At A Glance
Author	suzyml
Contact	[email protected]
When	It just happened
Location	Poughkeepsie

This may seem like a piercing experience, but the story is meant as advice for people getting any mod done, so enjoy.....

I had researched the vertical hood piercing fully and decided that it would be perfect for me. My boyfriend was going abroad for a semester, and, knowing that I would miss him terribly, I wanted to do something while he was gone that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. A genital piercing was one of those things. It needed time to heal without being touched, and the healing process itself would reassure me that I could come out of painful situations feeling better than I did before. The vertical hood was my favorite genital piercing, so I decided this was the way to go.

I made an appointment with a studio I had discovered online. They had won awards with their tattoo art, and it seemed like a knowledgeable establishment. There aren't many piercing places where I live, so I figured it would be fine.

Well, the day of the appointment came, and everything started to go wrong.

My cab was late and I ended up arriving at the tattoo studio about 20 minutes late for my appointment. The outside of the shop looked kind of shady; the door was made out of faded Plexiglas, so that you couldn't see inside the shop from the outside. Maybe this is not indicative of a bad place, but it made me a little uneasy. When I went in the lobby, there was not much body jewelry on display, and it didn't look as shiny and new as most places I had been to. Again, maybe not having much jewelry isn't a sure sign of a bad studio, but it made me a little more uneasy.

The man there was one of the tattoo artists, and he seemed nice. He gave me the paperwork and copied my license, then showed me into the piercing room. This was just one large room, with a few chairs in it. Clearly, more of a tattoo room than a piercing room. But I put aside my fears and undressed. I sat laid back on the chair and watched as he put on a pair of gloves without washing his hands first. If my knowledge of bacteria serves me correctly, this means that the gloves were already contaminated by the time he finished putting them on. He started poking around down there, but he wasn't explaining anything to me. I had to ask what he was doing, and what kind of jewelry he was going to use. I wasn't given any choice about the type of jewelry or the gauge, which I thought was very odd. He showed me the CBR he was going to use, after I asked. It was in a package, but I would not have even known what he was using had I not asked. He didn't mention anything about how the equi pment was sterilized either; I had to ask about that as well. I felt something in the pit of my stomach, and I realized that I was really scared to get this piercing. I am usually nervous, but in an excited and happy way, not a frightened way. Something was not right.

Rule #1: A good piercer will always tell you these important things without you having to ask, and they will discuss with you any questions you have *before* getting started. They should also tell you what they are going to do *before* they do it, especially when they are dealing with your genitals.

As I was wondering what I should do, he prodded with the receiving tube and said that my hood was too small to pierce vertically. I was incredibly disappointed, since I really had my heart set on the vertical placement. He said a horizontal would work, but I was still thinking that I hadn't seen him take the receiving tube out of a package before he used it. He suggested that I get my nipples done, and I was considering getting something else pierced, since I had already spent the money on a cab to get there. But that feeling in my stomach was still there, and I wasn't sure.

I finally said, "Well, what about a triangle?"

He said "A what?"

I was sort of stunned by his reply. Clearly he had never taken a look at BME, and I thought that a triangle was a relatively basic female piercing. I tried to explain to him what it was, and he said "oh, I could do that. but it will hold your inner labias closed, and you'll have to take it out when you have sex." I gave up on this idea because he really didn't know anything about this piercing. I know that people with triangles can have sex without taking them out, and I am not claiming to be a professional piercer. I am just a fan and possessor of mods and a reader of BME. It didn't seem right that I should know more about this piercing than the piercer himself, and it made me wonder how much he didn't know about other piercings as well. I thought, maybe I should get a second opinion about my hood from a piercer I actually trust....

Rule #2: If you suddenly realize that the artist has no idea what s/he is talking about, do not get the mod. The piercer should always be very knowledgeable, and if you see that they are not, in one area or another, maybe you should get the hell out of there.

I got dressed and went back out into the lobby to decide what to do. I looked through the portfolios and found some pictures of piercings. Most of them looked fine.... but there was a picture of a female nipple done through the aureola on both sides, and a picture of a tongue piercing that was decidedly off center, and clearly not meant to be a venom. Why would someone even put those in their portfolio? It didn't make sense to me. I decided to just leave.

Rule #3: Just because a studio is good at tattooing, do not assume that they are also good at piercing. The pictures I saw of the tattoos done there looked great, but it seemed as though these guys had "taken up" piercing because they thought that every tattoo studio had to do piercing too. The results of this were evident from spending some time in the shop. I think that this is the case with many tattoo studios nowadays, and often it is the piercing work that suffers, with tattoo artists thinking that they are qualified to pierce as soon as they open a studio. They are not the same thing, and cannot be treated as such.

I was really pissed off and disappointed at the whole experience, having my idealized fantasy of a perfect vertical hood shot down so completely. I had wasted ten bucks on cab rides, but in the end, I figured that it was better than wasting $50 or $60 on a bad piercing. Was I annoyed? Absolutely. But if I had gone through with a piercing there, would I have given ten bucks to reverse a messed up hood, or to give back the Hepatitis I got from unclean equipment? You bet. I ended up putting the money I would have spent into an envelope labeled "My Future", starting a fund for some tattoos that I am planning. I will be much happier with a well planned tattoo that has sentimental meaning for me, than with a piercing that was done on the spur of the moment, and perhaps not even done well. Saving the same money that I would have used on the hood will also make the tattoo special, since it will end up symbolizing the same motives that made me want the piercing in the first place. Ma ybe instead of getting a mod to symbolize my boyfriend's absence, I will get one to celebrate his return.

Rule #4: Just because you walk into a studio with the intention of getting pierced, doesn't mean that you have to go through with it, and doesn't mean that this is the best course of action. Those feelings that you get in your stomach -- they are completely valid feelings. Even if you are nervous, don't ignore the feelings that shouldn't be there. Even through your nervousness and excitement, you should still feel secure and safe, never uncomfortable or uneasy. Trust your gut; it is usually right.

I have a few other piercings and tattoos, and I plan on going back to those artists for more work, since I know them and trust them to do their jobs well.

I am writing this because I know it is disappointing to walk out of a shop unmodded after all your planning, but sometimes it is the right thing to do, and the safest thing as well.