Navel Piercing Experience

I made a deal with myself that when I reached 130 lbs I'd get a navel piercing. I reached 130.9 lbs the other day (I'm still fluctuating between that and 135 lbs but that is fine with me, I'm still losing). So, last night I got my navel pierced at Body Bazzare in Sacramento. Dave did the piercing and he was awesome. Since I've struggled with a needle phobia and I was worried about the pain I thought I'd write about my experience.

I called Body Bazzare in Sac and spoke with Dave. He had several piercing openings. However, before I hung up and drove down I asked him several questions about how long he'd been piercing and his sterilizations habits. I was happy with his answers. I also explained to him that I might be a woos on him because I have been working on overcoming a needle phobia. He assured me that I'd do just fine.

After I hung up the phone I began to get anxious. I recognized the feeling as the same feeling I get right before I completely freak out about having my blood drawn. I really, really wanted my navel pierced though so I took some Valerian Root to calm my nerves and headed to the shop.

When I got to Body Bazzare Dave was in the parking lot on a break. He ended his brake and led me into the shop. I filled out a consent form, he took a copy of the driver's license. He prepared the room for my piercing then led me to the room. He showed me my jewelry options (they weren't great) and recommended the slightly curved bar. He put on his cloves, cleaned my skin, marked where he was going to pierce, had me lay on the table, removed the needle and bar from their packages and approached by navel with both.

I suddenly felt quite anxious. I didn't want to back out but I also didn't want him to do it. I told him I needed a few more minutes. He asked, "How many," and when I told him, "10" he was cool with it. I then remembered that I wasn't listening to music (which I usually do when I get my blood drawn) so I jumped up, got my phone and ear buds, put on some music and laid back on the table. I was ready to be pierced about 10 seconds after that so I told Dave, "Make it happen."

Dave did not clamp me. He told me before hand that he feels he does a better job and there is less swelling and bruising when he doesn't clamp the navel. He quickly pushed the needle through the skin at the top of my navel. I wanted to shout an expletive but realized it didn't hurt that bad. I definitely tensed up. It sort of felt like he was having trouble getting the needle through but I know he wasn't because he told me that he was putting the bar into the other end of the needle and the hole was created. He then shoved the needle the rest of the way through, the bar was in place, he threaded the end on and told me he was done.

"Can I get up now?" I asked. Dave told me that I could so I sat up, got off the table, told Dave he is awesome and that it wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined and started walking out of the shop. However, before I even got to the waiting area I started feeling dizzy so I sat on one of the sofas and tried logging into my yahoo account so I could give Dave and Body Bazzare a 5 star review and sing my praises of Dave. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to get the password right. Dave gave me a cup of water. My the time I gave up trying to get into my yahoo account I felt good, thanked Dave and left.

I was surprised that the actual piercing didn't hurt that bad. It was less painful than a paper cut or a bee sting and WAY less painful than either of the two times I had my ears pierced (my ear piercings were done with a gun). By the time I drove myself home (about a 10 minute drive) the new piercing was not tender at all. I did a salt water soak before I went to bed (I put the salt water solution in a shot glass, put the glass with the solution over the piercing and laid on my back on the floor for about 5 minutes.

Today the piercing did not bother me once. It has not bled (not even when it was pierced) and there is no discharge from the piercing.