I made the decision to get my nipples pierced in January of 2005, but I didn't get them done until that August. I had been thinking about it for years; I had my navel and tongue pierced back before BME or any other cohesive internet clearinghouse existed, so my research consisted of asking the two people I knew who had their navels pierced, what it was like. The piercer I used for those was a friend of a coworker. I treated my navel with Dial, Betadine and tea tree oil; I wouldn't call the process healing so much as a constant battle against infections and torn skin. My tongue was healed with full-strength Listerine, Gly-oxide, and tea tree oil (and I'm allergic to tea tree oil, if that even begins to tell you how fun this was). I ended up with a scarred and fissured tongue. Add to that, I went to college in BFE Ohio and you can see why I avoided getting anything done for awhile.
At A Glance Author LovleAnjel Contact LovleAnjel@bme.anon When A week ago Artist Olivia Studio Chicago Tattoo Location Chicago, IL Jump to several years later...I have a bachelor's and master's in my chosen field, and I am heading full steam towards a Ph.D. and an academic career back in my hometown. In January, my yearly gyno exam turns up something nasty: my doctor finds a breast lump. Six weeks later, it's still there. Over several months, the lump is monitored, and it doesn't get bigger, but it never goes away. In the midst of this, I notice a mole that has changed color and another that painfully itches. The decision was made to remove both the moles and to biopsy the lump to find out what the hell it is.
I had been going around giggling that I got legally felt up every month, and wouldn't it be funny if I had multiple unrelated cancers at the same time? Not so funny anymore. A cancerous lump in someone my age is most likely aggressive, so I now visualized having a mastectomy. Would they put an implant in? Would I half to stuff half my bra? What if I had to shave my hair? Suddenly my sense of self was threatened, and I realized how important my breasts were. I couldn't imagine myself without one or both of them. They became mortal. I made the decision that if the tests came out negative, I would go ahead and get my nipples pierced.
After about six weeks of wrangling with my insurance, I scheduled the biopsies (after the fourth time of having to tell the insurance person that YES I had a referral from my primary care physician I was about ready to crawl through the phone so I could bite her nose off). The mole biopsies involved a razor blade and a die tool that looked like a single-hole paper punch. Thank god for anesthetics! I got my first stitches, and when they came out, I got the good news---benign (although, as the dermatologist pointed out, the itching may have a sign of things to come, so it was good to get that one out anyways).
So two days after the stitches from the moles were out, I head off to surgical oncology. The doctor and nurse I had were incredibly sensitive and caring. I hear stories all the time about doctors who are rushed, don't care, ect., but the dermatologists and oncologist and nurses I interacted with knew my name, and remembered details from earlier conversations and inquired after my studies and hobbies (which is interesting, seeing as how I was reading a book on corpses at the time). I had a core biopsy, which involves a something that looks like an extra-large drinking straw attached to a flashlight handle which makes a really loud clicking noise. This thing had to be shoved into and around my breast twice. Once again, thank god for anesthetics.
So now I have a very large, sore and bruised breast. A week later, we had the follow-up. It was healing fine (the big hole had shrunk to a tiny scab and the swelling was gone). And it was cancer-free! I had a large fibrous mass that, while uncomfortable and annoying, wasn't going to do me any harm. Yea!
I gave it another week to make sure all the swelling was down and the inner bits were mostly healed. I went to The Chicago Tattoo Company, which is a walk-in on Belmont, west of Clark. A friend of mine had gone to the shop for a tattoo, and the artist had told her the size of the picture she wanted tattooed would make it look bad on her skin (the lines would be too close together for the color to be seen well). Hearing that people at the shop weren't going to do anything just to get the money made me a lot more comfortable about going there.
I only had to wait fifteen minutes. The piercer on hand was Olivia (I had made sure it was a woman doing this). As she set everything up, we chatted and I told her about the biopsy. She was very sympathetic and her wall of professional detachment seemed to come down a little. My boyfriend was also in the room with us. He was unhappy about that idea of pierced nipples on me, and not just because of the touchy-feely embargo that would result. But he understood how important this was to me, so he came to comfort me.
Everything was new, clean, autoclaved, ect.. Mark the boobs. Lie down. The clamps were very painful, like a very tight pinch with fingernails. I kept reminding myself, the clamps were the worst part for all my other piercings. Not true this time! The needles felt like red hot pokers. And what they say is true, the second one hurt more. All I could think was, this is nothing compared to the biopsy. A 14g needle compared to a 2cm razor-tipped tube? Bah!
I didn't faint (yea me! I did after my earlier ones, and almost did after the biopsies). My boyfriend and I hit a health food store for sea salt, and got some smoothies on the way home (mango tastes way better when paired with endorphins). I got to spend the rest of the evening on my endorphin high, which is always fun.
So it's been two weeks, and I'm cleaning the outside of the nipples with Provon and sea salt soaking them twice a day (I did try to rotate the rings a few times, but it made them so sore that I stopped). There has been lymph and some crust (sample conversation: "I got my first crusties this morning!" "Oh, honey, you're becoming a woman!"), and a little soreness. And I realize just how much my boobs stick out and get smacked into things. But there are no signs of infection or rejection, I haven't torn off any new skin, and other than a little dryness, my body seems perfectly fine with the rings being in.
And I am too. My piercings have always been a way of reclaiming my body after a trauma, a way of claiming my parts as my own, as a part of my whole, integrated self. They bring my self back into its rightful place within my body, making me more real. They almost seem to bolt me in place, to say here I am, here is my face, here is my body, they are mine, I am an intact soul walking this earth. They were an incredibly important part of my healing process. And they're pretty and shiny.
I have a follow-appointment in two months. We'll see what my doctor thinks of them!