At A Glance Author Juniper Contact Juniper@bme.anon IAM juniper When A week ago Location Chicago, IL I got a triangle piercing in the summer of 2005 at Rings of Desire in New Orleans, by Elayne Angel, originally written about in my experience "The Big Easy." It was originally pierced at 12ga because, as Elayne noted, I'm "kind of small down there." I had been wearing the original jewelry in it, a 12ga CBB, since last weekend. That being said, I did not expect the piercing to stretch on its own, especially since the jewelry was so small and light. I would have liked to have had it pierced at a 10ga initially, but that just wasn't going to happen with my anatomy. While I was surprised, as I had read on BME that most triangle piercings started at the 10ga mark, I accepted her judgment and was not disappointed.
Last weekend, I woke up with the right-side ball of my 12ga CBB inside my triangle piercing. "Fuck," I thought, "I LOST the piercing." I fiddled with it for a moment recumbent in bed to see if I could salvage it, and it just popped right back into place, the ball going right back out to where it should have been. Obviously, I've stretched a bit without realizing it. How could I have not noticed?
I should note here that I have not "abused" this piercing at all in the time I've had it, or even really been rough on it. I do not rotate the jewelry in the piercing, I don't fiddle with it, and it is generally not touched at all. The sexual benefits of the triangle piercing which I have reaped have been strictly in the realm of friction during missionary-style intercourse; not to say that I haven't enjoyed the piercing, but manual sex, especially rough manual sex, has never been part of my repertoire with any sexual partner.
Since the CBB just went right back in with no problem (an experience that blindsided me; I have lost piercings when they've slipped out in my sleep before) I wandered into my bathroom and took a 16ga ring I had and tried to slide it in. It slid in no problem, I didn't even need a mirror, I just stuck it down there and found the hole, and in it went. Oooookay, so clearly I'm stretchy in that region. I go for another 16ga ring. That slides in too, no resistance. There's still room, but I'm out of rings. At this point, I'm a bit dumbstruck. How can it have gone from a 12ga to something that much larger seemingly overnight?
Then the panic set in. If I don't get something more appropriate in the piercing, I'm really going to lose the piercing in my sleep next time, I thought. Mentally, I went through the list in my head of all the piercing studios I knew in Chicago, and figured out that the one in the Alley is the closest to me and thus the easiest to get to (with the least amount of jostling on the CTA). I showed up there pretty much right when they opened around noon, and fortunately, Scott was working. I let him know that I needed a consult and possibly a jewelry change, and he talked to me as soon as he finished up a nostril piercing. I explained the situation, and he asked me a few key questions.
He determined that I'd had the piercing for long enough that it was definitely feasable to stretch up. I sort of smirked and told him I think I'd done that without any help, and he had me go into the piercing room to get things checked out. I stripped down, and he measured everything with calipers. He looked at all the rings I had in there slipshod and determined that I could easily put in 8ga jewelry, and also suggested maybe a wider diameter for the jewelry. I redressed and we went out to look at jewelry options.
At first, Scott suggested a 1/2" diameter CBB or CBR. I told him I definitely wanted something smaller, in the 3/8" range or less. He looked at what he had, and noted that he didn't have any CBBs in that small a diameter at 8ga, so he could special order something. Alternately, I could consider a CBR with a nitrile ball, which is easy to get in and out with a bit of effort but which might be more comfortable with the thicker jewelry, which he had in the size I wanted. Since I didn't want to wait on jewelry, I decided to go with his suggestion and get the smaller CBR with the nitrile bead. My main concern was that I didn't want the ring to twist when I walked or moved around, and I was sure a large diameter ring would do that. All the metal jewelry they have at the Alley is titanium with the exception of some fancy stainless steel ones he'd had in stock for a while. With that decided, he popped the jewelry into the autoclave and told me to be back in ten minutes. Since the Alley is full of stuff (t he rest is a retail store), I wandered away to do some window shopping.
Ten minutes later, I was back and ready to get this new jewelry inserted. He let me know the price of the jewelry and that there was a $5 jewelry change charge, which was totally reasonable considering time and materials. I hopped back up on the table and undressed again from the waist down, and he took some final measurements. A taper was slid into the piercing following the removal of the 12ga CBB, and he mentioned that the 8ga taper met with no resistance whatsoever, so I was definitely at an 8ga. This totally blew my mind; that's a lot of metal down there! He got the taper in no problem, and then threaded the new jewelry in. The transition from taper to jewelry was easy, I did feel a slight pinch, but it was certainly not painful. He popped the bead in, and he was done in five minutes flat. My old jewelry (all three pieces) along with the taper he bent to fit me, were popped in a plastic baggie, and I was good to go!
I paid for the jewelry and the change fee, gave Scott a tip, and was on my way.