Spontaneous and Fun!

By Marly, Bronx, New York.

Ok, so I wanted to get my belly pierced since I was about 14.

 Of course, my mother wasn’t a very big fan of body piercings unless it’s the standard hole in the ear, which I got when I was 3 months old because it’s very common for my family . Anyway, I was sort of determined to get it one day regardless, I just didn’t know when or if I was really up for it. I went away to college and it only occurred to me a couple of times but I was too scared about her reaction so I never really did it (I had a great chance though!)

 So, sometime around sophomore year, which I was 19 at the time, me and a friend decided to play a prank on our mothers just to see if it would be ok. We both called our mothers and said, “Hey mom, so I’m at the mall with my friend and I just wanted to let you know what I just did”, she says, “Why do you say that? You make it sound like you did something weird”, so I said, “Umm, well, me and my friend just pierced our bellys!”, her reaction….”WTF is wrong with you? Have you lost your mind? Are you crazy? You better yank that crap off”. Meanwhile, I had my phone on speaker and my friend and I are staring at each other laughing and trying to contain ourselves from letting her notice, so I said, “Mom, you saif after I turn 18 I could do whatever I wanted with my body, so that’s what I did”, she says, “Yes but not to be reckless like that, now what are you gonna do?”. That’s when of course I told her the truth and that it was only a prank. She relaxed a little but she didn’t calm down completely until the next day.

 Sooooo, well I still wanted it badly. The year later when I was turning 20, one of my very close friends from home came over to celebrate and when we were changing to go to a party, I noticed that she had hers and I was sooo jealous. I asked her when did she get it done and she told me when she was 17 (I had years without seeing her or talking much). I was like NO WAY! It made want to get it so much more. So I thought about it even more. The bad thing is I never really did much research about piercings or anything, so I was quite naive to a lot of stuff, like picking a place or the fact that you could take your own ring for them to use. All I knew is that one time when I was 16 I walked into many tattoos and piercing studios and I was determined that if I ever got it done, I would get it there.

 So actually, just last month on July 2nd, a day before my 21st birthday on the spur of the moment, I told my boss I had to leave early and went to the studio. I was soooo nervous and scared. I was all alone with nobody for support so that was even worse. The lady told me to just relax and that it won’t hurt much at all. So there I sit, frantic and cursing at myself for actually being there. She marks the spot and I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to say about it, like “Umm no it’s all wrong”, so I just agreed to where she placed the dark spot and sat, more nervous. Then I feel, and I shut my eyes so hard that I start seeing little stars and then she says “Ok I’m all done”. I look and she’s just screwing the top ball into the ring. I was shocked at how fast that was! It wasn’t as painful as I thought honestly, but then again I’m quite numb to pain sometimes and I’m not even sure why. So, I ask her all the questions because apparently if I didn’t, she wouldn’t have given me any information about how to properly clean it or take care of it.

 She gave me a bottle of Bactine and told me to use it 3 times a day with antibacterial soap, she recommended Dial, and that if I wished I could get the sea salt spray and spray it about 3 times a day too. But that was all.

I was soooo excited about my new piercing and the next day being the big day, I was going crazy! I didn’t tell my mother because she would go crazy, so I had to be careful around her. The next day, my birthday comes, and of course I bought such a beautiful dress, with one little problem, it was a little too long. Not that I wanted it extremely short, but c’mon the dress passed my knees and it was a slim fitting dress, so I wanted shorter. My mother knows how to tailor clothes so she sees that I’m dissatisfied and decides that she’ll fix it. I agree but then she says take the dress off, I’m trying to see if she’ll leave the room and my friend was in my room too and I’m staring at her like OMG what to do, she says come lets go to the bathroom real quick and I’m like ok so I take it off there and wrap myself with a towel and I just give the dress to my mother. Honestly, that was sooo scary because my mother would have probably pulled the ring out! LOL.

 Anyway, so the first few days, everything was great. No pain, nothing, it looks perfect. Then, complications begin. I started to do more research (of course quite late) and I wasn’t sure how to properly clean it. So many people clean it so differently. It started getting really dark around the pierce and I start freaking out. I went to another studio and this guy told me Bactine is bad because of chemicals and that all I need to do is clean it with Dial soap 3 times a day and my body will heal it itself. Anyway, I still didn’t see any improvements, instead it just got darker and I thought I was a victim of an infection. So I went back to the studio where I got it and the lady told me it wasn’t infected because if it was I would be bleeding, oozing with pus and the pain would be inbearable. She said it looked irritated probably from clothing or touching it. She recommended me to put aspirin around the piercing for 15 days and that should take away the irritation and that once it heals maybe I should change the ring to a different material such as gold (being that my skin is so sensitive). Even if I wear sterling silver on my ears, they turn black and green the same day, and obviously that healed years ago.

 Sooo I did as I was told and now my piercing is in good condition. The only thing I am upset about is that my piercing is deep, which is why I said I wish I would have known about taking a ring for them to use. My length is 1/2″ which is more difficult to find since the standard length !
 seems to be 3/8″. I’m still going through the healing process since I only have 5 weeks with it, but it is still exciting to look at rings that I would like to wear and reading stories as such.