Nipple piercing vs unknown allergies to lavender oil

I’d been having thoughts about getting my nipple pierced for a few months, but never really acted on it until a few rather nice coincidences happened last spring.

First of all, my friend got her nipple pierced, told me about the experience, and convinced me completely that it was something I should get done. Second, a matter of days later I met a friend of mine online, who I hadn’t seen in a year, and she told me she’d just finished her piercing course and would pierce my nipple at the studio for just the cost of the ring. And third, it was spring break, which meant I had the time to get both the money (from temp work) and the piercing.

So piercing day came, and I met up with who I’ll call A1 (my piercer) and A2 (already-pierced friend) and we headed down to the studio. We went over the aftercare, which took a few minutes, and then it was time to take off my shirt and do this thang. I kind of had more issues with the shirtless thing than I’d expected, as I’m not the skinniest person alive and am a little self-conscious of that, but it was all good.

I chose a lapis bead for the ring, and stood while A1 swabbed at my nipple with something wet to harden it, then marked entry and exit holes and had me lie down. The pain of the clamps was quite overrated- I felt it, yeah, but it didn’t hurt by any means. I looked away when she got the needle ready and told me to take a deep breath, then another, and on the exhale she’d pierce.

It did hurt. I still remember staring at the wall, feeling the sensation of the needle going through skin and tissue, and then the pain came (it stung, in an unfocused sort of way), and I remember widening my eyes, still breathing out, and when that breath was gone I breathed in again and said something like “Oh fuck, FUCK! Is it through?!”

“Yeah, it’s through, you’re doing great. Just let me get the ring in here…”

Me: “Oh. Yeah, that wasn’t so bad, I was expecting much worse really… *endorphins kicking in heavily at this point and turning me into a woozy idiot*”

She then pierced my nose, which is a whole nother story, and I spent a few minutes recovering with a cup of water, tipped her twenty dollars (she hadn’t charged me at all for the piercings, just the jewelry), and that was pretty much that for the time being.

Except the next day I bought some lavender oil, and put it on the piercing fairly liberally. It smelled nice and said it promoted healing and such, and I’d read frequently about it being used for piercings. All was well, except not quite; my piercing stayed sore and didn’t seem to be healing that well. It kept stretching the hole if I flipped the ring up or down, and there were crusties after I thought they were supposed to be gone. “More lavender oil!” my brain said, and so the worse it got, the more I put on.

Yeah, so it turns out I’m pretty allergic to lavender oil. Also, I’ll freely admit was really, really stupid about not discontinuing my generous use of it. I should have realized right off that something I was applying to it was causing it to get all nasty like that, and should have put an end to it as soon as it started.

So in the end, not only did I end up having to take the piercing out (goddamnit…) but the skin disappeared from my entire aureole and left me with a disgusting, yellow-lymphy-sticky boob. It was vile to look at, not to mention painful and itchy, and wouldn’t go away, nor would it even scab up.

I consulted my piercing friend about it, and she told me to do plenty of sea salt soaks. I made the water hot, put plenty of salt in it, and applied it to my semi-skinless boob for an hour each night; I can’t begin to describe how painful it was. However, it began clearing up and the skin did start coming back amazingly fast, and it was all flaky and scabby and disgusting for a while there, but five months later, it looks like normal again. No scabbiness or anything; it’s completely healed. Yes, it took a while, but I didn’t do the soaks as often as I should have, and my body’s pretty slow with healing anyway, and that was a particularly nasty reaction.

I’m definitely going to get the piercing redone when I get the money. It did weird and wonderful things for my mood and my self-esteem to have a ring through my nipple, and I remember sinking into a teary state of moodiness and depression when I took it out. Hopefully once I get it redone, it won’t reject (there being scar tissue and all, now) and I’ve definitely learned my lesson about allergies to lavender oil. [For the record, though, apparently such allergies are pretty rare; I just happen to be one of those people who's allergic to only a few things, and they're the weirdest things ever, but I get insane reactions.]

Anyone who’s considering getting one or both of their nipples pierced, it’s a beautiful piercing, and not something you’re likely to regret. (Again, it’s apparently very rare that people have allergies to lavender oil, and even more rare that a reaction is as severe as mine was, so don’t let my particular story deter you.) If you want it done, by all means go for it.