When I was 16, I pierced my own navel. All it took was a deep breath, some hydrogen peroxide, a thick sewing needle, and an ice cube. While doing your own body piercings yourself may seem like a cheap thrill, there are a lot of reasons why body piercings should be left to the professionals.
Most teenagers or young adults at some point or another think it’s a brilliant idea to pierce their own ears, eyebrows, lip, or navel, but I tell ya, it’s no joy ride. It took me over a half hour to pierce my own navel, a lot of teeth gritting, and listening to my skin popping as it sucked the needle in through the other side. To this day, I still cringe thinking about how gross the whole process was. That’s my first reason for not doing your own body piercings- the experience may just plain freak you out for years in remembrance.
Did my piercing get infected? Hell yes, it did, and it didn’t take long. The next morning my navel was so swollen and infected it looked like someone had shoved a grape under my skin. The jewel I had lovingly placed in my navel after all my hard work was jutting out like a pregnant lady’s belly button, and I had to take it out. Immediate green oozing, that cheesy pus smell, and bloody discharge ensued, trickling out of the piercing like my navel was crying. That’s another reason not to do your own piercings- no matter how careful you are (I had soaked my needle in hydrogen peroxide and cleaned the pierced area thoroughly) you are not piercing yourself in a stable environment or using gloves, or even using the proper cleaning materials, and you are bound to get an infection.
Did I mention that after all my hard work, my piercing was crooked? Almost sideways, to be honest. Even if my pierced skin hadn’t gotten infected, I would have had to have redone my piercing since even though I had marked the entry and exit spots with a Sharpie, the needle still went in crooked and gave me ridiculous results. All that pain, effort, stupidity, and infection for a crooked piercing. Professionals use tools to make sure that piercings are even and precise, so this situation can be avoided.
Think about this, too- if you really wanted a piercing, you would have been willing to pay for it to get it done. I didn’t want my navel pierced at all until my best friend at the time showed me hers and told me how she did it. She also showed off her severely infected eyebrow piercings (3 above one eye- one of them so bright red around it I thought she had ink on her eyelid) that she had done herself. I figured, what the hell, and did mine myself, only to take it out less than 12 hours later. Oh, and did I mention that when you take out the piercing, you’ll be left with a scar for life? Sure, I only have 2 tiny white dots where I had pierced my navel, but still, every time I feel those scars I just shake my head in annoyance with myself.
I actually did end up piercing my navel again as soon as the wound healed, and I did it myself. The second go-round I got the piercing right and it didn’t get infected, and the results were actually surprisingly impressive. However, I got bored with a navel ring in about 3 days, took the jewel out, and have never even thought of piercing my own body again. I got lucky the second time around, but looking back now, it’s much safer and less painful just to pay a professional to give you a great body piercing. Doing it yourself is just plain not worth it.
