by Melissa Smith | Arts & Entertainment editor
Senior Molly Brodhacker rubs knotty scars on her hips where her long gone hip piercings once took place.
“[My scars] look like little spiders,” she laughs, then explains the story behind them, “It was kind of like spur of the moment decision. It was my friend’s 18th birthday, and she was getting her ears pierced and I had already had my ears pierced, so the girl just said ‘Why don’t you get your hips pierced?’. So, I did it. There was pretty much no reason [why I got them]. I didn’t even think about it until the lady offered it. There was no thought put into it.”
Brodhacker became victim to split second reasoning, and with that resulted regret.
“Instead of a piercing where it goes through, it’s basically like a punch out of your skin and once they punch out the tube they get a hook, like a piece of jewely and just like hook it in, and then it’s really sore for like two weeks,” Brodhacker said, “It got hard to do sit ups, and it hurt to even to sleep on them, and they caught on everything, like my jeans, it was so annoying.”
Brodhacker only had the piercings for seven months, which was definitely not worth to pain she had to endure while getting them ripped out.
” [I had to get them out] because I had to get an MRI on my stomach, and since they were magnetic they would have been ripped out of my skin. So I just opted to get them ripped out by the doctor. Getting them out was probably the worst pain ever, because all they do is rip them out of your skin. They just grab it with plyers and then rip it out, which hurt so bad,” Brodhacker said.
The reason it hurt so bad because this was not a typical piercing, and she wasn’t aware of at the time.
“When they ripped them out, you see that little hole right there [in the jewelry], the muscle had grown through it. That’s how it stays anchored in your skin. The muscle grows through it. They ripped it out then they had to cut it,” Bordhacker said, then proceeds while displaying her hip jewelry,” That’s why it’s called an anchor, it grabs on to your skin.”
Brodhacker claims she was unaware what she was getting into.
“I didn’t know they were like this, I honestly thought it was just like a normal. I never understood the fact that your skin will anchor into your body.”
Senior Brandon Revelles put much more cerebration than Brodhacker into getting his septum pierced.
“I knew if I would have problems getting jobs and stuff, I could just do this,” Revelles flips up his ring into his nostrils, “and they would never notice, and it didn’t hurt either. I can get rid of it easily if I want to, too.”
Also, if got done at a professionaly place, unlike what Brodhacker did, it creates room for safer decisioning.
“There’s not really like unsafe piercings, our piercer will only pierce certain areas of the skin that will actually take a piercing, you know. So there’s a whole list and variety of different areas of the the ear, and other areas a piercer wont do it, ” Johnny Fitswell, a tattoo artist and previous piercer at nearby Tattoo Nation, informs, “[There’s a list for] around the body that you can get pierced. So you have a list you can choose from and that’s it.”
There are less health risks being taken when seeing a professional piercer, other than a friend who just sticks needle through another’s body.
“For the most part, it’s really up to the piercer and what he feels and all piercers have to go through an apprentiship like a tattoo artist. We have to take classes on the whole cross contamination thing, we have to take classes on the blood born pathogens, we all have to be up to par with the health code standards. So everybody knows, like I’ve pierced before , but now I’m just a tattoo artist. Like I have pierced in the past. But there’s a pericer here who is dedicated just to piercing, so he knows pretty much exactly what he’s doing,” Fitswell explicated.
Brodhacker advises to put a lot of consideration in getting a piercing done, because if done correctly, they can be stylish and painless, but if not, it can lead to disaster.
“If it’s your birthday, and you want to go out and get something done, think about it because [if you don’t], you’ll end up with the worst decision ever, and it will kill you because it hurts so bad. Think about the removal because even though piercings are temporary, they suck taking them out,” Brodhacker exclaimed, “Really research what you’re going to get done before you do it, and think about how long you’re going to want to have it, and where and who you’re getting it done.”
