We all make stupid and impulsive decisions, it’s part of the college experience. We transition from being on a short leash to having endless amounts of freedom to choose what we want. Sometimes those decisions aren’t always the best choices. Like choosing to not go to class or to party instead of studying or to splurge on unnecessary things. Even though you have all of this new found freedom it does not mean that you need to take advantage of it and make stupid impulsive decisions like I did.
Although my choice was not 100% impulsive it led to some serious health concerns and was a total eye-opener for me. I had been thinking of piercing my belly button for about two years. I was a little unsure about going through with it because I am the biggest baby you will ever meet. I pass out from shots, I can not stand blood, and can not even watch gory scenes in movies or tv shows. But ya, know I thought I could handle getting a needle stabbed through my belly button.
Well sure enough when a local tattoo shop offered $20 tattoos and piercings on Friday the 13th, how could I pass that up? That was an amazing deal! Belly button piercings start usually around $60 and as a broke college student, I knew I was not about to pay $60 for a stupid little piece of metal to be stabbed in my stomach. But $20 seemed a little harmless.
My friend was going to the tattoo shop and I thought I would tag along while I contemplated if I wanted to get anything. I ruled out getting a tattoo right away because I was not ready to make that sort of commitment and decided if I ever did get a tattoo I did not want it to be a little cookie cutter one. So I then started asking people that were there about belly button piercings. I told them I had been thinking about doing it for a while but was such a big wimp I didn’t think I could handle the pain. After asking about 5 or 6 people and getting the same answer that it doesn’t hurt I decided, why not?
My friend went before me and got her nose pierced. She said it hurt but it wasn’t anything too bad and that mine would be a breeze compared to hers. I laid down in the chair and prepared myself for what was to come. I took some deep breaths because I was really nervous and didn’t want to be that chick that passed out at the tattoo shop or cried in front of everyone. Luckily they had some Cardi B playing and I sang along in my head. They finally stabbed the needle through my belly button and boy was I a fool to believe people when they said it didn’t hurt! Although, the pain is not the same as getting a shot it still hurts! Do not be fooled like I was! The actual piercing part is not what hurt the most, in my experience, it was the soreness after the piercing because my body was trying to adjust to this new thing that was in it.
After I got the piercing the tattoo place sent me and my friend on our way. I was ecstatic because I had done this really big thing and was excited to share the news with my friends and family. Everyone was a little shocked because I do not usually do anything like that and they know how big of a baby I am. After the high of getting this new piercing faded away, I realized I had no idea how to take care of this thing. So I did what any normal person does and ran to Google to give me answers on what to do. Google told me that I needed to use a salt water solution to keep it clean and to prevent it from getting infected.
I started cleaning my piercing with this mixture of salt and warm water like the internet had told me to do for about two weeks. After about two weeks I realized that my piercing was still painful to the point where it hurt to move or bend and was now starting to ooze and be crusty. At this point in time, my piercing should have been starting to heal itself not become disgusting. Then it finally dawned on me that my piercing had become infected and that the instructions from the internet might be the reason why it wasn’t getting any better.
So I started to do a little more research about products that I could buy that would help take care of the infection and help keep my piercing clean. After digging around and reading review after review I found H2Ocean Piercing After Care Spray. The reviews seemed promising and I decided to give it a try and I was not disappointed! After only a few days of having this stuff it helped clean up my infected piercing and now it is actually healing! My piercing doesn’t hurt every time I move and I don’t have to worry about nasty liquid oozing out of it.
Looking back on this whole experience I wish I would have spent more time thinking about what I was about to embark on. I would have saved myself a whole lot of pain and avoided an infection if I would have done a little more research about what I had just got myself into. Although, my decision was a little impulsive and things like that are bound to happen. It is better to be educated about what you are getting yourself into than to pay the consequences like I did.