Wed 7/13 I headed off to Seattle to finally find Lucky Devil Tattoo & Body Piercing on Capitol Hill. After staring at the print-out map from their website and another Seattle map, I realized the first was rotated 90 degrees. 9_9 Whoops. It was several several blocks up and over from where I'd gotten off the bus, but eventually I found it!
At A Glance Author astrosnik Contact astrosnik@bme.anon IAM astrosnik When A week ago Artist Chuck Studio Lucky Devil Tattoo & Piercing Location Capitol Hill, Seattle Going inside, I found Chuck (of bme mention) manning (womanning?) the front counter, and I talked to her about the piercings I wanted: lip, triangle (or a horizontal hood if that wasn't possible, though I thought I was), inverse industrial, and both nipples. She suggested one at a time, which I expected, and after watching her help a jewelry-purchaser while I absorbed the atmosphere, decided to have the other side of my lip and the triangle done. She asked me to choose 10g or 12g, and considering the ease of stretching female piercings, I decided the 12g would be stress enough, and Chuck got out a 12g circular barbell (internally threaded, mind you!) and a cbr for my lip. She was very easy to talk to, not intimidating or snooty or pushy as many other piercers tend to be.
Off we went to her piercing room, and the lip piercing was a snap, as I'd already done the other side. (I loved her Where the Wild Things Are plushes!) and then it was up to the triangle, which she agreed I was anatomically suited for. Chuck was very friendly and professional, and I had surprisingly little difficulty flipping my skirt (I took bme-ers advice) and dropping my gitch. The piercing itself- well, it was painful. Along with my navel, the most painful piercing yet. It bled a little, and began to swell pretty quickly, which was no more than I'd expected.
After leaving the shop, I had quite a bit of ways to walk to find the bus home, and the day was warm. The piercing was rather uncomfortable, in a "hey, there's an awkward piece of metal cramming in here" sort of way, but bearable. When I got home a few hours later, I immediately set up a sea-salt-compress. Uncomfortable, but I was very happy with both the piercing, and the experience.
Day 1, Thurs: More sea-salt-compresses before I went to work in the morning, and after I came home that afternoon and before bed. I noticed some dark purple bruising above the left hole along the hood. Walking was okay, but the whole sitting-standing transition was quite awkward to say the least, while everything readjusted itself.
Day 2, Fri: Again soaking 3 times that day, it was still swollen but was coming quickly accustomed to the strange new feeling.
Day 3, Sat: Again I got up early and soaked before heading off the work again. The piercing was definately becoming easier to move with, and I walk a LOT in my retail job. I also ended up climbing a few ladders I probably shouldn't have.
Late saturday afternoon I get home from work and lie down for a bit with a couple word puzzles (shut up, I like them) getting up around 6, I idled a bit and then went to find the piercing suddenly bleeding actively. I immediately lay down, elevated my hips and applied cold-water-compresses to stop the bleeding. Not only blood, but some sort of bloody stringy tissuey bits were extruding from the holes (think 'that time of month, ladies') which worried me. After 45 min to an hour, the bleeding slowed and finally stopped. I then went back to lay in bed with my hips propped up for a while, before planning to call the piercer. I fell asleep.
Fast forward to 10:45pm. I wake up, everything seems all right, so I gingerly move down stairs to grab some toilet paper from the garage and grab a snack. As I head upstairs, I feel the urge to hurry back to the bathroom, where I find that immediately the piercing began bleeding again, almost through the light pad I'd been wearing. Again there were those nasty rubbery tissuebits mixed in. I sat immediately and grabbed fistfulls of tissue, which were quickly soaked, and wet paper towels, which were as well. I lay down on the floor, with blood running down my legs and splattering, and raised my hips up, pressing the cold towels in an attempt to stem the bleeding. It didn't seem to help. The phone was down the hall; there was no way I could get to it without leaving a bloody trail, so I kept applying the wet towels and hoping, after making quite a mess I climbed into the tub and continued. An hour later, I still didn't notice any cessation in the bleeding. Faced with the option of calling to wake up my dad, trying to explain what I'd done and beg him to take me to the ER, where the jewelry would most likely be removed anyway, I finally made the decision to take it out myself. I knew there might be some danger of trapping an infection in the piercing, but I was light-headed, and stopping the bleeding became my priority. I unscrewed and screwed the ball on twice before finally taking it all the way out. I lay in a pool of blood, tears and regret, shivering and naked and alone for another hour in that tub waiting for the bleeding to stop, only correlating in my mind the bloody mess with an abortion. Eventually it did stop, I hobbled for my phone to call into work for Sun morning, and climbed back in the tub for another half hour, pulling a towel over my shivering self. I finally threw on some old clothes, tossed old blankets on my bed, and lay on it to sleep. I lay sporadically for hours, every time I started to nod off, I'd panic and check that the holes were still not bleeding.
I don't know which terrified me more: the thought of bleeding to death, the thought of having to explain a deeply personal piercing to a group of people who thoroughly disagreed, or the thought of loss of a piercing that was very meaningful to me.
So now I sit, Monday, and wonder.
What went wrong? The piercing location? The stainless-steel jewelry, which I've used in all my other piercings? The weight? The movement?
And I don't know what to do next. Do I try to go back in and see if the piercing can be salvaged? The external holes are still open. I don't know if it could be immediately re-pierced or stretched or whatnot, during what will almost surely be a 'female time.' Should I wait an indeterminate period of time for it to all close up and retry? What should I change?
Please remember to consider with each piercing what the potential risks are, and be prepared to take care of yourself in any eventuality.