I don't remember where I first saw them, but I've always loved the look of hand webbings. Last year I browsed so many pictures on BME and read a fair few experiences and decided it was something I really had to have. I couldn't get it last year because I was in a job where they did not allow piercings (I had to take my lip piercing out for it!) but this year I started a new job and they were very relaxed about piercings so I could start planning my lovely hand piercings!
At A Glance Author Kelly Contact Kelly@bme.anon When Three months ago Artist Hayley Studio Primal Urge Location Perth, Australia I had a long think about how this piercing would effect my life, as far as getting in the way, healing etc. I knew I would be alright job wise, as I work in an office and I generally don't do any "manual labour" tasks. NOTE: After having them both done, I really would not reccomend this to anyone with a job where you have to do a lot tasks with your hands. I can imagine they would get caught A LOT!
PART 1 (LEFT)
I booked into Primal Urge on a Saturday in February this year, I booked the day before as I find if I book piercings too far in advance it gives me time to chicken out haha.
I arrived there and told them that if possible, I wanted both done in one session. I'm a sucker for symmetry and I didn't want to have one lone piercing haha. They explained to me that having both healing would not be good as you can't use your hand properly for a few days, or a week. I said that was fine and I'd get my left first (I'm right handed) and see how it goes. Then if it was alright after a month or so, I would get the other one done.
Hayley also explained to me that they are generally hard piercings to heal, and that they generally aren't something that lasts very long. I knew this already but she wanted to make sure I wasn't rushing into things, which was great. She asked me if the apprentice could watch me get pierced (which I agreed to of course), made sure I was ready and then took me into the piercing room.
She got everything ready, then started marking where she would pierce it. It took awhile to find a spot we were both happy with but we finally worked it out. She got me to lie down on the piercing bed. She put the clamps on, which was pretty awkward haha. Then told me to take a deep breath and put the needle through. Now, I've got a relatively high pain threshold but it honestly hurt so much less than I expected, about as much as my navel. The only thing that was worse was it did take a bit longer to push the needle through than any other piercing I've ever had. She chose to put in a length of 14g PTFE in, instead of a steel barbell because PTFE can bend and move with your hand, wheras steel won't. She then screwed the balls on, this is always had with PTFE as you have to make the threads on it.. This was probably the most painful part of the whole experience as it was a bit fiddly for her but I was still doing fine. Then we were done!
I thanked her for it, paid and had to leave pretty much straight away as my boyfriend was getting a tattoo on the same day. It was sore for that day, and hurt to move my hand and clench my fist which was pretty annoying haha. But luckily that was pretty much the worst of the healing stage. I must admit though, you really do realise how much you use your hands with this kind of piercing haha. I only got it caught a few times, I think because I was so aware of it ( I was paranoid about ripping it out...ouch! ) and it is not really something you can forget that's there whilst it's healing. The worst I got it caught was on a towel on the first day I got it...needless to say that was rather painful.
As far as aftercare went, I used the solution they gave me to soak it every night and after a week the pain was completely gone. I was pleased that I could use my hand properly again! The swelling went down pretty fast so after a couple of weeks the PTFE was a bit long so I just cut it down a few mm myself, it got caught on things much less after this.
A month later, I was so happy with it that I decided to get my right one done...