Pierced!

When I sat down to write my Friday Night Photos today, I looked through my camera roll and saw that I had literally ZERO photos from this past week that weren't "progress" photos of some sewing projects I've been working on. Then Eli asked me if we could go get piercings today, and we did :)  I took some photos from that. So this isn't really a "Friday Night Photos" post--just about my piercing date with Eli.

It wasn't a spontaneous idea; I'd told myself that when I got my weight back under 135, I would get either another ear piercing or a second nose piercing. Eli has been asking for a while about getting his eyebrow pierced, so I said we would go this weekend and get them. Jerry and I planned to run a couple of errands today, so he came along with us.

We went to the tattoo shop that we'd gone to when Eli got his ear lobes pierced (and I got my tragus and I think one other there). I really liked the piercer, whose name was Josh, and I hoped he'd be there again. When we walked in, the whole vibe was "off"--it's hard to explain. Normally, tattoo shops are a fun, light-hearted atmosphere (in my experience, anyway) but this place definitely didn't feel like that.

It was totally empty, and there was one guy working there. After some questions, I just wasn't feeling good about him. I asked if Josh was still working there, and he said, "We got rid of him four years ago." It was very cryptic and he didn't offer any information, so I asked if something had happened (because saying "we got rid of" is kind of a harsh way of wording things). He said something like, "Well, I don't want to get started about people I don't like, because I think talking bad about someone just makes me look bad. But yeah, we got rid of him."

Well, I have to agree about the fact that when people who run any sort of business put other businesses down, it's a huge turn-off to me and I have no problem going elsewhere. But the way he worded it, he might as well have been putting Josh down anyway, so it defeated the point. I liked Josh, and I was happy with the piercings he'd done for us.

So, before signing paperwork or anything, I told him the truth--that I just didn't feel comfortable getting our piercings there, and we left. My friend Joe is an assistant manager at a different tattoo shop, so I told Eli we'd go there instead. (If I hadn't already had Josh do some piercings, I would have gone to Joe's shop in the first place.)

The second we walked in, I felt that nice but fun vibe and the staff was super friendly. Joe wasn't working, so I didn't get to see him, but the woman who does piercings there was great. I felt very comfortable with her (despite the fact that she was young enough to be my child, haha!).

I'd decided to get a second nose piercing (right behind the one I've had since 2007). I've been wearing a hoop in it lately and it's kind of grown on me (not literally, haha--I just really like it). Once this new one heals, I'm going to switch it to a hoop as well. (Piercings get more irritated and take longer to heal when pierced with a hoop.)

So, I got a little stud (it's called a screw because kind of twists to fit inside your nostril). I've gotten several piercings over the years (my earlobes, eyebrow, nipple(!), nose, helix, tragus, conch, and rook; I have to say, this one in my nose hurt the most!

(I no longer have the eyebrow or nipple piercings--those were silly, very spontaneous college dares decisions. Like the hideous "ladybug" I have tattooed on my toe from when I was 18. (I refuse to let my kids get tattoos, thanks to the lesson I learned the hard way.)

I'm not afraid of needles, and I obviously know what piercings feel like, but I wasn't expecting the pain from this one. My eyes started watering immediately, and it looked like I was crying.

But I'm glad I did it! I like it and I think I'll like it even more when I'm able to swap out a hoop after it heals.

Next, it was Eli's turn. I just now spent way too much time searching for a photo of me getting my eyebrow pierced in college because I wanted to see if it would be good for a side-by-side with Eli (it's not). I knew I had one, though!

This photo makes me cringe for several reasons. I would mention how thin my eyebrows were back in 2000, but then you see that they desperately need to be shaped in today's photo, haha.

Eli didn't seem to be nervous at all, and his eyebrow piercing went smoothly. The worst part for him was that he had to pull his hair back with my hair tie. Eli is very particular about his hair ;)

He said the piercing wasn't bad at all and he really likes it. I think it looks good on him!

Ultimately, I'm very glad that we left the first place and went to another. When we left, I told Eli that it's important to listen to his gut feeling--if he's feeling uncomfortable with someone, then there is probably a reason for that. At his age, I probably would have been too worried about offending someone to say anything and I would have just gone along with it; so I wanted him to know that it's okay to speak up in situations that just don't feel right.

It was a fun day! I'm glad Eli is happy with his eyebrow piercing and it was nice to spend time with him. Of course, if I'd asked him to do something like watch a movie or play a game with me, he'd be "busy" today; but his day was wide open to get his eyebrow pierced ;)