pierced
I was reading Heather's blog post about her daughter piercing her ears. I was about to respond to her post by telling a couple of my own body piercing stories, and then I thought "heck, that could be it's own blog post!"
Piercing Story #1
This one is much like Heather's. I don't know how old I was, but I was old enough to remember. My mom took me down to one of the many local hair dressers in Austin. In small towns hair stylists do everything - hair, piercing, waxing, paving streets, etc. The lovely lady loaded up the gun and aimed it on my ear. I'm not sure what happened, but it only went halfway through and then fell out of my ear and onto the floor. I sat in the chair while the piercer crawled under the vanity to retrieve the stud. She then put it back in the gun (I'm hoping she rinsed it off a bit or something, that part is hazy) and re-pierced the same half-hole. That was so fun.
Piercing Story #2
I had just moved to Portage. My roommate/landlord/friend was telling me that her cousin knew how to "pierce stuff." Apparently she had pierced someone's belly button. I thought to myself "self, that sounds like something you should do." My roomie told me that she was way cheaper than going to a salon. I figured that $15 instead of $60 was a great deal! After all, she was just making a small hole in my flesh right? Not worth $60. We set up the "appointment" (I use the term very very loosely) for the next evening. Upon arrival at this black market body piercing place - which turned out to be a living room complete with kids and pets everywhere - the cousin had me lay down on the couch and pulls out an ear-piercing gun. Why she had one of these kicking around her house I'll never know.
Apparently, "real" piercers don't use an ear piercing gun to pierce your naval. Professionals use some sort of needle, and maybe a little antiseptic or rubber gloves, or so I'm told. At the time I guess I wasn't too sceptical about the idea of her trying to shove the ear gun around inside my belly button.
She somehow managed to get the gun at least a little into my naval. But... it didn't quite work.
At this point I feel as though I should warn any squeamish people that you may want to run off and pet a pony or something, because this story isn't going to get any more pleasant. Consider yourselves warned.
It didn't work. The stud (normally used in ear lobes) only went about halfway through, or to elaborate further - it went in one side of the to-be-pierced chunk of belly button flesh, but it didn't come out the other side.
What would you do? I bet you want to know what I did don't you?
The piercer scratched her head a minute and pondered the situation. To pull it out and start over might mean a messy piercing if the stud didn't go back in exactly the same hole. "You know what?" she said, "I bet I can shove it the rest of the way through." I agreed. It seemed like a spectacular idea.
It turns out human flesh is actually pretty strong. She tried using her thumbs and fingers to force it through the rest of my skin. Didn't work so well. It DID really hurt though, but I was convinced that it would pop out right away. She had me lay on the floor so she could get a better angle. Still hurt, still a no go. She then called in her husband and he gave it a whirl. He apparently had stronger hands, and was able to successfully force the stud to exit on the other side of my naval.
She was so kind she only charged me $10 instead of $15 since it kind of got screwed up. So saintly. I did not recommend her to my friends.
The story has something of a happy ending though. There was this guy who I had a major crush on. You'd understand if you saw him, he's dreamy. We went biking later that night, and then he invited me over to his place to watch a movie. While watching the movie, my earring back popped off and he oh so sweetly (and with much concentration and concern) helped to fix it. It was neat watching his face, just inches from my belly button, with his brow furrowed and his breath warm on my skin. We went on to share our first kiss that night.
Piercing Story #1
This one is much like Heather's. I don't know how old I was, but I was old enough to remember. My mom took me down to one of the many local hair dressers in Austin. In small towns hair stylists do everything - hair, piercing, waxing, paving streets, etc. The lovely lady loaded up the gun and aimed it on my ear. I'm not sure what happened, but it only went halfway through and then fell out of my ear and onto the floor. I sat in the chair while the piercer crawled under the vanity to retrieve the stud. She then put it back in the gun (I'm hoping she rinsed it off a bit or something, that part is hazy) and re-pierced the same half-hole. That was so fun.
Piercing Story #2
I had just moved to Portage. My roommate/landlord/friend was telling me that her cousin knew how to "pierce stuff." Apparently she had pierced someone's belly button. I thought to myself "self, that sounds like something you should do." My roomie told me that she was way cheaper than going to a salon. I figured that $15 instead of $60 was a great deal! After all, she was just making a small hole in my flesh right? Not worth $60. We set up the "appointment" (I use the term very very loosely) for the next evening. Upon arrival at this black market body piercing place - which turned out to be a living room complete with kids and pets everywhere - the cousin had me lay down on the couch and pulls out an ear-piercing gun. Why she had one of these kicking around her house I'll never know.
Apparently, "real" piercers don't use an ear piercing gun to pierce your naval. Professionals use some sort of needle, and maybe a little antiseptic or rubber gloves, or so I'm told. At the time I guess I wasn't too sceptical about the idea of her trying to shove the ear gun around inside my belly button.
She somehow managed to get the gun at least a little into my naval. But... it didn't quite work.
At this point I feel as though I should warn any squeamish people that you may want to run off and pet a pony or something, because this story isn't going to get any more pleasant. Consider yourselves warned.
It didn't work. The stud (normally used in ear lobes) only went about halfway through, or to elaborate further - it went in one side of the to-be-pierced chunk of belly button flesh, but it didn't come out the other side.
What would you do? I bet you want to know what I did don't you?
The piercer scratched her head a minute and pondered the situation. To pull it out and start over might mean a messy piercing if the stud didn't go back in exactly the same hole. "You know what?" she said, "I bet I can shove it the rest of the way through." I agreed. It seemed like a spectacular idea.
It turns out human flesh is actually pretty strong. She tried using her thumbs and fingers to force it through the rest of my skin. Didn't work so well. It DID really hurt though, but I was convinced that it would pop out right away. She had me lay on the floor so she could get a better angle. Still hurt, still a no go. She then called in her husband and he gave it a whirl. He apparently had stronger hands, and was able to successfully force the stud to exit on the other side of my naval.
She was so kind she only charged me $10 instead of $15 since it kind of got screwed up. So saintly. I did not recommend her to my friends.
The story has something of a happy ending though. There was this guy who I had a major crush on. You'd understand if you saw him, he's dreamy. We went biking later that night, and then he invited me over to his place to watch a movie. While watching the movie, my earring back popped off and he oh so sweetly (and with much concentration and concern) helped to fix it. It was neat watching his face, just inches from my belly button, with his brow furrowed and his breath warm on my skin. We went on to share our first kiss that night.
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