Replacing my nipple ring

janey47

Big symbolic step for me this weekend -- reinserting the jewelry that had to be removed for the surgery & had to stay out for the radiation.

I feel whole again.  It's funny because I resisted getting this piercing in the first place.  I had my left nipple pierced and I kind of liked the asymmetry, but a (former) boyfriend convinced me to have the second one done, too.  So you would think I wouldn't care, but being *required* to remove the jewelry just felt too invasive.

I expect to have to remove all of them again when (if?) I have reconstruction (My breast looks good, but it really does look different from the unaffected breast and I am strongly considering having reconstruction/augmentation in order to achieve better balance), but at least that would feel like more of a choice.

I know I'm not the only person on these boards with nipple & other piercings.  I may be the oldest person here with multiple piercings, but I'm sure I'm not the *only* one.  LOL

Anonymous

Well, Janey, I don't know how old you are but I have multiple piercings and I love each & every one of them! I've been wanting a tiny "dot" piercing for my nose, but my boyfriend is pretty appalled (he's conservative and has no piercings or tattoos at all) and I'm a little skittish because of the what-about-when-I-get-a-cold issue . Anyway, although I don't have nipple piercings, I completely get what you're saying, especially about choice. It seems that so many of our medical experiences and treatments render us faceless and disempowered, so any mark of our individual selves becomes extra important. Finding things that I could control was so key to my own successful recovery, so I understand where you're coming from.

Good luck with your reconstruction. It is my belief that we are entitled to do whatever it takes to make us feel whole and healthy again and to move beyond the cancer event!

~Marin

janey47

LOL I waffled on the nostril piercing for the same reason for years.  It turns out that it's not much of an issue at all. 

My jewelry is all very small and although I'm in a liberal city, I work in a conservative industry (law), yet no one finds my facial piercings to be a problem (I'm also circumspect with the tattoo work that shows at the office -- the only one of any size that shows regularly is white, so it just looks like a scar).

me: 49, 19 piercings

Left ear -- 2 helix, 1 rook, 1 lobe
Right ear -- 4 lobe, 1 tragus
Left nostril
Tongue
Labret
2 nipple piercings
3 labia piercings
clitoral hood
triangle

Happily, my tattoo-and-piercing-free boyfriend loves all of my body work.  That's probably a prerequisite to being involved with me, though.  :-)

Anonymous

Ha, Janey! I just turned 57 and most people consider me edgy. But you, grrrrl, are a wild woman fer sure! Compared to you, I am like a prim 'n proper matron...hell, I only have 7 piercings and 3 tattoos!

I still say, though, that whether it's a piercing or a necklace that you never take off, keeping one's identity through the sometimes disempowering treatments that we go through is so very important. This was what Geralyn Lucas tried to convey in her book, Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy.

~Marin