Archive for Body Piercing Interviews
Video Firsthand Look: Belly Button Piercing – Up Close and Personal
Posted by: | CommentsHi guys. It’s Lorna from Body Candy, and this is me, about to get my belly button pierced.
Like with all piercings, the entire area around the piercing has to be cleaned first. As you can see, the belly button can’t be clean enough to make the chances of infection as small as possible. The piercer that I went to prefers to use iodine for this, because the brownish-orange coloring helps him see that everything gets nice and clean.
Next he uses a special marker to center and mark where he’ll make the actual piercing. This is great, because you get to see where your belly ring will go.
Now he’s using a pair of clamps to stand the skin up so that the piercing will be quick and clean.
He checks the skin carefully to be sure it’s just right, grabs the sterilized hollow piercing needle, and here we go!
Deep breath, and…. that didn’t look so bad, right?
Just a second of discomfort, and now I have a brand new navel piercing. Pretty neat, huh?
Now my piercer just lines up the belly ring with the blunt end of the needle, pushes it through, and twists the top ball on to hold it in.
With a few more touch-ups and some instructions on healthy aftercare I’m all set to go with my new navel ring.
After Being Pierced:
Getting the belly piercing only hurt for a second, and the healing time was pretty straight forward. I would definitely recommend this piercing to anyone who’s thinking of getting it. As you can see from the video, cleanliness is very important when deciding where to get your piercing, but there are a few other things that some of our readers and some of my own friends and family were dying to know, so here are the answers to some of those questions about belly piercing:
Did it hurt?
The short answer is no, not really. The piercing itself is so quick, and the most uncomfortable part of the process was actually the clamps that you see my piercer using to hold the skin into place. As with any piercing, there was of course some continued discomfort during the first couple weeks of healing, but all in all, I would definitely do it again and the pain was fairly minimal.
Is it expensive in terms of upkeep?
This is definitely another no. Aftercare for these piercings is very affordable and generally includes a list of inexpensive products like small paper cups, paper towels, q-tips, antibacterial soap, distilled water, sea salt, and H2Ocean Aftercare Spray. Many of these things are cheap to purchase, last a long time, or may already be in your pantry or bathroom cabinet. Even the belly jewelry is extremely affordable.
How long did it take to heal?
This is different for everyone and there are two levels of healing the way I see it: almost healed up (when aftercare regimens can be lightened and there is no discomfort when the piercing is cleaned or moved), and completely healed (when piercing jewelry can start being changed out). For me, my navel was almost healed by around the eight week mark, and completely healed after about five months. Again, this will differ from person to person, so always remember to follow your piercer’s instructions.
Are you glad you did it?
Definitely. I love my belly button piercing. I love the way it looks, how it fits my personality, and how versatile it can be with all the different types of jewelry out there. The possibilities for personalizing a belly piercing are almost endless, and it’s great to be able to change the look of my piercing with my mood.
Here are a few of my favorite pieces of belly jewelry:
For more on belly button piercings and jewelry styles, please check out the Belly Piercings category of the BodyCandy Blog.
Body Piercing Interviews: BodyCandy Hits Infringement Festival
Posted by: | CommentsCheck out these cool video interviews that BodyCandy took while experiencing the art at Infringement Festival, along with the companion article below, written by our own BodyCandy team member, Janna.
The Buffalo Infringement Festival: Wild & Free and Made for “We”
My favorite time of the year for the last seven years has just wrapped up and I’m still reeling from the amazing energy force that is the Buffalo Infringement Festival or BIF (for short). When you can walk down the street and see a play, hear a poetry reading, watch an independent film, watch some people having an impromptu parade, stop and jam with the street buskers and then end up in the park to see a group of fire dancers flipping fire into the air, all in the span of a few hours, you know you’ve landed in the middle of BIF.
The idea of an Infringement Festival was conceived in 2001 by a theater group in Montreal who perform a show called Car Stories. They were performing in the Montreal Fringe Festival when some of their material (controversial–politically and socially) was deemed “unworthy” by the corporate sponsors of the Fringe festival. The Car Stories show was kicked out of the festival, despite paying their exorbitant entry fees. The Car Stories group, including the illustrious Jason McLean, decided that they were not going to let corporate disapproval stop them from performing their street theater and they came up with the idea of an Infringement Festival, to provide an outlet for all the other “subversive” arts groups who didn’t fit into the corporate mold and in 2004, the first official Infringement Festival was born. They had several conditions in the Infringement Festival mandate to keep it true to its roots. These conditions were that it would always be free for all artists to sign up, that everyone who signs up will be accepted, that the fest would be organized by a non-hierarchical collective group (no one person in charge), that it would encourage art that challenged the social normatives, that artists would keep all the proceeds from all of their performances and, most importantly, that no corporate sponsors would be allowed to dictate show content, ever.
During the first Infringement, a theater enthusiast from Buffalo, named Kurt Schneiderman, happened to be in Montreal performing in the aforementioned Fringe Festival when he came across the group of Infringers and immediately knew that this was an idea that HAD to be implemented in Buffalo, NY. So directly upon returning home, Schneiderman began work on what would (one year later) become the first ever Buffalo Infringement Festival. The first year (2005) had 44 different acts performing 144 performances in 11 different venues throughout Buffalo’s historic Allentown district, all on a fundraised budget of $49! I was so fortunate to be a part of the inception as a lowly poet girl speaking my soul out in a parking lot for 11 straight days. The experience changed my life forever.
After the first year, the spark of BIF flew through the arts community of Buffalo and by the second year, the number of acts and venues had doubled, I’d become a much bigger part of the organizing process and we started having real fundraisers to make the fest happen, raising the money one dollar at a time from the same people who attend the festival events. Each year, BIF has grown exponentially, expanding not just in size, but dimension—be that the number of venues or the content of the art. BIF has redefined the meaning of art for a lot of people.
This year’s festival was the biggest yet with 1,200 separate performances in 50 venues across the traditional 11 days. These included 190 musical acts, 24 film and video productions, 20 dance troupes or individual dancers, 53 visual artists putting their work on display, 35 separate theater productions and 27 poetry and spoken word performers. This year, Infringement was hard to ignore as it took over the streets and almost every inch of sidewalk up and down the Allentown district was full of people, laughing, playing music, drawing mandalas on the sidewalk, hula-hooping, juggling fire and more.
There is really something inspiring about bringing art directly to the people, incorporating social and political change into the content, and literally changing the landscape around us to create a better world. That being said, BIF tends to bring out all the freaks and the geeks (most of whom are artists of some type anyway) and there was quite a bit of photographic evidence of that this year. I will let the photos speak the thousands of words that I could try to use to describe the enormous impact that this festival has on my city and my life. I challenge all of you to start your own Infringement Festival in your city, your town, your world. Rally the artists and bring the art to the people. Happy Infringing!!
Photo courtesy of photographer, Peter Dunn
All other photography courtesy of amazingly talented photographer, Jose R. Rodriguez.
Interview Series: Firsthand Look – Facial Piercings
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s here! The latest video in the BodyCandy interview series. This time we have an exciting and fun filled interview with pretty piercee and Body Candy client, Tiffany. Check out the interesting piercing stories she had up her sleeve.
BodyCandy: Hi, guys. I’m Kelsey, her at Body Candy dot com. Today we have Tiffany with us, and we’re gonna talk about her piercings. How are you?
Tiffany: Good. How are you?
BodyCandy: Good. So what piercings do you have?
Tiffany: I have both my nostrils, I have my septum, my Monroe, both sides of my lip pierced…I have my cartilages, my ears are gauged, my nipples, and my belly button, and my tongue.
BodyCandy: Alright, that’s quite a mouthful. (Giggles) Alright, so, tell me about them. When did you get these? How old were you?
Tiffany: Um…honestly like ranged from the age…
BodyCandy: The first one?
Tiffany: Seventeen.
BodyCandy: Seventeen was your first one.
Tiffany: Going til about, maybe 20, I stopped.
BodyCandy: Hmm.
Tiffany: First one I got, I was seventeen, went to Canada, because you can’t get a piercing til your eighteen. Wasn’t supposed to get one. So, one night, went to Canada, still in school. Uh, came home, tried to hide it from my mom, put tissues up my nose to hide it. I got the middle of my lip pierced, I went up to my car, hid my face in the side of my arm.
BodyCandy: Tried to hide it?
Tiffany: Yep it worked for about three days and-
BodyCandy: -Finally got caught?
Tiffany: Yep. I had braces at the time and I had to go to the orthodontist, so, uh, we went there. Hid it the whole time, and finally when we got in the office I let my mom see it cause of course she couldn’t yell at me in front of everybody, so.
BodyCandy: Nice. Alright, well what do you like about your piercings?
Tiffany: Um, I like the way they make me feel. I like the way they make me look. When I take ‘em out to clean ‘em, or if I go to a doctor’s appointment, I just, it doesn’t look like me when I happen to not have ‘em in.
BodyCandy: Alright. Well how often do you clean them?
Tiffany: It’s very important to clean them often, even if you don’t change them. Clean them at least, uh every two weeks to a month, if you could.
BodyCandy: Alright. Do you have any favorite stories about your piercings?
Tiffany: Um, when I was seventeen, also, when I got my Monroe done I got that done in a kitchen, at my friend’s house, by her uncle, who just got out of prison, named BooBoo.
BodyCandy: Oh, BooBoo!?
Tiffany: Yeah probably, it probably wasn’t a good idea, but it was a free piercing, and he pierced it crooked. It’s now pierced upwards, and I have to kinda maneuver it in.
BodyCandy: That’s not good.
Tiffany: Yeah. Um, I got my nipples pierced, went with a couple of my girlfriends, cause they were interested in it. And um, a couple of them had to leave the room cause they were nauseous, and another girl who was holding my hand was squeezing tighter than I was. And um, it wasn’t…honestly it wasn’t that painful, and uh, at the end the guy asked me if he could take a picture, and I didn’t think about it and I said sure. And now that picture’s probably floating around somewhere.
BodyCandy: Alright. That’s probably not good. (Giggling again.) Alright, well uh, which one hurt the most, do ya think?
Tiffany: Uh…my belly button.
BodyCandy: Really? That’s weird.
Tiffany: Yeah.
BodyCandy: You’d think something else would.
Tiffany: Yeah…
BodyCandy: How come?
Tiffany: Uh, well, I got one of my nostrils pierced, and it was buy one get one free, just pay for the jewelry, and he went to do my belly button and it went in the first time, and he didn’t say anything, took it out, and re-pierced it again. And it kinda-
BodyCandy: -Not supposed to do that?
Tiffany: No. And it bled and I-
BodyCandy: -So that’s probably the reason why that one hurt the most.
Tiffany: Yeah. It didn’t heal very well. It took a while to heal.
BodyCandy: How about your other ones? Any of them hurt more than the others?
Tiffany: Not really. The, your septum sounds like you’re like stepping on a Dorito when you get it pierced though.
BodyCandy: Ouch.
Tiffany: Yeah, they really weren’t too bad.
BodyCandy: And how bout your ears? What size are you right now?
Tiffany: Um, they’re a zero.
BodyCandy: And, are you going any bigger?
Tiffany: Probably just maybe to a double zero. I’m not really sure what I wanna do yet. I usually just buy like, every couple earrings, and I tape em off with electrical tape, so I don’t have to keep buying earrings.
BodyCandy: They’re expensive?
Tiffany: Not that they’re expensive, it’s that I gauged my ears when I was kid, and now that I’m doing it again I’m like ripping through the scar tissue, so.
BodyCandy: You gotta make sure you do that the right way.
Tiffany: Yeah.
BodyCandy: Alright, well do you have any advice for someone who may wanna get any of these piercings?
Tiffany: If you wanna get pierced make sure you go somewhere that’s very clean, everything’s sanitized, they know what they’re doing. Um, make sure that you maybe know a friend that’s gone through them and they know that they’re gonna do a good job.
BodyCandy: Do you change them often?
Tiffany: Yeah I have to change them, keep them updated. I like to.
BodyCandy: So how many do you have in total?
Tiffany: Umm…(she spends a moment counting silently), fourteen.
BodyCandy: Fourteen? And do you plan on getting any more?
Tiffany: Uh, maybe. I don’t know. I thought about getting my cheeks pierced, but, again, I’m a little worried about the scars. This one, the lip, is not too bad with the scars. Like my scars isn’t too bad in the middle, but…
BodyCandy: Yeah. You can’t tell that you had that.
Tiffany: But, I’m a little worried about if I got my cheeks pierced.
BodyCandy: Alright. Well thanks for coming out with us today Tiffany.
Tiffany: Thank you.
Interview Series: Firsthand Look – Nose Piercings
Posted by: | CommentsNext in our interview series is a wonderful video interview with our multi-tasking, retro styled Body Candy team member, Cat. Check out her cheeky coming of age tale featuring fruity libations and feminine nose rings, as told to us in a soft, lady-like tone and candy apple red colored lipstick:
Body Candy: Hey Guys. I’m Kelsey from Body Candy dot com. Today we have Cat with us, and she’s actually one of our team members here. How’re you doin?
Cat: Awesome.
Body Candy: Good. So we’re gonna talk about her nose piercing today. (At this point Cat gestured to her nose gracefully with one hand, as if mimicking Vanna White) So, how old were you when you got this piercing?
Cat: Uh, fifteen.
Body Candy: Nice. That’s young.
Cat: Yeah.
Body Candy: What do you like about it?
Cat: I think it just makes my nose look perfect. I don’t know. It just seemed like it always should have been there.
Body Candy: And did you plan to do it on the right or the left for a reason, or…?
Cat: Um, well, I sleep on this side, so (gestures to her left), that’s why I put it on that side (gestures to her right).
Body Candy: Nice. Do you have a favorite story about your piercing?
Cat: Actually, the night I pierced it is my favorite story. I did it by myself, well, not by myself, with my best friend. But um, we found this bottle of what we thought was wine, but later found out it was non-alcoholic wine, and we got drunk (raises her hands to place fingers in quote formation), and we pierced my nose and were gonna pierce her lip. But we chickened out of that one, because of the amount of uh, blood that came out of my nose. Unfortunately.
Body Candy: Oh.
Cat: So, that’s what fifteen year olds should not do at home. (She raises a finger and wags it sweetly to press the point.)
Body Candy: So do you have any advice for someone that might want their nose pierced?
Cat: Um, probably uh, go to a professional piercer I would say, and don’t do it when you’re fifteen like an idiot. (Both parties giggle a little.)
Body Candy: Alright. Do you plan on getting any more piercings?
Cat: Oh yeah. Definitely. I wanna get my Monroe pierced, but, we’ll see. (Subdued, feminine giggle.)
Body Candy: Alright. Well thanks for coming in today, Cat.
Cat: Yeah. No problem.
To get Cat’s Look: in keeping with her new-retro style, Cat prefers small gem solitaire nose studs, or silvery rings, like the one she wore for our interview.
Interview: Firsthand Look – Gauged Ear piercings
Posted by: | CommentsWe had another amazing interview this week, with Body Candy staff member and blog contributor Morgan S. Here’s what he had to say about the process of stretching his cool ear lobe piercings:
Body Candy: Hey guys! I’m Kelsey, here at Body Candy dot com, and today we have Morgan here with us, and he’s actually one of our team members here at Body Candy. How are you doing?
Morgan: Pretty good.
Body Candy: Good. So we’re gonna talk about what piercings he has today, and a few questions for him. What piercing do you have?
Morgan: Um, well, I’ve got both of ears gauged right now. (He gestures to both lobes.) I’ve got em both stretched to a half inch piercing so.
Body Candy: What do you like about them?
Morgan: Um, I’ve always liked having that extra little bit of…it’s not just a normal piercing but it’s got that extra little bit of flare that I can kinda mess around with and have my own style.
Body Candy: Cool. When did you get them pierced?
Morgan: I got both of them done, just about right when I turned eighteen. Uh, being in New York obviously that was right when I could.
Body Candy: Do you have any good stories about them?
Morgan: Uh, one of my favorites: I always love the way little kids react to piercings, and tattoos and gauges, and things like that. And uh, I was at a water park once, and I had a little kid that just immediately walked up to me and saw me and just, “Mom, mom! That man has holes in his ears! Is he okay?!” (At this point, both parties giggle a little.) And thought uh, legitimately thought I was hurt or that there was something wrong but, it was the most adorable thing.
Body Candy: Aw, that’s cute. Uh, does your work allow you to wear your piercings? Anywhere you’ve worked since you were eighteen?
Morgan: Yeah I’ve never really had…I’ve never really had any real issues with them. Uh I do musical theatre and I’ve done acting before, so I’ve had to use some of the flesh tone plugs a couple of times, being up on stage to blend in with the make-up, but, beyond that I’ve never had any issues.
Body Candy: What material do you like best?
Morgan: Um, I’m very adamant for wood.
Body Candy: How come?
Morgan: Um, I just recently got up to the point of about zero gauge and I started using wood plugs. With acrylics and metals you get a lot of weird (he lifts his hands trying to find the right word)…issues. The body isn’t really used to that sort of material.
Body Candy: Right.
Morgan: With nice wood plugs, with bone, you get really good fits, keeps your ears really healthy and, it just feels really good.
Body Candy: Yeah, that’s cool. And do you like…are planning on getting any more? Any other piercings?
Morgan: Absolutely! In the next couple weeks, um, I’m gearing up to get my industrial done so…
Body Candy: Nice.
Morgan: Definitely excited for that one.
Body Candy: Alright. Do you have any advice for people who might wanna stretch or gauge their ears?
Morgan: Absolutely. Um, if you’re stretching or gauging, anything like that, take it slow, read up on it, and know what you’re doing.
Body Candy: Right.
Morgan: I’ve definitely made that mistake a few times along the road where it’s just, “Oh, I wanna be the next size bigger, shove it in like-” (he uses his hands to mimic forcing a large gauge plug into an ear piercing, and a little giggle starts again)
Body Candy: yeah, I think a lot of people do that.
Morgan: It’s not a good call. Take your time, read up, know what you’re doing.
Body Candy: Alright. Well, thanks for coming in, Morgan.
Morgan: Absolutely, happy to.
And that was the end of another great talk with one our pierced personalities.
To get Morgan’s look: Morgan wears primarily organic plugs and tunnels, like the black wooden ones he has in for our interview.
Interview: Firsthand Look – Eyebrow, Tongue, and Helix Piercings
Posted by: | CommentsWe had an amazing interview with one of our favorite pierced staff members here at Body Candy, Miss Janna W. We started off by introducing her to the camera for our friends at home, and here’s what she had to say:
Body Candy: How are you?
Janna: I’m doing good. How are you?
Body Candy: Good. So lets talk about what piercings you have.
Janna pointed out her lovely piercings for the camera, gesturing as she went:
Janna: I have two eyebrow rings on this side (she pointed to her left brow), I have helix on both sides (then gesturing to her upper ear) you can kinda see, and I have three earrings down the lobe on this side (pinching left ear lobe), and two down this side (and finishing off with the right ear lobe).
Body Candy: Nice. What do you like about your piercings?
Janna: Ah…especially the eyebrow rings. I like that they’re different. Most people don’t have two right next to each other. Ha, I guess more people do now, but I’ve had em for a long time and, uh, I don’t know…they kind of balance my face out. I like the way they look.
I feel weird without em.
Body Candy: When did you get them? How old were you?
Janna: I was eighteen. I’d always wanted em, since seventh grade. For some strange reason I just decided then that I wanted to have two, and I got em done six weeks apart, cause they can’t do em both at the same time.
Body Candy: Right. Do you have a favorite story about any of your piercings?
Janna: Well, I guess, the first one: I got both helix piercings and two lobe piercings done in the same day when I was about fifteen, and that same night my friends had a camp-out. So I slept in a tent, with no pillow, and it was not a great idea. So, yeah, if you’re gonna get helix piercings, do one side, and wait til it heals, and then get the other, so you can actually go to sleep for a while! (giggling)
Body Candy: So, the healing time on those takes a little bit?
Janna: Yeah. With the helix, all the cartilage piercings tend to take quite a while before they’re really healed and they don’t hurt at all. I mean sometimes depending on…
Body Candy: What about your eyebrow rings?
Janna: Uh, eyebrow rings, they take, a month, you know, six weeks or something like that before you can change em out. But they always do best when you don’t touch em and leave em alone.
Body Candy: Any other stories?
Janna: Well, when I was sixteen I got my tongue pierced, and uh, I was trying to hide it from my mom, like most teenagers would probably do. And we were out prom dress shopping, and I was wearing this really expensive dress, and when you have a tongue ring, it’s really difficult to not play with it a lot, and she saw it. And she was really mad and she’s like, “take the dress off! We’re going home!” And uh, she wanted me to take it out, and I didn’t take it out. I convinced her that it was better to keep it in, which it was. And uh, I kept it in until I was nineteen, and then I took it out for a job that I had…
Body Candy: They didn’t allow you to have it?
Janna: No, but, it was fun while it lasted. (giggling a little)
Body Candy: So do you have any advice for someone that wants to get a tongue, or eyebrow, or helix piercing?
Janna: Um, definitely wait until you’re old enough to get it yourself, when it’s your decision, cause a lot changes between, you know, when you’re, twelve or thirteen, and when you’re actually old enough to get it done yourself. Um, and just think a lot about it. Make sure that it’s something that you really want, and that you like the way it looks. You can take a picture of yourself and draw the piercing on it-
Body Candy: -That’s a good idea-
Janna: -or you can get some of the faux jewelry like a faux nose ring or a lip ring, and just try it on and see if you like the way it looks. See if you like the way it feels, having something, you know, attached to your face.
Body Candy: Right.
Janna. Play with it alot and whatever.
Body Candy: Alright, well, thanks for coming in today.
Janna: No problem. I come everyday. It’s work!
Then we laughed together for a brief moment, and that was that.
To get Janna’s look: Janna wears segment rings, ball captive rings, and closure rings, like the ones below.
