You know that s gonna hurt right .

I don't know why I have always found nape piercings to be so attractive. From the first time I saw one (screwing around on the BME Wiki) I wanted one. For some reason, I considered the placement to be very feminine and sexy, as well as being a less common piercing. A friend I mentioned it to called them "Frankenstein piercing" and said they looked disgusting. She had disapproved of my stretched tongue, too, however, and so I didn't worry too much about her opinion. I did, however, wait a while before actually getting it, hesitant to get a more visible piercing (sure, it's not in-your-face obvious, but I have short hair and it isn't covered by my clothes).

Like many of my piercings, I had thought about it for a long time, but ended up getting it on impulse. I just had one day I woke up and decided to get a new piercing, and my nape was next on my list. I got to the piecing studio around five in the afternoon, and there was a short line of people waiting. I went up to the girl at the desk and told her what I wanted, and, after checking ID and making sure that I wouldn't have to take it out for work, I paid my Y9,450 and sat down to wait.

I was impressed at how through the desk girl was. Other places I've been, they don't go over aftercare until they shove a needle through you, but this girl took the time to make sure I knew it would take six months to heal, and that I was willing to keep up the aftercare for that time.

I didn't have much choice in jewellery, obviously, as nape piercings really do need to be done with surface bars. I did get offered a choice between balls and discs on the end of the bar, though, and opted for discs.

Earlier in the day, I mentioned I was getting my nape pierced, and my (completely unmodded) friend had replied "You know that's gonna hurt, right?". She wouldn't know from experience, but for whatever reason her statement made me freak out in anticipation of the pain. I'd never been nervous about how much it would hurt before and waiting for the piercer, I started to think my nervousness was a sign this wasn't going to go well and I should leave.

When the piecer called me back and had me stand facing a wall so he could mark the placement on my neck. That seemed to take forever – so long I was worried that he was just going to stick a needle in my neck without warning. Surely marking couldn't take this long. I was freaking out.

This was not, by far, my first piercing. By the time I had gotten around to my dream nape piercing, I had already had around twenty holes in me. And I was normally pretty calm, but this time I seriously just wanted to run out of the shop, and if I hadn't already paid I think I would have chickened out.

After an eternity, I was still there and he was done marking out the placement. I sat down while he bent the bar slightly to fit my neck, which, like the marking, seemed to take forever. Then, finally, he told me to bend forward and rest my head on my hands, after which he slid the needle through.

Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill! It hurt less than any of my piercings yet (or maybe I just thought so, because I was expecting so much worse). I felt the slightest pinch as he slid the jewellery in and it was over.

There was no pain until the next day, whereupon it felt like I'd been punched in the neck, hard. I'm not entirely sure how much of this was due to the piercing, and how much to the difficulty I had sleeping - I didn't want to lie on my neck and put pressure on my nape, couldn't sleep on my stomach because of a healing navel piercing, I don't like sleeping on my side and I'm a pretty restless sleeper, so spent half the night tossing and turning trying to find a position that was comfortable. Either way, my neck felt bruised as anything.

It was worth it, though. My nape has to be the only piercing I've had no negative comments about, though most people have never seen it before. Sometimes people mistake it for microdermals and others thought I'd just stuck nails in my neck, but they all still like it.

And for me, personally, its been great. I'm not the most attractive girl around, but my nape piercing has somehow made me feel more attractive and sexy than I ever dreamed possible. I love it.

Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed it wont reject. Touch wood.