By Alexis, from Ohio
I had been thinking about getting a belly button ring for a few years now, but never really gave it serious consideration. That changed a few weeks ago, when I suddenly had a desire to get one. I had finally gotten the stomach I wanted and thought that a little bit of sparkle would compliment my bikini ready belly perfectly.
I found out that Ohio does not require piercing parlors to be certified which made me a bit nervous. There are all those horror stories out there, and I did not want to create my own.
I looked online to see what people had to say, and found the Association of Professional Piercers. With a site named safepiercing.org I felt comforted reading about their standers of professionalism. Through their site I found a place that went out of their way to get an APP certification, and the best part was that they were only about thirty minutes away.
The shop, Body Anthology, has their own website, and they list the piercers and have pictures of what they have done in the pat. All of the testimonials repeated the same key words over and over again. The place was professional, clean, and welcoming. Many said that even during a tour of the place they used quite a few pairs of rubber gloves.
On one of my days off, I went to just check it out for myself. I had thought of putting it off until my birthday, which would have been in the middle of summer. Once I stepped into the place, I felt at ease and knew that they would take care of me. The parlor was well lit and the piercing station had almost a hospital feel to it. They explained the whole process to me, opened up all the tools in front of me, and then marked my navel. I laid down and he applied the clamp, which I did not feel at all, and then he told me to inhale and then exhale slowly. On my second exhale, he quickly pushed the needle through and then I was all done. I felt just a quick pinch, and the whole thing took a lot less time than I thought it would. It felt just like getting my ears pierce except that the healing time is much longer.
It turned out to be a good thing that I got it done at the beginning of April seeing as how I cannot go into lakes for about three to four months. After we were all done, he described the healing process and gave me a packet of sea salt with written directions as a just in case. He also let me know that I can always email or telephone if I have any questions, and I feel comfortable doing just that.
So far I have not had any problems except for the few times I tossed a bit too much in my sleep and accidentally hit the top ball. I love my new piercing so much. While the jewelry I picked out is simple and goes with everything, I cannot wait for it to heal completely so I can change it and show it off!