There seem to be a number of threads about tattoos on the Dope, but not very many on piercing–and the ones that do mention piercing tend to say things like, “Piercing is unattractive and disgusting.” So I though that a positive piercing thread was in order. Other modifications are welcome, too.
I have four piercings, two in each earlobe. They were done at the mall with a piercing gun when I was 8 and then again when I was 12. I would not, of course, get a piercing at the mall now.
My first ear holes are stretched to 6g. It’s taken me about a year to get them this big from a standard 18g stud, and I absolutely love them. I don’t plan on stretching them much bigger than this, but I guess my eventual goal is about 4g or 2g. To stretch, I just bought larger and larger gauge CBR’s, from 16g to 14g to 12g, and then I bought 10g plugs and used Teflon tape to slowly increase the size of the plug to 8g, and then did the same with the 8g plugs until I reached 6g. Using Teflon tape to stretch is so easy and pretty much painless (I learned this from experience! I tried to go from 10g right to 8g with no stretching inbetween. My ears got swollen and infected. I had to take out the 8g plugs and go back to the 10g ones until they healed and I could try again–the right way this time.)
I don’t really want any other piercings right now. I’m not a fan of the multiple facial piercing look, although I think a single eyebrow bar or a labret stud can be pretty attractive (probably not on me, though). I might pierce my nipples one day, but not anytime soon.
So, what piercings do you have? Are they a good experience, or do you regret them? Any tips or stories (good or bad) to share?
My right nostril is pierced. Even my grandmother thinks it’s cute.
My first piercing (my tongue) was an absolute disaster. I went to a guy called Mountain Man, the first name that I happened upon in the phone book. With deep regret, I had to remove it a couple weeks later because of infection. After probably 8 months or so, I went to a reputable place (where I got each subsequent piercing) and they told me that they wouldn’t pierce my tongue without first charging me $50 for a procedure that would extend my tongue by > a quarter inch, simply because it’s not long enough to pierce correctly. Then I’d have to wait a month and pay another $50 for the actual piercing. Uhh, no.
So yeah. No more pierced tongue, which kind of sucks but… meh, whatever.
I’ve had other piercings, including 6 in my ears (2 left, 3 right, and left cartilage; no stretching) and a few below the neck, but I don’t wear jewelry in any of them anymore. No tats or any other body mod (scarring, etc).
I’ve got nine earrings, four in each lobe and one in the cartilage. I have decided not to stretch any of the lobe piercings, because it would cramp the others on that ear. I have my tongue pierced, and have stretched down to an 8g barbell. I had intended to get down to 4g, but buying the barbells got waaay pricey. I had my eyebrow done, but I took it out for work once, and it grew back during my 6 hour shift. Bah. If I get another piercing, it’ll probably be to redo my eyebrow. Sometimes I want to get things below the neck pierced, but I couldn’t really show them off.
I have three tattoos, too. My family all hates them, but I think they have gotten used to it now.
I had my ears pierced when I was 8; my mum knew I had wanted them pierced from age 6 cos a couple of my friends had had it done, but left the decision up to me – my wee self wrestled with this decision for two years. Once when I told my mum, forget it, was too scary, she kinda scolded me for being a bit of a coward. Then my dad, who’d been listening to this exchange, asked her when she planned to have hers pierced.
Had them done at a jewellers and crikey it hurt like hell!
Meanwhile, am now 39 and have accumulated 13 piercings, 7 in one ear and 6 in the other. I really only swop out the original two and sometimes a third; the rest I keep in sapphire studs. (13 holes and sapphires cos well, my birthday is 13 September )
In the fall of '98 – when I was 27 – I went to a tattoo convention in Richmond with my (then) best friend, KJ. I wound up getting my second tattoo there: a medium-size one, on my upper left arm. So afterwards we were wandering around, me with this huge bandage over the brand-new tattoo, and KJ – who is not into tattoos at all – wanted to stop by the small piercing display at the convention. She was wanting to do something different with her ears, maybe change the size of the main holes or something. So we were looking around, and at one point I involuntarily shuddered; to her questioning look I replied that piercings hold no attraction for me at all, and that I didn’t think I could ever go beyond the traditional pierced ears I’ve had since I was 14. She stared at me for a few seconds, then started laughing . . . I said, “what?” and she said it just struck her as hilarious that I was walking around with an oozing, bleeding wound from a tattoo but yet was squeamish about the piercings! It was kind of funny.
(Just to be clear, I have nothing against piercings or the people who get them!)
Just got some 6 weeks ago. No tats, no previous piercings. I feel like more of a square now.
It hurt like a mutha. I consider myself pretty good about pain, but on one of them I almost involuntarily kicked the guy. They will be sore for a day, but they heal up pretty quickly. You cant have them “licked” for a good three months. Stupid bacteria!
My ears are pierced three times each, but for years I’ve only worn simple gold hoops. I used to wear much fancier things, but my tastes have simplified now.
My nose is pierced. Mine is mostly cultural - I had it done in India, and it’s on the left nostril, which I can’t help but feel is the correct side. I love it. I wear a flower with four petals, and each petal has a real diamond. It was one of the few gifts from my mother before she went back to India.
Also, I have a very traditional Punjabi nose. Indians will know what I’m talking about. It isn’t small. It isn’t huge, either, but as my face is round and small it is prominent. So I figure, if it’s the first thing you’re going to notice, I may as well draw attention to it rather than away from it.
If I had a flat belly (which I hope to have some day), I might wear belly gems - but I think I’d be afraid to pierce it. Whatever people say, the nose piercing hurt. My mother did not want me to have it done, and forbade it - but I was already 18, and told her I could either do it in India, under her supervision, or go back to the States and get it done without her and with my own money. She agreed.
I used to wear a hoop, but it didn’t look as nice, and for years it’s been the current one.
TheLadyLion asked if I had ever considered getting my ear pierced. She said the question wasn’t intended as a hint but we talked about it and she said she thought I’d look good with her birthstone, peridot. I had my ear pierced for a while when I was in my 20s but I was in the navy so the hassle of keeping it from closing when at work made it untenable.
My brother has his nipples pierced. Said it hurt like hell and took six months to heal. I’m considering one, left is an outie but right is an innie, mostly as solidary with TLL as I would love to see her with pierced nipples.
I got my ears done when I was about 13. No problems, and I still like them.
I got my belly button done for my 17th birthday. My Grandma laughed when I told her what I had spent the birthday money she gave me on. No problems with that piercing either.
I have 8 lobe piercings, 4 in each ear. The first hole on either ear is 14ga and the rest are 16ga.
Another piercing I’d rather like to get is a nostril piercing with a tiny nostril screw in it. I really really like those and think they look really cute on most girls. It’s also a piercing that, unless you have something huge in the piercing, looks subtle and can blend in rather well, considering.
Similar to what Archmichael said, the initial piercing hurts like hell, but the wound site heals quickly. I don’t have sensitive nipples, so I can’t say the piercing did anything for me physically; it was just for showing off.
I used to have a nipple ring and a piercing through the upper cartilige of my ear. The ear piercing was always getting infected and I got rid of it after a year or so. The nipple piercing was fine, but I got bored of it after six months or so and let it grow out. I now have a slightly lumpy left nipple, but you have to be quite close to notice.
I think nipple piercings on guys are quite attractive, but only on a decent body. They look slightly odd dangling there on a pasty white torso.
I’m not a big fan of facial piercings, but I think i]tiny* silver or gold nose studs look terribly cute on girls.
I have three earrings in each of my earlobes. The first set was done when I was four, the second when I was fourteen, the third when I was eighteen. None are stretched or anything. None hurt. I’ve thought about getting an ear cartilage piercing, but I’m sort of conflicted, since I don’t want to hurt my employability. Then again, ear piercings, even the weird ones, aren’t as “extreme” as other piercings so they might be okay.
I probably wouldn’t get anything else done. I’m not really into facial piercings. The only thing I’d get is a nipple piercing, and I’m way too much of a pain wuss to get that done.
Ahhh piercings . . . how I used to love them.
My first piercing was my nose. I really liked it because I found the tiniest diamond I could find and sometimes people didn’t even notice it.
Then I got to work on my ears. I had them pierced with stretching in mind, and thats what I did. I worked my way up by skipping a size at first but when I got to 6s I had to do one at a time. I was one of the people that wanted 4s or 2s too but ended up at 00. I was also working on a second hole in each ear that I got up to a 4 gauge. So I thought that was pretty bad ass for a while. I would wear the 00s with 8 gauge circular barbells inside. I also got an industrial which is the barbell through the cartilidge at the top of your ear.
Piercing pain is a wierd rush. Most of the time I kinda liked it, but that industrial hurt so bad and it wouldn’t heal correctly so I took it out.
And the weird one I got was a monroe, which is through the lip. You know, where Marilyn’s mole was. They videotaped me for that one and I’ve heard its been shown at piercing conventions. It was interesting to have, and when I would talk to people I could always see them glancing at it and they always asked me if it was real.
I started to feel like a freak, so I took the nose and the monroe out. I will always have a little scar on my lip. It actually looks like a little mole so I’m cool with that. My 00s became 2s and I decided I wanted to wear regular earings so my second holes are standard size now.
And thats what I’m left with. I would like 0s again, but who knows what will happen.
Oh and I have 2 tattoos.
I have eight piercings. Five in my left ear, one in my right ear, my navel and my clit hood. My most recent was the clit hood. Next will be my nipples - and then possibly my right nostril. To look at me - I don’t fit the “profile”. I wear all tiny diamonds in my left ear (except for my lobe) and everything else is below the neck. I’m a freak baby - I love it! :eek:
I didn’t think the initial peirce hurt anymore than other pierces. I’m not particularly sensitive either, but I did enjoy the increased sensitivity when they were healing. Unfortunately, one started kinda working it’s way out, so I had to take it out.
I’ve got a total of thirteen ear pierces (the number is totally coincidental). Six in the lobe on the left, and five in the lobe and two in the cartiledge on the right. The cartiledge ones took forever to heal and I took a foam pillow and cut out a hole for my ear to nestle in to keep pressure off it. I’ve had these for probably twenty years and I don’t actually wear any earrings anymore. I just got tired of the look.
The absolute worst was my belly button pierce. Unfortunately, the edge of my jeans always hit it when I sat down and it never really healed. After over a year of dealing with constant pain, I finally took it out. Felt better immediately. And the plus side is it formed a little scar tissue so my belly button always looks like a “skinny” belly button even when I’m gaining weight…
I have two sets of earrings in my ears. I got the first set done when I was about two or so, then the second set when I was like 12. I’m planning on getting a third or fourth set in my ears soon. I remember getting my ears pierced for the first time when I was two. I screamed and cried, but then again I was two. For the second set it didn’t hurt at all. I went to the mall for it and the lady used this weird thing for it. It sort of looked like a hole puncher. I’ve never really had any problems with them, though I have sensitive skin so when I use the cheap earrings I have to wash it out really well and wear gold earrings for a few days, but otherwise I haven’t had any problems. I want to get my belly button pierced, and was going to last summer but the people at the place said I should wait about a year or so because I’m still growing a lot. That and you can’t swim with it in for about three months, and it was the beginning of the summer. maybe I’ll go next winter.
Three months? Damn, I didn’t wait all this time to get a boyfriend just so he could not lick my nipples for three months. Guess that idea goes on the back burner for the foreseeable future.
-an eyebrow ring (not successful because I was allergic to the metal) and a dark purple scar to show for it.
-my earlobes are pierced but I don’t have earrings in right now.
-my right nipple pierced. Kept it for a year, but the skin is so delicate, it kept tearing ( :eek: ) and I had to take it out. But, it fixed my inverted scarred nipple (from a mosquito bite as a pubescent adolescent) and brought back all the sensitivity plus some.
I’m pro piercings. I want Ardred to get his nipples done but he’s very anti needles, so no go.
)