I chose the piercing before the dress

Ever since grade nine, I dreamt about graduating from my 'hell-hole of a school'. Currently (well, until the 29th of this month aka June), I attend a boarding school in British Columbia, Canada. It is a fairly well-known school, strict, conservative (especially against body modification, I need to hide all of my piercings at school or else they'll tell me to take them out), but still a very good school (classes wise). Well, this year is my final, grade 12 year, I'm finally leaving. On May 19th was my Graduation Dinner and Dance (Prom or whatever other people call it), I'm not officially out yet, but it's a ceremony to state that you will be out soon. In grade nine I decided that for my grad I was going to have my sternum pierced. It would be my jewelry, no fancy dangly earrings, no obnoxious bangles and necklaces, no obnoxious make-up; my sternum would be my 'bling'.

Now came the time to find me a dress to go along with my sternum, to show it off. I walked into some store in Mexico when I was down there during Christmas time, saw this gorgeous fire-truck red (as I call it) dress with a deep plunging neckline, perfect. I tried it on, got a smaller size, and bought it. That was easy.

Flash forward to a few weeks before my grad, I'm standing in my usual piercing shop (Tranceformations in Nanaimo, BC) with my mom, talking to the owner and head piercer, Darren. I'm talking to him about getting my sternum pierced for grad, and only grad. I said, at the time, that the day after grad was over; I would come back in to get the surface bar removed from my chest. He raised his eyebrow, questioning why I'd only want a piercing for two days. The reason: my sports commitments at school are pretty heavy-duty, and I don't want to make my sternum migrate faster than it should because of it getting hit, jostled, and god knows what during sports. My mom thought I was crazy, Darren probably thought I was crazy, but that was my belief at the time. So Darren agrees to let me get it pierced, and I pick out the beads that will go on top of it; very nice white opal dome beads, I also bought a gorgeous 4g opalite plug for my helix, as my hair was going to be partially pulled back to show my ears. We set up an appointment to pierce me the day before my grad at about 3 pm, because I had a hair appointment before then.

May 18th, 2:57 pm, my heart was racing; I had never gotten a surface piercing before. Roland, my usual piercer was going to be doing my sternum that day, and Bronwen, the apprentice would be watching, I was perfectly fine with that. I even brought my dress along and wore it to make sure the placement was perfect. We got out the beads, stuck them in the autoclave and waited for them to be done. The time had come. I walked into the piercing room, full formal gown attire, and Roland told me to stand perfectly still. He prepped my skin, marked me, which took a bit as I kept falling over almost due to my terrible balance, and then showed the marks to me, asking me if it was where I wanted it. It was. I went over to the bench and climbed on top, lying down. I breathed a few times to prepare myself as he took out all the prepackaged sterilized jewelry (14g 9/16ths" long surface bar, I forget the rises size), needle (or what I thought was the needle) and whatever else, as I wasn't exactly looking. I was staring at my boyfriend with a dumb face on. Roland changed his gloves a few times, and then asked me if I were ready, I nodded. Then my heart skipped a beat, in his hand was a dermal punch. I wasn't expecting that, I was just expecting to get pierced via the needle, not punch and taper style. I've had a dermal punch attack my before, my 4g helix was done that way. I freaked out, telling him I wasn't sure if I wanted it done that way, as in my mind it was only for two days and not for more permanent wear. He calmed me down and explained that for him at least punch and tapering it made them sit far better and last a lot longer, and that since I was getting it done at 14g, it would leave about the same scarring as a needle. I decided to believe him and get it done the way he wanted.

Now came the fun part. As I lied on that table, my heart was still racing as he lined up the punch to my skin. My boyfriend watched, mostly in horror as he's apparently really squeamish with this stuff. Roland told me to breathe, and as I did, he started to punch the hole. My god. That was the most uncomfortable thing ever, not nearly as bad as my helix punch, but it felt so gross. My face went from calm to a sort of "OMGWTFBBQ" face. He took the chunk of skin, I presume, out of the hole and set up for the next hole (I can't remember if he used a new punch, but I believe he did). The same thing happened, but the feeling was way worse. I let out a gasp of pain when he was done, as I was apparently holding my breath the entire time and forgot to breathe. He deposited the punch in the sharps container (both of the punches, if he used two, I really can't remember), and changed his gloves, getting the taper ready. The taper just felt gross, sliding under my skin, it reminded me of sliding my finger through the aorta of that pig heart I dissected in Biology class. The taper went through, and the jewelry followed it like a lap dog. He screwed on the bead, as the other one was already attached to the end, and cleaned me up.

I lied on the bench for a while, as I tend to get light headed after piercings, once this was passed, I stood up and looked in the mirror. It looked amazing, perfectly centered, perfectly straight, and the beads flowed with my dress amazingly. Roland was quite proud of his work and asked me if I would let him take a picture for his portfolio, which I agreed to and had a little mini sternum photo shoot right after. Next I got them to put in the opalite plug, I got changed back into my old clothes, phoned my mom, and my boyfriend and I left (We paid when we first came into the shop for everything).

The redness from the piercing left soon after it was done, and has never returned since then, and it's been almost a month since then. Yeah, I decided to keep it, I loved it to much to loose it so soon. My sternum hardly lymphs, it only got swollen once so far, and that was the day I had to return to sports, so I made up some excuse that I hurt my ankle so I wouldn't have to run. I have larger breasts, so the bouncing hurt like mad with my sternum. I'm super glad I got it done, I got SO many compliments on it at my grad, even by teachers and they never said anything to take it out (or my septum, or my visible larger gauge ear piercings) like they normally would.

Hopefully this little guy will stick around for a while longer, as I'd miss him to pieces if he ever left me. There are more pictures on my IAM page, my main picture is from grad night.

Cheers, Carson