Temporary Aichmophobia

By Anh from San Francisco.

“WHOA WHAT’s THAT?!” I yelled at my sister when she turned to look at me. It was her eyebrow piercing. It was the first piercing I’ve ever seen in my life other than the simple ear piercings and nose piercings. At first, I was disgusted, then in shock, and then feelings of awe began to creep. I asked her why she pierced her eyebrow and then she simply said , “because she was in college”. I pondered the simple statement that actually said so much. I had many other questions to ask her but decided to keep them to myself. I myself from that moment on, wanted to see how it would feel like to have a piercing. And ultimately, that is the reason why I had my belly pierced.

My parents hate piercings and I’m not allowed to have any, so go figure, I waited until I turned 18 to get my belly pierced. Yelp. Oh how much I love Yelp. I read all the comments about the San Francisco Haight Ashbury Piercings and Tattoos Store. They had discount days and had 4 stars plus numerous good reviews, and that is ultimtely what made me decide where I wanted to get my belly pierced.

My piercer was pretty awesome, she had a good sense of humor and she was also very pretty (: .She told me everything I needed to know ahead of time and gave me the option of whether or not I wanted to look at the needle before she pierced. Before I sat into the chair, my heart was beating as fast as ever. The chair was kind of squeaky and it tilted and squeaked a bit, that freaked me out even more.

But the process was simple and my piercer just stuck the needle into me, there was no pain there. And then she stuck in the belly ring. “UGH”, I groaned in pain. The belly ring insertion itself hurt a lot more than just the needle. No lie, it might be just because I have a low tolerance towards pain.

My piercer gave me a handout that told me about how to care for my brand new piercing. And I have not fully healed yet, I just got my piercing two weeks ago.