From Carly Wickell,
Your Guide to Jewelry / Accessories.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

I'd been considering a belly button piercing for quite awhile. I couldn't decide whether to do it or not, so I put it off for over a year. But all of the fantastic belly rings in the stores kept creeping back into my mind.

A road trip to Daytona Beach was the perfect time to just do it. When you're at the beach you need a decorated belly, right?

Here's how it went.

Daytona Beach
The first morning at Daytona my friend Kaelee and I headed out looking for piercing pros. The person at the first shop was on a perpetual personal phone call. She didn't seem too interested in getting off to help us, so we left. We didn't want to put someone who's easily distracted in charge of slipping a needle through our skin.

At shop number two we met Ricardo, who helped us decide whether we wanted to wear a 14 gauge belly button ring or barbell. We both chose a barbell design, even though he explained that its only partially-curved shape would make it more difficult to rotate and keep the area disinfected. The way he rolled his eyes told us what he thought of our decision--typical girls!

Kaelee Goes First
Ricardo took Kaelee into the piercing room and she sat back on a comfy chair. They wouldn't let me stay because Ricardo knows it's easy for an up-next belly button piercee to get scared when she watches it happen to someone else. I could hear the snap of rubber gloves as Ricardo prepared to do his thing.

They tell me she was pretty cool. And why wouldn't she be, since Ricardo told her he was numbing her stomach so she wouldn't feel any pain. The power of suggestion must work, because he didn't numb a thing.

I could hear them talking. She didn't scream so I assumed it went well.

It's My Turn
I sat back in the chair and started squirming around a little. He didn't tell me he was going to numb my belly button. And Kaelee stayed to watch since she'd already been through it.

My stomach was slathered with antiseptic. It just tickled a little—this should be easy.

I'm tensing up and getting a little nervous. I looked pretty stressed as the needle was going into my skin, but the moment passed quickly. It really wasn't that bad after all. Just a little pinch and it was over.

Afterwards, we each learned more about how to take care of our new piercing. Don't touch the belly button ring all the time, keep the area clean and disinfected, and sea salt is good.

After two or three days of wearing our pants unbuttoned and unzipped at the tops we were back to normal. We called those our "pregnant" days because we couldn't bend over real well and we sat with our rears pushed forward as we leaned back in chairs and in the seats of the car.

We both had a little tenderness for about a week. It's been over two years now. I've been able to accumulate many of the belly button rings that convinced me this was a good idea. Am I glad I was pierced? Definitely.

Here are more and larger photos of our piercing event.

Related Article

How I Stretched My Earlobe Piercings