I am going to start this off by telling you that I am a professional piercer, and I have wanted to do this for a very long time. I am so excited that I have gone through with my horizontal hood piercing, and am pleased to share my personal experience with you.
At A Glance Author anonymous When It just happened Artist myself Studio in my own personal work space Well it all started when my friend and I said we were going to get our hoods pierced together. She ended up getting hers about a year ago while I was pregnant. Before I found out I was pregnant, I had even bought this cute little ring for it. The ring I had bought was a barbell with a shield and three teardrop jewels in a row dangling from the shield. I knew I couldn't get it pierced with this ring, but then at least I had something to look forward to for when I could change it. It was beautiful.
Yesterday I was talking to this friend, and she said she wanted me to change her ring for her. This reminded me how much I wanted to have my hood pierced as well. So I said to her "Hey, you should come here and get yours changed and I will pierce myself!" She agreed. I got all excited and dug out that ring, once again to give me something to look forward to. A couple of hours later I got a phone call from her saying that she couldn't make it into town.
So here I was all excited about doing this piercing, but I couldn't do it with nobody there with me. I was going to try and do it anyways, without any assistance, but I just couldn't do it. Just then my boyfriend called me and asked what I was doing. So I told him that I was debating whether or not I was going to pierce myself. I didn't even have to tell him where, he already knew what I have wanted to pierce forever. He suggested that I take my supplies home and do it in his presence, just in case anything should go wrong. I agreed. So I packed my sterile equipment up and picked out a different ring to start off with. I brought my other one with me also, just to show my boyfriend.
I got home; excited as I was I had to wait until my baby went to sleep. Finally she fell asleep, which seemed to take forever. So I got all my tools ready, which consisted of a clamp, ring openers, ring closers, a 16g needle, an autoclavable cork, and of course a 16g rainbow titanium captive bead ring. I opened the ring a little bit to be able to follow the ring through smoothly. Just then it kicked in that "Hey, I am going to pierce my own hood!" I got a little nervous, but my boyfriend comforted me by saying "Your tough! You can do it. You'll be fine sweetheart." I sat there and let myself relax. I took out that cute little piece of jewelry to show him, also to convince myself that I wanted to do this.
Next, I cleaned the area with betadine and rubbing alcohol, and got my boyfriend to mark the spot with a skin scribe pen. I put the clamp on, grabbed the needle and built up the courage to go through with it. It hurt a bit, but I was fine so I slid the jewelry through. It was done!
The first thing I did, was kiss my boyfriend. Then I said, "Wow, I love it. I can't believe I just did that." I still hadn't pinched the ring together and put the bead in, and all of a sudden I started feeling a little light headed. I sat down and asked for a cold glass of water. My boyfriend lovingly got me the glass of water I wanted and kissed my forehead. He sat with me until I felt better. A few minutes passed and I soon felt fine again. Then I pinched the ring together and put the bead in. I was glad it was done and just loved it! It has now been a day. It feels a little bit tender, but all around good. Now I am taking extra special care of it with a sea salt-water spray, and patiently waiting for it to be healed so I can change it to the ring I have been longing to wear.
I hope this story is helpful to any people who reads this, and is thinking about getting a horizontal hood piercing of their own. Just words of advice "If you are doing this yourself, do have somebody with you. With the help and support of my boyfriend it made things a lot easier." If you are thinking about doing this yourself and don't have much experience with piercing, you really should consider getting it done professionally. Self-piercing can me dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. Yes it can be a little pricey, but it is well worth the money to have it done properly. So go ahead, get it done! Believe me, you will never regret it.