea of piercing my nipples, I went to get my tragus pierced and decided to just mention piercing my nipples to my piercer. He knows my mom and I pretty well. I told him how my mom said no and he said, "I won't let you either, yer under-age. I can't touch you like that and anyone who will is a scum-bag." I didn't tell him my last resort was to pierce them myself.
I waited about a month, because of my tragus, before I ordered a needle and 2 12 gauge captive bead rings from gen-x jewelry and pennington forceps from bmeshop. The needle and jewelry were waiting my mailbox for me in a few days, the forceps took about a week and a half. It took another week before the piercing actually took place.
I thought about it a long time and decided that there was no way I could push that needle through my nipple myself. My nipples are just far too sensitive for me to pierce. So, I asked my boyfriend. Now, my boyfriend, Chris, doesn't have much experience with piercing. He's never been pierced (anywhere), he's never pierced anyone else, either. All the knowledge he has about piercing is from listening to me talk too much, and going with me to get pierced. I wasn't sure why, but I trusted him with this. We never decided on a date for this to happen.
One day (November 11, 2001) when he was over, we decided that we were going to pierce my nipples. It was decided before he ever arrived at my house, but didn't happen until much later in the day. Around 5PM we were ready. I had boiled the forceps and the jewelry that morning when the rest of my family was at church and put them in a latex glove (I figured it was cleaner than a ziplock bag). We set everything up in my room. Laid out a clean towel and placed the forceps, jewelry, needle (still in it's package, nice and sterile), alcohol swabs, and q-tips on it. This is when I realized I didn't have a marker.
Lining up the enter and exit dots took about a half hour...probably because I was using liquid eyeliner (not the best thing to do, but I thought it was better than just picking a spot and pushing the needle). I wiped off my nipples with alcohol and I drew a compass around my nipple, making it easier to find the center, and just worked around that. When I finally had the dots in place, I laid down on my floor. Chris asked if I was ready. I was. I breathed through my nose, out my mouth, through my nose, out my mouth. Then I felt the familiar prick of a needle and then a pain hard to describe. It was almost a dull pain. Then there was another prick and the needle was out the other side. I looked at my breast to see the 12 gauge needle stuck through it. I slid the ring it and stood up to try and get the ball on. This was more complicated than I thought. It took a little while, but, with some help from Chris, the ball was on the CBR.
I took a few minutes to calm down, then we moved everything to my bed because it was easier for Chris to work that way. I laid down and we started again. For some reason, it took a while to get the forceps clamped on right, by the time everything was ready to get pierced, we were both a little annoyed. I started breathing again, in my nose, out my mouth. (My body piercer, Jay Smith @ East Coast Tattooing & Body Piercing in Providence, RI, got me in the habit of doing it every time I get pierced.) First the prick of the needle, then the worst pain I have ever physically felt. I screamed and yelled and swore (luckily the stereo was on loud, so no one upstairs would hear me). Fuck, did that hurt. It felt like forever waiting for that needle to pass through my nipple and come out the other side, but in reality it was probably about 30-40 seconds, and then another prick. Tears were sliding down my face and dripping onto my ears by the time the needle flew out the other side (a lmost, literally, flew because Chris had to push so hard to get it through). I was all upset.
I asked Chris for the captive bead ring and I attempted to put it in, I was kind of shaky. Needless to say, I didn't get it in. I started freaking out. Chris told me to calm down and give him the CBR. I gave him the jewelry and tried to calm down. He got the jewelry in. We ran into some complications trying to get the ball on. Chris pinched the CBR too had and too fast and the jewelry bent. Now, I was really upset. We decided to just leave the captive bead ring alone after that. The rest of the night it felt like some one was biting on my nipples. I was really nervous all night because of the experience with my right nipple (the one that hurt like a bastard).
When I went to sleep that night, I slept with a bra on. I ended up waking up in the middle of the night and taking it off because my nipples were feeling okay and the bra was annoying. I was able to sleep on my back the entire night (and did so for the next couple of weeks). When I woke up the next morning my nipples felt fine and weren't crusty at all (it took a few days before the "crusties" started to come around). They were a little sore, but much better than the night before. I put my bra back on and walked up stairs to take a shower. In the shower I washed them with liquid Dial soap and moved the rings around, it stung a lot and hurt a while after, too. When I got out of the shower I washed them with saline solution and took a Tylenol.
It's been about 3 weeks now and they're doing great. I've been cleaning them twice a day with liquid Dial soap and saline solution (I did a few salt soaks, too). I find it much more comfortable wearing a bra. (I have relatively large breast -- 38D -- so, maybe, that has something to do with it?) I love them so much. If yer thinking about getting the piercing, go for it. It's painful, but definitely worth it.