PORQUE!!!!

porque is spanish for why. i guess it's my new word. i like just randomly shouting PORQUE!!! all of a sudden. try it, you'll like it.

so i had a playdate with sarah today. we waited for the cable guy, then went out to eat at applebees. i said i never been there, but  after being there i do remember one occassion when i was there. i had an oriental chicken wrap that went RIGHT through me. it was so bad that i had to stop at my house on our way to activity number two to go poop. but after all was said and done and excreted, we went to warrior to get pierced.

sarah wanted to get her belly button done so i figured since i was picking her up from school and such today we'd do it. i decided i'd get sumthing done as well with my birthday money, but was in much personal anguish and deliberation over it. there is quite a bit of work i would like, including having my eyebrow redone cuz i miss it, snug piercings on both ears, and an industrial on my right ear. (if you have no idea what i'm talking about you can enlighten yourself at www.bmezine.com) so we got there and i said, fuck it i'll get my navel done too. yes, you read that correctly i got my belly button pierced. it's infinitely excellent and i'll post pics of it later on when i steal batteries from my uncle's junk drawer.

anyway, i already posted my experience on bme, but it'll be another week or so before the editors and site mods post it, so i put it on here in case you're interested about reading (in GREAT detail) about the events that unfolded at warrior this evening. (i woulda CUT it but i had the wrong code and rich text is being really gay...liberacci gay)

A few weeks ago I had a discussion with my girlfriend about piercing and how she wanted to get her navel done. We were set to hang out and have an afternoon playdate on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. It was already decided that I would pick her up from school and bring her home for the weekend. From there, we would set out in search of a place to eat and then I’d take her over to get pierced. After very minimal contemplation (it doesn’t take much for me to set my mind on doing something) I had decided I would get something pierced as well and we’d make sort of a “bonding” moment of the whole deal.

            The problem was, I already have a bunch of work done, and there were a few things I was considering doing, but couldn’t really set my heart on just one. There are a few different bits of ear work I want to do still, including an industrial and snug piercings, but I couldn’t make up my mind. So after a little personal deliberation during the car ride I decided, “What the hell, I’ll get my navel done too.”

            Now let me take time out to explain a couple of things. I understand that it’s rather uncommon for a guy to get a navel piercing, and under normal circumstances I’d have to be descendant of some sort of tribal or native origin, or have a not-so-widely accepted sexual orientation or otherwise be out of my mind. I can assure you I’m neither. I’m not gay. I’m not a cross-dresser. I don’t take my clothes of and parade my body around for strange women who stuff 20 dollar bills in my scantily-clad ass crack. I’m a normal person with a deep interest and understanding in the field of body arts and modification. Not to mention a hopeless romantic at heart who figured it would be more meaningful to have the same thing pierced as my girlfriend.

            So after we ate and made a quick pit stop at my apartment so I could crap out the monstrosity of an oriental chicken wrap I just indulged on, we headed over to Warrior piercing studios. I am a regular over at Warrior and am currently in the running for an apprenticeship over there. I know all the piercers and management on a first-name basis and have gotten all my work done there with exception to my left lobe which I did myself when I was young and stupid and had parents who didn’t understand why I’d want to get pierced or much less understood individuality at all.

            Rebecca was the piercer on duty. I don’t see her often or know that much about her, though I’ve seen her a bunch of times when I’ve been in there. She’s awesome though. She digs all the old school metal I listen to and is an avid Pacman player, but that’s beside the point. My girlfriend and I filled out all the necessary paperwork, gave our ID’s and paid for the piercings. After the legal crap and payment, Rebecca led us to the back room which is probably the cleanest, most comfortable piercing studio in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. They’re very welcoming over at Warrior and persistent on making their clientele as comfortable as possible with every experience. So I decided I’d be the guinea pig and go first. I have a thing about my belly button as it is, where it’s uber sensitive and I don’t particularly care for people touching the area. So I wanted my girlfriend to know that everything was ok by seeing me go first to ease her mind a little; but moreover, I just wanted to get it over with.

            So I climbed into the dental chair and Rebecca reclined me and boosted the chair to the proper position for her comfort to pierce me. She swabbed me up good with a betadine swab and marked the area with a sharpie. When it was straight and to her liking she applied the clamp and lined up her marks properly. It made me slightly uncomfortable with her poking and prodding my navel with her fingers and tools, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t deal with. She told me to take a deep breath in and she pierced on the exhale. As sensitive and iffy as I am about my navel I swear up and down that I didn’t feel a damn thing. It was the most relaxed piercing I’ve ever gotten. No pain whatsoever. Rebecca then applied the 14g captive and swabbed the area one more time and I was free to get up and roam. I hopped out of the chair, strolled over to the mirror and checked it out. It was infinitely excellent: perfectly straight and beautifully done. I placed a tip of 5 bones in the jar and then it was my girlfriend’s turn.

            Rebecca went through the same routine: chair adjustment, clean and swab the area, mark and clamp, poke, done. Our piercings were quick and easy and free of pain. I even held my girlfriend’s hand. She didn’t squeeze back much at all. She did squint a little, but she was pierced with a barbell instead of a ring, so I’d imagine that’s a little more uncomfortable. But we did damn good.

            Rebecca then made sure we understood all the aftercare procedures, which we did because we’re both pierced people and don’t need her to repeat the usual (and in our case unnecessary) speech about aftercare and the do’s and don’ts of a new piercing. So then we said our goodbyes and headed on out.

            It’s been about 3 and a half hours since the experience. I had a minor gout of blood in my belly button when I dropped my girlfriend off at her house and it’s a little uncomfortable right now and forces me to sit up really straight, but aside from that it’s not bothersome at all and I barely even know it’s there. If I have anything to say as far as words of wisdom go, it would be “Make sure you wear a loose fitting light shirt when you go to get it done” and “It’s ok for straight guys to get their navels pierced”. Make sure to have your pets spayed or neutered.