Christina – its such a cute piercing isn't it? I like to think of it as the naughtier sister of the navel piercing. And, like the navel piercing, its generally problematic and annoying to heal. You can read my experience about my first attempt at this piercing here and all the problems I had with it which leads me to this experience – incidentally, about the second attempt at my Christina!
At A Glance Author Sarah Contact Sarah@bme.anon IAM porcelina When Six months ago Artist Fi Studio Primitive Body Piercing Location Perth, Western Australia
I waited almost a year before even thinking about getting repierced. One, because the tissue there is so dense the scar tissue had taken forever to absorb and two, because I couldn't bear the thought of losing this piercing again.
I'd tried Tygon the first time, that was definitely out for this time. My body didn't agree with it, and not to mention it just looked a bit weird. I was leaning towards using a surface bar this time, but was always open to other options.
It had been a couple of months since I'd started thinking about getting it repierced, but being the lazy person I am, had not made any concrete plans about getting it done. So one day I was in the city seeing a friend, and after he went back to work I had a look at my bus schedule and realised that even if I caught the train back home now, it would be a 2 hour wait for the bus. Well, I was right around the corner from my piercing place – so why not go in and have a little chat? Even if I didn't get pierced that day, it would still be interesting to find out what my options were.
I walked into Primitive and saw Fi, who had pierced my labret but at that stage I didn't know too well. Being the shy retiring creature I am, I nervously babbled out some crap about how I'd had my Christina pierced before but wanted it done again and did they use surface bars? After getting a blank stare from Fi and the other piercer there, I had to repeat what I'd said (much slower this time) and then found out that they generally had success with curved barbells – did I want to give that a try?
I stood there for a moment and weighed up the options. On the one hand, flexible material hadn't worked before, and I was anatomically suited for this piercing so a curved barbell could possibly work. On the other, it went against everything I knew about surface piercings (even though with my anatomy its technically not a surface piercing but I was still wary).
If it had been any other shop in Perth, I would've run screaming at the mere mention of a curved barbell for this piercing. However, I knew that Primitive was a very reputable studio, and if they thought it would work then I was willing to give it a go.
I went upstairs and Fi had a look and decided that yes, I was suitable for the piercing. She wasn't sure whether to do it at 12 or 10ga, but eventually it was decided that as I had the tissue to support it 10ga would probably be more suitable. After lots of measuring, we decided on a 5/8" curved barbell and then it was time to pierce. Well, almost.
Last time I had been pierced, the piercer had used clamps for my Christina. However, after a few attempts (and excruciating pain) it became obvious that clamps weren't going to work this time. So it was decided that Fi would do it freehand, however she was going to need some help with holding the skin and she wanted to make sure it was ok. Of course it was ok, the more the merrier I say! I've had that many piercings that by now I couldn't care less who sees me in a compromising position on a piercing table, but I did appreciate that she'd asked rather than just grabbing some random person to hold my bits.
So she called up one of the other piercers (I don't remember his name, I was introduced but I have the worst memory for names) and explained what needed to be done, so he held the skin and made sure the marks were lined up and then it was ready to be done.
Fi had warned me that it would be a very slow piercing as it was being done freehand and there was so much tissue to go through. She definitely didn't lie about that. I wasn't exactly timing it, but it took a long time for the needle to go through. I was sitting there trying to breathe through the pain and not jump off the table. I managed to stay still and aside from a few little whimpers, made it through the piercing experience without too much difficulty.
After that, the jewellery was threaded through and the ball tightened, and that was it! I finally had a Christina piercing again! Fi grabbed the camera and took a photo of it, and then I was all done.
For the first week or so, it seemed that the piercing was fine. As my previous Christina piercing had begun to reject within a week, I was glad when a week passed without any obvious signs of rejection. However, within three weeks the piercing had started to migrate slightly but not enough to make me too worried.
I kept up with my salt soaks for weeks afterwards and babied this piercing as much as I possibly could, however it was not enough to stop the migration. At the moment, I have a ½" curved barbell in the piercing, with probably a millimetre or so of bar showing. I'm sure I could downsize to 7/16" but it doesn't look too out of place so I will leave this jewellery in for as long as possible.
Even though I apparently have the perfect anatomy for this piercing, it would seem that my body just doesn't like having that body part pierced. Although the piercing hasn't moved at all in the last three months and is looking rather stable, I am still considering taking it out and getting it repierced with a surface barbell and then hopefully I will be able to successfully heal the piercing.
My Christina piercing doesn't look as pretty as it could, but I'm still perfectly happy with it and am glad that I've managed to keep it for as long as I have. Even though it is a lot shorter than what it was when I first had it pierced, it still looks like it fits perfectly with my body, so I'm hoping that I'll have my Christina for many years to come.