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Monday morning I'm going to talk to two piercers about the piercing I will hopefully be getting on my eighteenth birthday, my nape.

I've done excessive reading on the piercing, been looking at it for over three years now, and I'm positive this is the piercing I want. This is not a hasty thing, I am fully aware of the risks and how hard it is to heal.

I'm going in advance to find the piercer for the job because I still have some questions, and I've heard that some piercers like to custom order and fit the jewelry and that can take time. Via BMEZine.com I have found two studios in Seattle that do it, Aaron Bell's Slave to the Needle and Laughing Buddha. I've had friends pierced at both with great results. As far as I can tell, they're the two most dependable piercing parlors in Seattle.

Waiting until my eighteenth birthday to do my first real piercing (I no longer really count my navel, it's become just as common place as ear lobe piercings and I got it done when I was 14) is a right of passage for me. Some people feel it necessary to go before they're perfectly legal and end up with great results. But it always seemed like an act of rebellion to me, and that's not what I want my body art to signify. I have my parents' agreement not to kick me out of the house if I do it, which is an acknowledgment on their part of my ability to make decisisions for myself. It's different than their consent to let me do it as a minor, like some kids can get, and it's more rewarding than trying to hide it from them.

To anyone with a surface piercing, any additional information about your experience would be much appreciated. Did your piercer use a punch and taper method? Do you know why or why not?

My birthday is July 13th. I'm brimming with excitement and wracked with nerves. I know I might eventually "regret" my decision, since I'm just young and rash and looking to make a statement as they say, but if all else fails, the piercing can be removed. Scars are just lessons manifested in physical form, and I'd have no trouble living with any that result from the piercing itself. I'm not worried about it being a potential waste of money. I work 30 hours a week at a well paying job and clothes and accesories are a bigger waste of money in my book. I'm not worried about what my friends think, because friends are those people who, even if they don't like what you do, love you anyways. I'm not especially worried about the pain, I have a high tolerance and I know how to involve myself with my pain.

Ramblerambleramble. So baaaasically if anyone has any advice on what to ask the piercers (besides the basics, I have done a lot of research), the piercing itself, or anything else to say in regards to any of the above, please, say so!

Updates will follow when I've talked to my potential piercers and when the piercing itself happens!

I'm so excited! I have an appointment for 7pm tonight with Phish from Slave to the Needle. He specializes in surface piercings and in general is a pretty rad guy. I might actually die of anticipation before hand.

My mother came into my room this morning before leaving for work to try one last time to stop me from getting it. She didn't even wish me a happy birthday, just made an unpersuasive plee about the dangers and risks involved. At least she's not threatening to kick me out of the house or cut me off if I get it, but that kinda hurt ):

Okay okay okay.

Before I hyperventalite from pure excitement...PICTURES


(more}

It hardly hurt, and now it just feels like I've got a kink in my neck that I can't rub out. That's mostly because I'm stiffening up pretty badly. Cleaning it was a challenge. Phish suggested I just soak a paper towel in a warm saline solution, but I wanted to try using a shot glass like I'd heard someone did. That just resulted in my back getting very wet and salty. So I stuck with the paper towel method. I'll work something out here in a few days.

The length is 7/8s of an inch, the gauge is 14. The metal disks can be replaced with balls in about a month. My friend's boyfriend said I should get diamonds. I don't think he understands that not all of us are living on a monthly penchant of several thousand dollars from our parents rolleyes Whatever I can afford, I'll do.

I might get one more below and above, each about 5/8s of an inch, with in the next month. Unfortunately, I'll have to do it before August 15th, when Phish is moving to Pheonix Arizona to manage a shop there (in case anyone lives around there, he comes highly recommended for any surface piercings). For now, though, I'm happy with just the one.

So, so happy.

seriously, get yourself screw on cables.... how ******** awesome would that look?!?!?!

I'm suspecting he means something such that it looks like you have electronic s**t plugged into you.

Me, if I do a nape or a madison, I'm having a hinged D ring installed, for an internal collar. 'Course, I'd wanna get it at, like, 10g for something like that, as it'd be no fun at all if so one could give it a tug.

Three in one sitting is fine, I wouldn't do another one while the first is in healing process tho...

Anyways, if it heals well and the piercer says it's fine go for it, I would wait a good couple of month tho, if that's a possibility.

One of my coworkers said it makes me look like an android, and that the aliens must have implanted it as a tracking device after the abduction. I said if he didn't tell anyone my secret I wouldn't refer him for the aliens' a**l probing program : D