So You Want Your Navel Pierced?

I love tattoos and I love belly rings. There`s just something about navel jewelry that I think is so cute. I mean, if you have a navel that can house an adornment, why not right? I thought about a tattoo for about ten years before I got one. I wanted to make sure that it wasn`t a passing fancy before I permanently, and expensively, marked up my body. I ended up with a beautiful fairy on my left calf to symbolize my light spirit. I don`t know why, I just have always been attracted to them. I find them mystical and spiritual. Well my navel piercing wasn`t thought out for ten years, but it wasn`t a passing fancy either. I talked about it for about two years before I actually did it.

My husband was working in Vegas this past July and the kids and I went out there for a few days to see him and also to visit some friends. My family and I had lived there for over twenty five years prior to moving to Reno and I was not affected by "Ohhhhh I`m in Vegas and I must do something crazy", but the city does have alot to offer and one night after hanging out and having dinner with my kids, I decided to check out the tattoo/piercing shop at the Mandalay Bay. The place is clean and professional. I hung out for awhile, looked through some portfolios, and just wanted to get the place`s vibe. After spending about thirty minutes or so I decided to go ahead and do it. I talked to one of the piercers, and looked at the jewelry which she recommended using for a first time piercing. I picked out the one pictured above. I paid for the services ahead of time and filled out some paperwork while Amy, my piercist, made sure she had the jewelry in stock that I wanted. When she returned, I was finished filling out the disclaimers, disclosures, and any other liability release they needed. and we went to the back room. She cleaned the area with a betadine solution, took a pen, and put two dots where the holes would go. She showed them to me and asked if that was good. I said "Yup", and she asked me to lay down on the table, in which I complied. Amy then took some sort of clamp, I don`t know the medical name for it, and clamped my skin at the dots. This was the worst part of the belly button piercing in my opinion......besides the anticipation while waiting. I didn`t see the rest but the video to the right confirms that she took a hollow needle and inserted it at the underneath part of my belly button and worked it through to the top. Then she took my jewelry and threaded it through the hollow needle, removed the needle, and screwed the a ball onto the top part of the bar part of my jewel. All done! Did that make sense? It sounds a little confusing. See, my jewel has a ball on the top part, that`s what holds it in. To change it, I`ll unscrew the ball/cap pull it out, and put a new piece of decoration in. Did the whole process hurt? Not really. The clamp hurt, small pinch, all done. Compared to the tattoos I`ve had, the pain didn`t come close. Compared to an ear piercing, I guess a navel piercing hurts a little bit more.

I assumed I would clean it with the leftover solution that I had from when my daughter Autumn got her ears done. You know, the big yellow bottle of peroxide that they call "special cleaning solution' in some places that pierce kids ears? If I didn`t have that I figured I`d just use plain old rubbing alcohol. Not according to Amy! She said absolutely no peroxide! I guess it dries out your skin too much and can actually leave you more prone to getting an infection. Well ok then! Saline solution was the chosen remedy. There`s some stuff called "Wound Care" that you can pick up at any drugstore that is recommended by the piercing staff. I have heard that alot of people still use the peroxide, but it`s not highly advised anymore.

My solution came in a spray bottle and I just squirted it over the hole, moved the navel piercing in and out to kind of try and work the solution through, and did the same for the underneath. I did this twice a day; after my shower and before bed. There was a tiny bit of puss sometimes and I would just take a Q-tip, spray it with the saline, and wipe it off the site. Sometimes if I had time, I`d lay on my back and fill my belly button with the solution and just let it sit there for 10 minutes or so. It was a good excuse to do nothing :)

I had to be careful with clothing for awhile. Anything tight around that area did not make for a happy Patty, nor did lying on my stomach. This part is what shocked me most. It`s been seven months and my navel piercing is finally healed. I wasn`t prepared for that part. At first I was discouraged, but after reading more and finding out it`s normal, and admitting that if I had done the research beforehand, I would`ve expected it, so there was really no one to blame but myself! It can actually take up to a whole year for a piercing to completely heal. In the beginning, don`t play with it, don`t over clean it, don`t go in chlorine, don`t put goop on it; just clean it twice a day and leave it alone to let it heal within your body`s time frame. You can change the jewelry after six months or so, or if you`re positive it`s healed, then go ahead and change it. I`m waiting until July, which will be a year, before I change mine. I like my original piece of jewelry, so it`s no biggie to wait.

If your navel piercing gets infected, don`t take it out! Doing so will cause the holes to close and trap any infection inside your body. Just keep calm, keep cleaning the area as you should be doing (twice a day), and wait it out. If it seems really bad, go to a qualified piercist and have them take a look at it. They may tell you to go see your doctor, or they may have another idea for you to try. Not sure if it`s infected? Persistant redness, swelling, puss, and alot of pain can all be signs of something not being quite right. Salt water soaks are one of the things that are recommended. Fill your tub with warm water and Epsom salt and take a nice, relaxing bath, letting the water soothe the navel area. You can also take some of your salt solution and put it in a small cup and hold the cup on your belly button for awhile. I`ve read that some people will put Neosporin on it but I`ve read other sites that say not to. If it were me, I`d do the saline treatment and wait and see.

I thought it might be a little interesting to look at other cultures and see why they pierce. For me, it was simply because I like the way it looks.

• The oldest mummified body that has a piercing was that of "Otzi the Iceman", from about 3300 BC, and found in an Austrian glacier.
• Nose piercing has been done in India since the 16th century.
• Tongue piercing was common in the Maya and Aztec civilizations and was done in a blood ritual and meant to be temporary.
• Ancient Mesoamericans wore body jewelry in their ears, noses, lower lips, and still continue to do so.
• In the U.S it became popular in the 1960`s. First with hippies and in the gay communities, and then with the Punk sub-cultures