I was in Maastricht for a conversation with my thesis supervisor, and the University happens to be really close to Bodypiercing Lifestyle. I wanted to discuss some things about the 10 year anniversary that is coming up (I'm helping and "hanging" out that day) so I decided to hop in. I chatted a bit with Jimmy and Manny, who is working for a month at Lifestyle as a guest piercer. It got pretty busy (I even acted as counter girl for a while, heh), and after seeing so many people getting new piercings done it got the itch myself. It was 3 months ago that I had a piercing done, so it was time. Plus, that would mean I could get some work done by Manny while he was here!
At A Glance Author psychonautje Contact psychonautje@bme.anon IAM psychonautje When It just happened Artist iam: Manny Studio Lifestyle Location Maastricht, The Netherlands I used to be somebody who thought long and hard about what mod to get, but at the moment I didn't have anything really planned out, so this one was gonna be spontaneous. Of course, I did have a personal "to-do" list. Septum? I still wasn't too sure about that one, so not for now. Ears? My vertical surface in front of my tragus is not healed yet, so I figured I'd better leave my ears alone for a while. Surface under navel, then? I wanted that for a long time already, but never got round to do it. So horizontal surface under navel it was.
When Manny was done piercing the previous customer Jimmy told him he had another job for him: me! Manny went to the back to grab all the stuff and Jimmy tried to make me nervous, which didn't work, heh. I formally filled out the paperwork, we didn't discuss aftercare, and Jimmy told me that Manny would pierce it a little different than he did – Jimmy uses clamps, Manny would freehand it.
Manny called me when he had everything set up so I went into the piercing room. Manny asked me to lay down and he cleaned up my navel. I got up again and Manny started marking me. First he marked the middle of my belly (good thing that my regular navel piercing is nicely centered), and asked me if it looked like the middle to me too. Then he drew some horizontal lines and asked me where I wanted it. Of course, I wanted it right in between the two lines he made. He got out the caliper and started marking the entrance and exit points, which are about 30 mm apart. After a lot of checking and adjusting we both agreed they were ok so I laid back down.
Manny called Jimmy to come see how he pierced surface piercings. He lubed up the 14 ga canula needle, and Jimmy asked if I was nervous now. Still not really, though there were like one or two butterflies flying around in my stomach. Anyway time to pierce. Manny held the needle in a 90-degree-angle to the entrance point, then started piercing. The needle breached my skin, which felt like a tiny prick. When the needle was deep enough, Manny changed the angle of the needle and I could feel the needle sliding parallel to my skin through the tissue. This was not painful at all, but I could exactly feel where the needle was moving. Manny stopped in the middle for a second or so, and Jimmy looked at me with a "does-it-hurt-look" on his face. I made a "no-not-really-look" face back while Manny pushed the needle further towards the exit point. Again he shifted the angle of the needle and it came out through the exit hole. This felt also as a tiny prick, slightly more painful than the entrance hole but still really not painful at all compared to most of my other piercings. Manny removed the needle from the canula and grabbed the jewelry. I didn't ask what he put in exactly but as far as I can judge it is a 14 ga Teflon (PFTE) bar custom-bent into a surface bar. Following the jewelry through was relatively quick and easy. It felt more like pressure than pain. Manny put on the 5 mm titanium balls and I was all done! After checking it out it looked like the exit hole was a tiny bit higher than the entrance hole, but you need to look carefully to see it so I don't mind. It's virtually impossible to pierce it perfectly straight when freehanding it I suppose. It looks gorgeous anyway.
The first 24 hours I continuously felt it's presence, you could call it pain I guess but the best way I can describe it is a far-away pain. As if it was filtered or something. There was some pressure from the balls as they are kind of tight against my skin and maybe a little longer posts on the surface bar would have been better but I suppose it'll be fine. I wanted to leave it the hell alone for the first night, but my boyfriend decided to grab it to figure out if it was pierced straight, and I was too late with grabbing his hand to prevent him from touching it with his dirty fingers. I asked him if he thought whether I had an entire roller coaster pierced underneath my skin and then washed it with anti-bacterial soap and did a sea salt soak with boiled water. It's one day later now and it seems to be doing fine, so far there's no irritation or redness or crusties. The balls are still tight against my skin but already less than the first day. There's no constant vague pain or pressure anymore, though most of the time I'm aware that it's there, and then especially the bar that's running underneath my skin. It feels kind of weird (especially when running a finger over it), but I like the sensation. It does hurt when I accidentally bump it into something, but nothing major and it didn't happen very often yet (which surprised me as I worked the entire day and I usually bump into a lot of things at work). I'll keep up a cleaning regime of anti-bacterial soap and sea salt soaks as often as I feel is needed (usually once a day), and just see how it goes. For now, it definitely looks and feels hopeful and it seems to be a viable piercing. So here's to hoping that it won't reject!