Hey I have balls In my neck

In early 2006 I got a job at a popular retail chain, who has a strict tattoo and piercing policy. Essentially, it's NO. However, I only had three in each ear, all lower ear. Simple wal-mart brand home gun process on three, sewing needle, regular earrings, and lots of rubbing alcohol on the other three. Yes, I know that these were all bad ideas, but fortunately I've never had a problem with any of them. Luck is on my side.

I've wandered a bit, my apologies. I was not happy with the idea of stopping at my ears, so I discussed it with my store manager, and his answer boiled down, was if he can't see them, he has no reason to know they exist. I immediately came zooming home and onto BME to look for a non-visible piercing. I looked around for several days, toying with many lovely ideas, running them all by my then-fiancй, now husband. He generally was disturbed by the whole idea of getting something other than the standard tongue, nose, belly-button lineup that nearly everyone else had. I obviously couldn't do either a nose or tongue and keep my job, so the only option of those three was my belly button. Well, as it so happens, I am 30 pounds overweight, probably more, and I don't show people my belly button, so that was out. I didn't want something I wouldn't be able to enjoy. At long last I settled on a nape piercing, but far enough down that I could wear a collared shirt and still not break dress code. I ran it by a few people, and got a general "ick, ew, you're weird." That pretty much made up my mind I had to have it. Now I had to settle it with my piercer, as I would not let anyone else touch my body, especially as it would be my first professional piercing, as well as my first major one.

My relationship with my piercer deserves its own paragraph by itself. You may be wondering how I can call him "my" piercer, while I'm telling you this is my only one. I have known Tim my entire life, he's known my mother for nearly 20 years. I have never lived with my mother, so it didn't become a close relationship until after she left the state two years ago. I have not seen her since, but am in occasional contact with her. Tim has done my mother's numerous tattoos and piercing. She has her ears, seven in each, her nose, her tongue, her bellybutton, and her nipples (really didn't want to know that, but things happen). As far as her tattoos, I believe she has a shooting star over her left breast, a unicorn on her left leg, and a rose and vine anklet on her right leg. I think her rose one was to cover up one she had problems with. She drew and designed all her work herself, sadly her artistic talent did not pass to me. Neither of my grandparents, who I've lived with my whole life, have any mods. My grandmother even allowed her ear piercings to grow shut twenty years ago. My Aunt, who is also my Godmother, has two tattoos, one of a tiger on her upper arm, and the other of a cross with her three children's initials on it on her forearm. She also has her ears twice, and her tongue pierced. Tim has done all of these, and has always done an excellent job, Needless to say, he comes very highly recommended. He even has pictures of me playing games with his son when I am only around two years old. In the last year or so, I began taking my friends to his shop to get various things done. Mitchell has one other shop, and it isn't a reputable place whatsoever, dirty and drug ridden and so forth. However, they have a great location, and therefore more clients. There has always been a longstanding rift between the clientele of both shops.

I talked over the nape idea with Tim, and he said although he had not done one before, we would study it and do it anyway. Lots of research later, we decided on a date, January third, which I awaited with much anticipation. I bragged a lot about it for two reasons, one, I knew it would get around to the downtown shop and they'd know we were one step ahead of them, and two, I figured the more people who knew about it, the more mental pressure I'd have upon myself not to back out of something I knew I really wanted.

Finally the date arrived, and I worked my scheduled 10am-7pm shift, counting down the hours until my 9:15pm appointment. After work, I went home, took a quick shower and got dressed in my best corset, seeing as how I'd need all my neck space unclothed. I also had my hair cut rather short recently, so I wouldn't need to worry about keeping it up out of the way (yes I sacrificed my super slow growing hair for this). My awesomely cool friend Kali arrived at around 8:15, and we went and ate Chinese, since I knew better than to try and get pierced on an empty stomach. From there we stopped back at my apartment to get a good luck kiss from my husband (well, I did anyway) and my camera, and off we went. My husband elected not to go with us, as one, he had work the next morning at six, and two, he's a little weirded out by the whole idea. The most he's ever done is ear, and ear cartilage, both gunned at Wal-Mart. He's also let both grow shut by now.

And now onto the good part!

We arrived at Tim's, and went straight to the studio. His studio is in his house, but it's clean, and he doesn't allow smoking or anything to compromise that. I sat down in The Chair, and he started cleaning and marking and discussing and all that. It seemed to last forever, while I really wanted to get on with it. At last he was done, and he clamped it and told me to start deep breaths. I grabbed Kali's hand and let my other rest palm upward, a little like meditation. Tim let me know he was going to go ahead and do it, and I felt kind of a sharp sting and sort of blanked for a second. When I focused again, I told him okay, that was fine, but I bet the jewelry hurts like flaming hell. He asked if I was good to go, and I said absolutely. He put the jewelry in, and I actually didn't notice until he was done. One point Tim, Zero Points Jocinda. I got up, no dizziness or anything, and grabbed the mirror. I checked it out a bit and pronounced it a sweet neck. I asked Kali if her hand hurt, and she said I hadn't even squeezed it, more just casually held it the whole time. Tim, Kali and I could not stop grinning this entire time. Myself, because I had the piercing I wanted so bad, Tim, because we had succeeded, and Kali, because her friend is crazy mad out of her mind and she got to witness the whole thing. We talked aftercare, took a ton of pictures, and discussed me coming in often so he could document the healing process, it being his first nape piercing.

As far as now, 2 and a half hours post piercing, my neck feels normal. I can move it all sorts of ways, turn my head like normal, and touch it. I'm trying to touch it as little as possible, and always wash my hands first, but after all, it fascinates me too much. I can feel the bar in the center, and it makes me so proud I went through with it. Never once through the whole procedure did I even think about turning back. I can also move the bar back and forth a bit with only a minor twinge, but I've only done this a few times, as I don't want to irritate it. I'm using regular antibacterial soap twice a day, long rinses, and bactracin for the first four days. Then I'm using Expression spray three times a day in addition to the rest. I'll be stopping at Tim's twice a week the first month, and then once a week for awhile longer, so that he can monitor it. It's basically going to be a beautiful learning experience for all involved. Tomorrow night I'm going into the shop downtown and asking how much they would charge for the same thing, just out of curiosity. Tim did mine for free, but I'm taking him lots of cookies and probably some homemade chocolate covered cherries and angel food cake. Kali will also be getting some for accompanying me, even though she said I was extremely blasй about the whole thing, wicked casual and the like.

As a side note, my cat hates it. He jumped up on my chair when I sat down, and hissed at it. I have no idea whatsoever why.

Thanks for reading my story, and I'll post updates as time goes on.