Unexpected Piercing Trouble

Having a partner, a best friend, a better half, for 20 years creates some interesting dynamics.  I’m speaking of my wife of course, also known as the Evil Wife Creature.  Those dynamics, of course, include things like suppressing the urge to stab your husband, supporting each other at all times.  My wife has gotten involved in a number of things over the years, and I have supported them all (though at times I have been shocked), because, well, she is my best friend.

One of the things she has gotten into recently is piercings.  Not ear piercings, though there is certainly some of that.  I’m talking about body piercings, body modification, you know poking holes in strange places, piercings that allow you to wear jewelry in non standard places.

To know my wife is to know she isn’t into fads, and she takes things slowly.  Perhaps that is why it has taken her years to decide on what piercings to get.  But once she made the decision to do it, she went for it with gusto, and all or nothing event (like she does most things).

For those who haven’t been keeping up-to-date, she has:

• Standard ear piercings in each ear
• A second piercing above her standard piercing in one ear
• A cartilage piercing in one ear near the top of her ear
• An industrial piercing in the other (which is a double piercing that allows a long bar to be worn
• Tragus piercings in both ears (that’s the little flap in your ear)
• A nose piercing
• An eyebrow piercing
• A tongue piercing

So, does my wife have a thing for pain or something?  Obviously She would say no. Is it vanity?  She would say no, but I’m sure there is a little of that involved.  She likes them, and she likes to show her individuality.  She always has.  That’s just who she is.

She has had a lot of fun with it, as strange as that may sound.  She has also gotten a lot of compliments from people on them and has even gained some regular customers because they asked her about them and she opened up to them.  She has had a lot of the older generation ask her about them, and the ones who haven’t been totally shocked have found them to be interesting.  She has even had an 80+ year old woman who decided to get an industrial piercing after seeing hers.  To me, that was shocking.  Put the woman liked it so much and she said she was the type of person who wanted to experience a few more things before she left this world.  On an interesting side note, my wife told her getting it done didn’t hurt, not until afterwards.  This lady came back and laughed at her and told her she lied about the pain.

She has even had the opportunity to witness to people, believe it or not, because people started talking to her because of her piercings.  Not that I recommend you go out and have holes poked in your face as a witnessing tool, but hey, it has worked for her.

One of the things people always ask is “did that hurt?”  Mostly she says no.  A few of them did, either during, or afterwards during the healing process.  The industrial was the longest problematic piercing, because it took weeks to heal and she likes to sleep on that side and couldn’t while it healed.  One tragus piercing kinda hurt, the other one did.  Her tongue piercing was the one that hurt worse afterwards, but only for a few hours.  She was almost tempted to take it out at that point.

Which brings me to my point.  Some piercings can be a problem at unexpected times.  As many of you know, my wife has a sleeping disorder.  Her body wants to sleep all the time, and she has to take medication to stay awake and functional like a normal human being and normal is something that does not apply to my wife.  She takes Ritalin and Adderall.  Both of these medications are considered speed for the less informed.

As with most medications, they come with side effects.  One of the side effects my wife experiences is chewing on the inside of her mouth.  At times, she chews enough to make the inside of her mouth sore.  One of the reasons she wanted the tongue piercing was a hope that it would make her stop chewing.  That kind of makes sense, since you have this metal bar though your tongue to play with.

However, it is with some amusement, and compassion for her, that it has been discovered that the tongue piercing has not stopped the chewing and has, in fact, made it so that now her tongue is sore and swollen.  It’s not bad enough that she talks funny, but it is an aggravating thing for her to deal with and makes me giggle at odd times feel quite sorry for her.  At the present time, her new best friend is Ambosol, which considering the taste, makes me smirk every time she pulls it out.  She goes everywhere with it, I think, even to the bathroom.  If I wake up in the middle of the night, and look over to her side of the bed, I can see the tube of it staring at me which makes me think she is planning on squirting some of that vile stuff in my mouth while I’m sleeping.

So where am I going with all of this, other than to poke at my wife?  If you are considering a piercing in hopes that it will stop a habit, don’t get your hopes up.  It might just cause an entirely different problem.  Consider long and hard about what piercings you are going to get and why.  Think about it, seriously.  Some piercings, once you remove them, will leave scars.  Some, if they happen to get infected, and be dangerous and cost you a fortune in medical bills.  Some might cause you problems, despite how cool you think they might look.  Consider this one:  If you wear glasses and want your nose bridge pierced, your glasses are going to interfere.  If you want surface piercings on the back of your neck, you better have short hair, or your going to end up getting it caught and might just pull it out, which is going to hurt.  Badly.  If you are prone to getting into spats (like messing up and having your wife have to smack some sense into you like mine does on a regular basis), you might get something ripped out.  Just something to think about.

I will close with some pics of some of the piercings that I am talking about that my wife has.

Cartilage Piercing

Industrial Piercing

Tragus Piercing

Nose Piercing

Eyebrow Piercing