First dermal anchor

So my friend and I had decided that we were going to get pierced but we had to figure out what we wanted pierced first. I decided to get underneath my navel pierced as a surface piercing and she decided to get her sternum pierced as a surface piercing.

But when we arrived at Wicked Ink in Penrith and met with Joeltron, our piercer, he persuaded us to get dermal anchors instead as there was a better chance of healing as the surface piercings would only have a 20% chance, and also because I loved the look of the star shaped anchors.

It took forever to mark up the right locations on my stomach as my navel and anti navel piercings are slightly off centre so when the markings were looked at from afar they looked crooked, as well as the fact that Joeltron was really anal about getting the markings exactly where they should be and not one millimeter off.

We finally figured out where they were going to sit, 4cm apart from each other and 3cm below my navel, it seriously took us about half an hour to get the markings perfect, but it was worth it.

After going out to get something sugary to drink (apple juice) and having some cigarettes to calm my nerves my friend and I headed back for the trickier part.

As we walked back in Joeltron told us to go into the room and that there was a couple in there that wanted to check out our markings. The man in there had just had a dermal anchor re pierced just below his cheek bone and was bleeding profusely. He and his girlfriend gave us graphic details of how they perform the implant and by that point I was even more nervous which I didn't think was possible.

By the time I was laying on the bed with my dress up and paper towel tucked into my underwear I was just about shaking.

Joeltron pinched the skin where the marking was and told me to close my eyes and take a big breath in. As I let the breath out I felt the needle go in. That first part wasn't too painful; I just tried to keep breathing.

When the anchor was being placed in is where the real pain began. At first it just felt like that annoying feeling where someone's pulling at your stomach hairs but then as the legs of the anchor were being pushed in, the pressure and pain was intense. I thought I was going to faint so Joeltron stopped fiddling and gave me some sugary chewy things and some water and when I finally stopped getting scared of him touching it, he put some pressure on it to make sure it was sitting down right and then sprayed it with saline and it was on to the next one.

I was scared out of my mind to get the next anchor because now I knew what it would feel like so I had decided that I wasn't getting the second anchor put in because I was fretting about the pain of the second part again. My friend finally calmed me down and convinced me to get it done now while my endorphins were kicking in so I told Joeltron to do it.

During the first part of the task I wasn't as calm as I had been the first time and as the needle went down my stomach tensed up and as the needle came back out there was a chunk of flesh from inside my stomach stuck to it.

It was pretty gross but Joeltron put it in a little bag and told me I could keep it.

After putting a clear bandage on top of it I got up and looked at my two cute little star anchors and decided that the pain was worth it.

Once my friend had gotten the dermal anchor in her sternum, Joeltron gave us some advice and aftercare tips, like to change the bandage stuff at day and night for a week and the next week just at night and to spray it with the saline solution.

After the big endorphin hit for my friend and I, we went out to pay for our 3 new anchors and for 2 containers of saline spray that ended up being $224 which we thought was a pretty good price.

I can tell you, it hurt like a bitch getting the jewelery into the pocket, but the rest was fine and I am definitely thinking about getting some more.

There was no real pain after the piercings were in, all that hurt was trying to pull the sticky bandage off them as they felt like they were pulling up but I can stand and walk without even noticing them. I would seriously recommend to anyone to get the dermal anchors because they are easier and it is a completely different sensation to getting a piercing.

And now I have 2 pretty star shaped anchors in my belly and I'm in love with them :)