In the spring of 2003, my girlfriend and I were getting a ride into Halifax with my parents, because they were going to a play, and they were going to dinner. We had a few hours to kill before the play started, and my father was wondering what we were going to do. We were driving by a seedy tattoo place, and my girlfriend said that we were going to get my nipple pierced. We all had a good laugh, and they dropped us off at Neptune to pick up our tickets, and they went off to eat. We ended up going used book shopping, and talking about piercings. This was something that I'd never considered before, but the more I thought about it, the better it sounded.
At A Glance Author Mandrake Contact Mandrake@bme.anon When Two years ago Artist Cathy Studio Myriad of Muse Location Chester, N. S. Fast forward a few months, when I'd been working for a while and had some spare cash. I'd been talking about actually doing it for a while, and had just found out that one of my there was a piercing studio not far from my girlfriend's house. One day, when we were sitting around without much to do, I decided that if I was going to do it, it might as well be then. I wasn't nervous at all, at least not about the piercing. I am quite shy with strangers though, and the thought of walking into a place I'd never been before and asking someone to shove a sharp bit of metal into my chest had me a little worried.
Looking back, it seems almost ridiculous how little I knew about what I was getting into. I didn't even know what size I wanted to get pierced at. She suggested a 14 gauge, which I was fine with, and I picked out a 15 mm CBR for jewelry. She got out all of the necessary equipment, and asked me to stand up as straight as I could so that she could mark me. The dots weren't quite straight the first time, so she did them again, and then she asked me to sit down. I'd always heard that the clamps were the worst part of the piercing, so when I found those entirely bearable, I relaxed quite a bit. Then she stuck the needle in. For the record, I found it incredibly painful. People always find that slightly disappointing, but it really did. By the time she got the ball popped into the ring, which I'm sure was less that 20 seconds, my endorphins were really pumping, and I was pretty lightheaded. We relaxed for a while, and then walked back home, which took much longer than the walk there had, due to the fact that I had to sit down and rest every five minutes.
Cathy suggested using nothing but sea salt soaks and cleaning in the shower for aftercare, which worked very well for me. Unfortunately, pierced nipples seem to me magnets, just calling people to touch them. One a one occasion during volleyball season it was torn quite badly during practice, which made it go slightly crooked and caused some scarring above the right hole.
It took about 8 months to heal fully, and by that time I had gotten my ears pierced (10 gauge) and discovered BME. I had always intended to stretch my ears, and I started in late June of 2004. This left me with a spare pair of 10 gauge CBRs and nowhere to put them..... yet. I had my ears at 4 gauge, and I knew that it would be a few weeks before I could stretch them any more, so when I was in the shower one day I lubed up a 10 gauge CBR and slid it into my nipple. It was a much different experience than stretching my ears. the scarring had left me with some rather tough tissue, and it was tricky to get the ring through without any tearing, but once it was in I loved it. The extra thickness and weight was very gratifying, and I liked the way it looked with the large ring.
I'm in university now, which actually leaves me with more money than I ever had in high school. My parents assumed that I'd need beer money and a few meals off campus, but I don't drink and I'm fine with cafeteria food, so I spend it on more jewelry. over about three months I went from the 10 gauge CBR to an 8 gauge circular barbell, and then bought a 6 gauge barbell. I tapered up with the 4 gauge tusks that I had left from my ears, (which are at 10 mm now) and then put the barbell in. Then I noticed just how crooked my piercing had gotten. The scar tissue on the right side had prevented it from stretching evenly, and it now had a definite list. In addition, the weight of the 6 gauge jewelry made it start migrating. I downsized to 8 gauge, but it didn't help, so I dropped all the way back to a 14 gauge barbell with acrylic balls. It seems to have stabilized, but I miss my chunky nipple ring, and it's still pretty crooked.
I'm actually thinking about retiring my poor little nipple ring, but it was my first piercing, and I'm kind of sentimental. I've got half a dozen since, and more in the works (apadravya, here I come!) but it'll always be the first, and I'm still very fond of it. This was definitely the most painful piercing I've done thus far, but it I do take it out I'll be getting the other one done for sure. I think that I'd feel incomplete without it.