At A Glance
Author	Engage77
Contact	Engage77@bme.anon
When	Three months ago

Bear with me by reading through my rant, and be warned; it may seem a little distasteful, but it's all in the name of informing readers. I am a fan of piercing, and I've tried to tell my story in a straightforward, clinical manner.

After going through all the thoughts, and anxiety, and pros, and cons, I dove in and got my left nipple pierced about 3 months ago.

When I got my piercing done, I was instantly happy with the result, and looked forward to getting through the healing process so I could enjoy the 'full experience' of a piercing. Everything seemed to go well, except, that at the time of the piercing, I did notice a small red bump near the exit hole, where a simple ring/ball had been inserted. I recalled that the insertion of the jewelry at the time of the piercing hurt more than the actual needle.

After examining the red bump, I began to suspect that perhaps the piercer had either attempted to push the needle through this spot unsuccessfully, leaving an internal scar, or, had done a similar thing with the actual jewelry. The little bump was not a problem; it created no discomfort, and eventually diminished. I had my piercing for several weeks, went through the rigor of cleaning and care and had thought I made it out of the woods. The piercing was now very natural and almost invisible to me in every way.

However, about a week ago, I noticed on the spot of the little red bump, a growing white spot. There was no pain, and only a very slight inflammation, but I could see that there was a minor infection beneath the skin. I redoubled my efforts to keep the area clean (I may have gotten overconfident that the 'danger' time had passed, and I fell back into only routine showers, ignoring the anti-bacterial regiment done in the first few weeks.)

Anyway, the little white spot grew, and I could see that there was pus beneath the skin. Still no pain, or itch, just the visible spot. This will sound distasteful, but it looked like a big pimple. I knew I had to deal with this, and in hindsight, I may have taken the wrong approach.

I figured I would drain/clean the wound-irrigate the entire area, and hope for the best, to avoid heading for the doctor. The only mistake I think I made was the actual removal of the jewelry. I thought I had the piercing long enough to reinsert the ring, but I now think I would have been better off leaving it in.

Here's the fun part, for anyone who finds this fun, and I suspect most of (us) who don't mind a surgical needle driving through the middle of our genitalia, will find the prospect of inserting a very small sewing needle only slightly below the surface sort of curious. After meticulously sterilizing a needle with alcohol and a lighter, I lanced the 'pimple', and sure enough, a discharge of pus came out-I removed all that I could, until a small amount of clean, red blood followed, and I declared victory. I irrigated, and kept the 'wound' clean, and in only about 48 hours, the redness was gone, the bump was almost non-existent, and I was ready to swiftly re-insert my ring.

Not so fast. Over the last few days, I have tried and tried, but have been unsuccessful in reinserting my jewelry, without what seems like the exact procedure/pain of the original piercing. I eventually 'twisted' the ring, to create a more straight approach, and even this didn't help me penetrate the existing, but now seemingly disappearing channel. I used lubricants; antibacterial soap, etc, and the best I could do was maybe a millimeter of penetration, before experiencing tough resistance and pain from the tissue underneath.

Wait, there's more. While trying yet again to reinsert my "spiral", I looked closely, and noticed what appeared to be a piece of skin near the opening where I had tried to reinsert. I sterilized a pair of tweezers, and tried to quickly snip off the offending skin, because it was distracting to finding the tiny hole I was trying to renegotiate.

Then the wierdest thing happened. I grabbed the tiny piece of skin, no bigger than a speck, and when I tugged at it, it pulled out of the hole, to reveal not a piece of skin, but a 'strand' of...something that was inside the piercing. Imagine placing a pair of tweezers on the surface of your skin, then extracting about an inch-long piece of kite string from underneath. This is exactly what it looked like when I tugged on the tiny little alien.

What the hell was that??? I stared at the dangling thing, wondering if it was animal, mineral, or something else. My first impression was that somehow a strand of gauze had become embedded. However, after examination, it was clear that this was some kind of tissue; it seemed to be caused by the infection, but it may have been the lining of the hole, I have no idea. it wasn't pus, it had texture, like skin. There was no pain associated with or without it, it was just there, and I easily removed it.

I shrugged it off, but the last piece of news is I still cannot reinsert my ring. Bummer. I was really very happy with the piercing, but am now faced with either a second piercing, or abandoning the idea of having one at all.

Lesson learned? 1) DON'T skimp on the cleaning. If it seems clean, clean it again. Dedicate yourself to 6 months of rigorous antibacterial scrubbing, regardless of the appearance of your new piercing. 2) If you have any problems with your piercing, such as what I described, Don't remove the jewelry. I don't think it made any difference to healing, and I was amazed at how damned fast that little wound healed itself up.

I still think I had a slightly botched job, that left perhaps a second gap underneath the skin, and created the opportunity for infection. If you think you have a similar situation, just make sure you keep the whole thing extremely clean. And, lastly, don't panic; don't remove the hardware.

Thanks for reading. Hope this was informative.