When I was about 15, maybe a year or so younger, I wanted my belly button peirced. When I got to the shop where my friend who was gonna do it worked, he wasn’t there. So, my other friend and I went back to his place a few blocks from the shop. He convinced me to get my nipple peirced, and he’d do it. His father, I think, got some beer and something else. While I was getting plastered the guy went to get some safty pins and a bag of ice. I had the ice on my boob for an hour, or seemed like. He took a huge safty pin and burnt it and stuck, well, forced, it through my nipple. The loop ring he had didn’t want to go through so he used a gold stud ear ring. It didn’t hurt after, and I was too drunk to know if it hurt then. But I guess a few weeks later it started to get all pussyaand stuff. I cleaned it up and everything. I made a new friend and showed 'em and he made me take it out, or he would have someone hold me down and he’d do it. When I got home I tried to take it out and it didn’t want to budge. So I spent more than an hour trying to get the ring out. I was going to put another ring just for it in, but the hole was too small and my boob was so damn sore.
Later another guy with a peircing gun wanted to peirce a part of my body which I probably shouldn’t mention. OMG it hurt like hell. But it took without any problems. And I wan’t drunk then. He also wanted to give me a tattoo… I said no to that (even tho I wanted one).
Glad the lump is subsiding, and thanks for posting your story. At least you learned a valuable lesson from all of this, which is crucial. Hindsight is 20/20- don’t keep beating yourself up over it. Do your finals, finish the semester, and take your medicine. This too shall pass.
Thank you for sharing this story. I’m so sorry you had to go through what sounds like a nightmare. I also want to stress that having a piercing should not be like this. There’s no excuse for this kind of shoddy treatment and total disregard for your health & well-being. There’s also no reason for you to beat yourself up about it. You obviously did many things right, such as leaving the jewelry in while the major infection healed, and going to a doctor instead of being embarrased & hoping it would just go away.
I had a piercing done several years ago, and the person I chose to do it was such a safety nazi that I was terrified not to follow the aftercare instructions religiously. However, I’ve talked to others who weren’t even given any instructions for aftercare, but still didn’t have any problems.
An update for those of you who were asking: I’ve been on antibiotics for almost five full days now. The lump has not subsided with any kind of significance. IANAD and I didn’t think to ask, so I don’t know how quickly to see results. I’m VERY nervous and scared. If the antibiotics don’t make this go away, I don’t know what the next step is, though I’d imagine it will involve cutting me open somehow. I’m not looking forward to finding out.
Zette, sorry about that. I recommend a nice healthy yogurt and fruit parfait.
I wouldn’t expect the lump to go away that quickly. Hopefully it’ll start clearing up in a couple more days.
As I side comment,
Why the hell are more and more women getting piercings? Is it supposed to be attractive or something else that I’m totally missing? And no I’m not 50 and conservative I’m 22 and apathetic
saffo, IANAD but I’d STRONGLY recomment getting on the telephone with the Dr. you did see. Ask for a timetable regarding the diminishing of that lump, ask if expressing the fluids out of the area of the lump is something that she/he ( your Dr. ) is considering as a treatment option.
Great rant, and with a lot of VERY helpful info to boot. It begs a great question though, and probably it belongs in G.Q.- HOW do cultures that don’t have easy access to autoclaving and surgical stainless steel go about body piercing? It’s an incredibly old and revered art in some parts of the world. Think I’ll ask in G.Q. and see what turns up.
I wish you the best of luck with the infection. It sounds like you’re being pretty agressive in the treatment now, more power to you ! I also HEARTILY second the poster who asked you to stop beating yourself up about this. People try zanier things and with more awful consequences. You lived, you learned and we’re lucky you shared that learning process with us.
By New Year’s hopefully you’ll be past all of this.
I would start a new thread with this question, man. If we start in on it here it’ll become a major hijack and something that belongs better in IMHO.
Cartooniverse, good call. I’ll call the health center tomorrow and ask about that. I forgot to mention that yes, this is a college student health center I’m going to. After they threw antibiotics at me I was kinda nervous, since they have a reputation of treating everything as either a pregnancy or something that can be antibioticked away. My parents said not to go for a second opinion, though. The health center wants me to check back in with them a week after my period so they can examine the lump again, and I happen to have an appointment with a real gynecologist while I’m home for Christmas, so basically I get to hold my breath for the next month. sigh The biggest thing that’s got my mind preoccupied now is that trauma of this sort might induce dysplasia or pre-cancerous cell conditions, so now that this is going on I’m going to have to be MUCH more vigilant about watching for breast cancer. Gah. I’m too fucking young to be worrying about this shit.
I recommend a nice healthy yogurt and fruit parfait.