My experience with piercings!

Over the years I have had quite a few piercings. I didn’t really get into piercings until I was 18 because I was someone that hates pain but once I got to 18 I felt like I had to get over my fear of pain and toughen up a bit so I started getting piercings. For me piercings started as a way to kind of compensate for emotional pain and for me piercings made me more confident and i started to love just the whole process of having a new piercing. To date I have had 12 piercings although I do plan to have more at some point so let’s talk about the piercings I’ve had.

Ear lobes 1 and 2:

When I was in junior school I got my first piercing which was my ear lobes. At this point I just kind of did it because all the girls at school had their ears pierced and I just thought they looked pretty. I was absolutely terrified! Luckily my Aunty owned a jewellery shop and carried out piercings with a gun. From what I remember the pain was next to nothing maybe 2/10 if that. My second lobe piercing was next to the thirt when I was in high school I just did it out of the blue when out Christmas shopping. NOTE if you’re considering having a piercing make sure you have something to eat first! My blood sugar was low and I almost fainted I felt like such an idiot! Because of the age I was when I got these I didn’t really consider the healing process and they both got infected but they did eventually heal.

Lip piercing:

Another few years went by and I had wanted a lip piercing for years but was always too scared to have it pierced. I called into a tattoo/piercing shop and asked for it piercing and they got me straight in. I’d probably say the pain for this was maybe about 4/10. At the point of having it pierced it was just one short sharp stabbing pain but was over in a couple minutes then just throbbed afterwards. They put a longer bar in for the healing process but my lip swelled up so much after a few days that the pain was unbearable and i almost had to take it out. It swelled to the point the back of the bar was digging into my lip to the point I ended up with a blood blister at the back of my lip but eventually it did heal and I can leave it out for ages without the hole healing over.

Nose piercing:

Within about a year of having my lip pierced I went to my first paramore concert and wanted something to remember it by so I decided to get my nostril pierced. The piercing itself was done with a gun and it was over in a second and the pain was maybe around 2/10. I had heard the pain made your eyes water because of where abouts the piercing was but I had none of that it was absolutely fine. The only thing was when i had to walk up to the train station when I was breathing and my nostrils kept flaring it stung my new piercing but wasn‘t a big deal and it healed without any problems.

Tragus piercing:

My friend was really into piercings as well and we just decided one day to go and get new piercings. I had been considering getting my tragus pierced for a while so decided to go ahead. The pain for this piercing was maybe 6/10 for me but again it was over so quickly. However with this one again I had forgotten to eat before I had my piercing so once again I almost fainted but that was my own fault! The healing for this piercing was fine and again had no issues.

Helix 1 and 2:

I then decided I wanted a helix piercing after loving how they looked for so long. I got them both done at separate times. I would say the pain for me with these piercings were maybe about a 3/10 I didn’t find them very painful at all. The cartilage here is actually softer than you would think at least it was on me. I did have some trouble with the second helix piercing but again that was down to my own fault. I always toss and turn in my sleep and I had slept funny on it in the middle of the night and it was showing signs of infection it was bright red and a little bit purple and was warm to the touch and very painful. I went to my piercer who told me it wasn’t infected but I had trapped a blood vessel but with some extra TLC it eventually healed with no other problems.

Forward helix/scaffolding:

I then went on to have the scaffolding however I did the piercings sepatately as I wanted a forward helix piercing but then a little while later I decided I wanted to convert it to a scaffolding piercing. The forward helix took a while to heal but once it was healed to a certain point I then got another helix piercing and had a scaffolding bar through. The forwards helix pain was actually more painful than I thought it was going to be it was maybe about 6/10. It was great for a while I loved it but eventually the original piercing started getting really sore and red I wasn’t very sure what was happening at first until one day I was cleaning it and the bar just popped out and my body had rejected the piercing. For those of you who don’t know what this means or what causes this it’s where your body notices that there is a foreign object in your body and forces the piercing closer and closer to the surface until eventually it completely pushes the piercing out of the skin! When it happened I was really panicking. In fact I actually think I had a day off work because I was so mortified at what had happened! I went to my piercer who told me that most of the time the skin where your piercing has been pushed out eventually grows back together however in my case it never did as you can see from the second picture. Once the skin healed as far as it would I got the forward helix repierced and that for me was probably 8/10 with it being through scar tissue.

Nipple piercing 1 and 2:

Me and my friend had jokingly talked about getting our nipples pierced for years. Eventually I plucked up the courage to get it done. The first one I got on my left side and I would say the pain was maybe about 8/10. I was more concerned with the pain of the clamp rather than the needle. A couple weeks later I got the other side pierced. They were unable to use a clamp as the clamp broke so had to do it “freehand”. The pain for the second was a strong 9/10 pushing 10/10 but it was over fairly quickly. The healing process for this piercing is a NIGHTMARE! It takes so long and needs constant care and cleaning. In women in particular these piercings can be affected by pregnancy and hormones during your period so it isn’t a case of once it’s healed it’s healed you have to continue to clean and take care of it even once it seems to have healed so bare that in mind. Also if the piercing site swells up to a certain extent it can dig in and be quite painful and the balls can sometimes sink into the surrounding skin so you do have to monitor your nipple piercings.

These are just my personal experiences obviously everyone’s bodies are different and everyone has different pain thresholds so what is the case for one person isn’t necessarily going to be the same for everyone. As mentioned I am looking to get some more piercings at some point unsure as to when at the moment but will update when I get any further piercings.