My Piercing History

It’s safe to say that I have a pretty extensive piercing history. At the age of seven I asked my mum if I could have my ears pierced and was met by a solid "no, not until your much older" I simply asked "Why?" she couldn't think of a valid answer so decided that it’s just a piercing and that I could have it done.

They were my first as most people's are and I loved them.

First, second, third and fourth holes in my ears by the age of eleven, all straight forward and relatively painless. The top of my ear at twelve, I had it done in a hairdressers with a piercing gun, it hurt like hell, never healed and had left a damaged piece of cartilage complete with angry looking blood vessels. Great.

But it wasn’t until I was fourteen that I had my first experience of 'proper piercing'. I was sat with a friend one day talking about all the crap teenage girls talk about when she asked me if I could have any piercing what would it be. I settled on a belly piercing and she agreed. The moment she said that it was like a light bulb went off for both of us, let’s get it done together. After quite a lot of convincing we persuaded are parents to give us permission. I was so excited words can't describe. So off we went to a local piercers (meticulously researched of course), we stood at the front desk and told them what we wanted. The girl behind the counter told us to wait as she went and got the piercer. He greeted us and started talking about what we wanted, it was then that he asked to see are bellies. My friend got the go ahead but he turned to me and explained that because of the shape of my navel it just wouldn’t sit right so I should get something else. I was gutted but in hindsight I'm so grateful for it, so I sat with my friend, her mum and my mum flicking though his piercing portfolio and something caught my eye. A nose stud. It looked so beautiful and I had always wanted one so with my mum’s blessing I went for it.

After that, well needless to say I was hooked, although I didn't go too crazy, I don’t think anyway. In total and in order I have had my ear stretched to 8mm, ear cartilage again, a surface piercing just above my belly button, nose... again, tragus, my helix, nose AGAIN, lip, and a surface piercing under my eye.

And honestly that’s probably half of what I wanted and would have gotten if I could have afforded it.

It's also probably worth saying I had all of this done before I was seventeen.

It's funny now thinking back to the day I had my lip pierced, I stood with the shop manager, a man I had kind of become friends with and chatted about what I was about to get done. He told me as he pointed to a very obvious hole below his lip that he had the same thing years ago and that one day he just decided he was done with piercings and took that and all his other piercings out "so make sure your ok with scars before you get it done". I found it funny and dismissed it, I thought to myself I'm never taking any of my piercings out, they'll be with me until I'm an old woman. How naive I was then as I sit here at the age of twenty one piercing free for four years. And he was right I do have scars, thankfully not too many and not too obvious but they’re there and honestly I kind of love them, it's like a little reminder of who I was and what was there.

I think if anyone asks if I regret getting my piercings, I will tell them no. Even though yes I do kind of regret getting my nose pierced, taking it out, getting it pierced, taking it out, getting it pierced, taking it out, if it wasn't happy the first time I should have given up. But they were an experience.

I would however tell anyone about to get a piercing to really think about it, I mean really think about it because yes they look amazing but my good are they a hassle a lot of the time.

So why am I piercing free now? Well I live in a rural town in a quaint part of England and to say that my town isn’t very progressive would be an understatement. I was walking to my friend’s house looking like I do above, looking back at it now I don't think I look intimidating I think as far as facial piercings go those were quite dainty. But anyway as I was walking there I saw a woman in front with her young child, and as she went to pass me, no exaggeration she looked me in the face and gave me the most disgusted look as she pulled her child to the other side of her so that she was between us as they passed me. I was horrified to think that I had that impression on some people. As much as I am a believer of 'my body, my choice' it really upset me that anyone would see me as anything other than a nice, kind person. I took every one of them out that evening and never put them back in.

I guess if I can end this in any way it would be to say that yes piercings are amazing and expressive and everyone should be able to express themselves any way they want, but just be braced for the fact that not everyone feels that way and that there is a lot of people that feel that anything more than simple ear piercings is revolting. But if you can accept that pierce away. Just stay safe and look after them.