“Huh!” I laughed as we walked into the room. “You get to go before me!” Heather turned and gave me a frightened look over her shoulder. The guy closed the door behind us, shaking his head. “No, we do the needles first.” He gave me a pointed look. “That’s you.”
My heart leapt into my chest. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. I hadn’t expected to go first, not outside this room, where it was safe. I had already gone through the process of convincing myself that this would be awesome, then freaking out about it, and back to thinking I’d regret not doing it. I looked around at the surgical tools the guy was placing around me and thought. ‘Ok, this is not safe! There’s still time to back out…’ I glanced over at Heather and she smiled. “It’s going to look so cool dude!”
Somehow, that reassured me. I wanted this, I’d always thought about what it’d be like to do it. And now I could.
The guy swabbed my nose, and marked the spot where the needle would go through. I nodded and smiled up at him in front of the mirror, feigning courage that was fading fast. I barely listened to the banter as I reached over and grabbed Heather’s hand as if it would save my life.
The anesthetic went in with a pinch, shooting acid into my nostril. I couldn’t help it, it just happened; I cried. I whimpered silently as a tear ran down my cheek. “Everyone’s eyes waters.” The guy smiled and handed me a tissue.
He had to do it again, shoot another load of the flesh searing acid into the upper part of my nostril. I crushed Heather’s hand during the inhumanity of it all.
And then he poked around. Grabbing hold of my nostril with a pair of tongs and taking a good gander up my nose. “Sorry if it’s dirty up there.” I mumbled, staring up at the ceiling. The guy chuckled, “I do this five or six times a day. It’s ok.”
I closed my eyes, unable to watch anymore. Although my nose was numb, I could still feel bits of pressure, and as the needle went through my nostril and into my nose, I felt a weird sort of release. The piercing went in, all neat and tidy and not flesh tearing. I opened my eyes and saw the size of the needle.
“That is so cool!” I laughed my eyes wide. In comparison, the anesthetic injection was dwarfed by the size of the piercing needle. I grabbed a tissue, ran up to the mirror and inspected the dried blood around the shiny new stud in my left nostril. I smiled and dabbed at it, pulling the stud halfway out of its hole. “Oh! Oh no,” I turned back to the guy, now getting ready to pierce two new holes in Heathers ears. “It came… I mean I pulled…” Heather grimaced, “Oh dude!” Reaching over, the guy tapped my stud back into place and laughed. “Don’t do that again.”
Nodding, I turned back to the mirror and smiled at my new decorative piece. No doubt my mom would freak, but she didn’t have to worry. I heard the shot of the gun piercing He4ather’s ear and shuddered. I had no desire to do anything like that again.
But right now, this was awesome. And I loved it, in all its tiny shining glory. I smiled at Heather in the mirror.
“It really is cool.”
