Piercings should be done for the right reasons and not just done on a whim

Ever since I was a little kid, I always knew that I wanted to get piercings and tattoos. I always wanted them not because is was the cool thing to do or anything like that. I personally believe that if anybody gets body piercings or tattoos because that's the cool thing to do now a days is really dumb. I always knew that I was going to get them because I've always loved them. I loved everything about tattoos and body piercings. I'll never forget the first time I ever saw someone that had a piercing. I was ten years old and my brothers friend came over and she had a tongue ring. Ok, now I get the fact that everyone now a days has a tongue ring. But this was twelve years back and it was the craziest thing I had ever seen and I instantly knew that I wanted piercings of my own one day.

Skipping to when I turned nineteen (August of 2005), I felt like it was finally time to get a piercing of my own. I didn't exactly know what I wanted to get but I knew that I wanted something that not many people had ever really seen before. I definitely knew that I didn't want a common piercing, such as a tongue ring or a labret (something you see everywhere now a days). I'm not trying to offend anyone when I say that but I just knew that common piercings were not for me. So I started to go to all the tattoo and piercing shops in my area and get a feel for the shops and talk to the piercers. I didn't want to just go to the first tattoo shop I found and go in and get pierced. As weird as it may sound, I wanted everything to be just right. I wanted to be in a shop that I felt like I could go back to again and again for whatever I wanted done. When it came to the piercer, I wanted it to be someone I actually liked and could relate to a little bit.

After checking about two dozen different shops I finally found one that I really liked. The shop was called Sacred Arts Studio and the piercers name was Charlie. Now like I said, I didn't know exactly what I wanted. So Charlie and I sat down and started coming up with ideas. After a little while, we came up with one that I really liked. I was going to get a total of five piercings all at once. There was going to be two over each eyebrow to create a curvature and one between my eyes. So when you looked at it, the piercings basically outline my eyebrows. Charlie began to gather everything he needed and the first thing he did was grab a marker and put dots above my eyebrows to mark where the piercings were going to be. Once he finished marking them all, he told me to go and look at them in the mirror to see what I thought. Once I started to look at them, I felt that a couple were off and I wanted them to be perfect. So he wiped off the dots and tried again, this went on for
about an hour. Finally I looked at the placing of the dots and was happy with them. So I laid down on the table and Charlie grabbed his needle. Now at this time I'm absolutely freaking out on the inside but on the outside I looked as calm as could be. I mean come on, I'm six foot five and three hundred pounds. I wasn't about to show how nervous is was on the inside.

Charlie was the kind of guy that liked to do everything free hand style, he never really used clamps (except for one simple piercings). So he grabbed his piercing needle with one hand and proceeded to stretch the skin on my forehead with his other hand. Now unfortunately, surface piercings are not the easiest thing to pierce and you generally can't just pierce it real quick and be done with it. Like you can with a nipple piercing or something along that nature. Once he pierced into my skin he stopped to see where the needle was at and then pushed it in a little more and then stopped again. He did this until he hit the marker that he placed on my forehead to show where the piercing was suppose to be. Just like me, he wanted everything to be perfect as well. Now to me, this showed just how much he loved what he does and how much pride he takes in his work. I will never forget the feeling after he finish that first piercing. My skin was on fire and my blood was pumping so fast,
it was incredible. Now of coarse, yes it hurt but you need to look past the pain and feel the purity of what your doing. There is no other feeling like it in the world. After the first piercing, the other four seemed to happen really fast. They were done exactly the same as the first one but my mind made it seem like everything happened really quickly.

A couple weeks later, I was looking into the mirror and felt like I was missing something. After looking into the mirror for a while I realized what was missing. I wanted to complete the line. When I say the line I mean the one that starts at the top of your forehead and runs between your eyes, goes past your nose and lips and finishes at your chin. I already have a piercing between my eyes that runs along this line and now I decided that I wanted to complete the line by getting my chin pierced. When I say my chin, that's exactly what I mean. A lot of people get confused and think I'm talking about a labret. Believe me, I'm not and those are two very different piercings. So the next day, I went into the shop and started to talk to Charlie about it. Everyone in the shop that I was crazy for wanting to get my chin pierced. Except for Charlie, he got really excited about it. It was something he had never done before and was looking forward to doing it. He told me that he want
ed me to give him a couple of days though. Because he wanted to do a little research and talk to some doctors just to find out if it was even safe to pierce something like your chin. Charlie didn't want to take the risk of potentially hitting a nerve or something. But once he talked to everyone he could, he got the green light from the doctors and gave me a call.

The next day, I went into the shop and Charlie and I went straight into his room and he started to gather everything he needed. Once again, starting off he marked the placement of the piercing by marking dots on my chin. Once everything was good, I gave him the go. He grabbed his needle and started to pierce me. Now this time around, he was piercing through about an inch of flesh. So yeah, it hurt a little bit more then the ones above my eyebrows and it took a little bit longer then them as well. When he finished , once again my skin was on fire and my blood was pumping really fast. Just like my very first piercing, I felt that same feeling but this time it was just a little bit different. I can't even begin to attempt to explain it. Once he said he was done and it was ok to get up. I got off the table and went straight to the mirror and took a look. It was absolutely perfect, all six of my piercings were everything that I had always wanted. Once again, this may sound a litt
le bit strange but once I had my piercings I truly felt complete.

They are truly something that I love having and I love all the different comments and reactions that I get on a daily basis about them. I get everything from complete disgust and hearing "how could you do that to your self ?" All the way to complete excitement and hearing "that is the coolest thing I have ever seen!" and everything in-between. I love everyday that I have them and have never regretted a single minute of it.