12 needles, 9 holes.

Piercings are a funny thing, some people love them, some people hate them and then there's everyone else in between. Personally, I like piercings because they are something different and can really accentuate people's features, which I think is nice. I have been pierced twelve times and have nine piercings to show for it. I have seven in my ears including two in each of my lower lobes, one on my upper ear, one on my slightly lower but still upper ear on the other side and one in my tragus. However, I only wear my two upper ear piercings and sometimes the 'normal' ones in either ear. I would love to be wearing my tragus but unfortunately it has closed up so that is on my to-do list to get it re-pierced. I don't wear the other ones because I feel as if it will look like I have too much jewellery in my ears. I have also had stretchers up to 10mm, which was something different and I personally really liked them but I took them out due to preconceived notions that people hold about people with stretchers and decided that I could live with out them. I do miss them sometimes though. None of my ear piercings hurt a lot, although when I stretched my ears quite a bit of pain was experienced. After being pierced for the very first time on my tenth birthday I have been a little addicted to piercings in the sense that I love discussing other people's unusual piercings with them and understanding people's views on piercings and getting a few done on the side.

Recently I got my nose pierced, as I have wanted to do it for a while and I was a little persuaded by a friend. I chose the left side of my nose to 'balance out my face' as my ear piercing on the right side would've aligned with my nose piercing and I just couldn't have that. It was a thrilling experience, as all piercings are, and I was quite surprised at how little it hurt. I am very happy with the outcome and have found it easy to maintain. I am a little sceptical about putting a ring in because I don't want to look over-pierced and I'm unsure if it will suit me; let me know what your thoughts are? I am looking to get another diamond stud a little bigger than the one pictured on the left to match the size of the diamond studs in my ears.

A week after getting my nose done, the addictive nature of piercings set in and I went to get my tongue re-pierced. The first time I got my tongue done was about a year ago with my dad. Firstly we went and got sushi because it is my favourite food and seeing as I wasn't going to be able to eat properly for a few weeks Dad thought I should treat myself. Secondly I talked as much as I possibly could just so my voice was memorable incase it changed after having a bar put through my tongue, it didn't. And thirdly, a really nice lady with two tongue piercings told me to wipe the saliva off of my tongue, she cleaned it with some funny-tasting chemical and then clasped it with these funky tongs. She kept asking me questions throughout this process, which I had to try and answer in the form of hand movements because I couldn't exactly talk. Then she whipped out this big needle and shoved it through. I barely felt it and when she unclasped my tongue I assumed something had gone wrong then realising that it was all over I was very surprised. Later, after swallowing multiple little silver balls and one bar, it got infected and I had to take it out. This time was a different story. The first few steps were the same but then when the needle went through tears starting swelling in my eyes and I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs, but of course I couldn't. When the man had finished, I squeezed out a "thank you" and a giggle but oh boy I was hurting inside. Thankfully the healing process went well and now I am looking to get this big bar changed for a small one, as the swelling has gone down and now my tongue is its normal self. I have noticed that people tend to look at my mouth when I speak to them now, which sort of annoys me because I like to look into people's eyes but besides that I haven't had many troubles.


For me piercings are a way to make me interesting; it gives me something to talk about with people and makes me a little different to look at. I think it represents my personality a bit and honestly having piercings gives me something to do when completely boring times arise, especially my tongue piercing, I love twirling it around in my mouth and seeing what tricks I can come up with. I don't know if I will keep my piercings forever but for now I like them a lot.

Love, love, love.