Tattoos & Piercings
I’ve been pierced over 20 times, and have had 9 tattoos done. I think it’s safe to say I’m a fan of body art!
Most of the tats and piercings were done during my later teen years and my early 20s. I had many more tats planned but am not likely to ever get them now that I have a pain syndrome.
I do believe that tattoos and piercings are a wonderful form of self-expression and body art. I waited until I was an adult to get my first tattoo, though, and am glad I did, because they are permanent and one should make sure they have thought hard about their choice of tattoo, so they will be happy and comfortable with it in the future as well.
For the piercings, I have had my eyebrow, my nipple, my tragus, my rook, and my ears pierced. I would have to say that the most painful piercing was the tragus, which is the hard little flap over your ear opening. That reeeeally hurt and I didn’t end up keeping the piercing because of the pain and also infection. The eyebrow ring was surprisingly not that painful, but it grew out fairly quickly (within 1 year).
As for the nipple piercing, I will tell you for a fact that it’s not true that you can’t breastfeeding after getting your nipple pierced. I took out the piercing, of course, to let it heal during my first pregnancy, and breastfed my daughter until she was 7 months old. I then went on to breastfeed my son for almost 2 years! I never tried to put the piercing back in or anything, but I never had difficulty breastfeeding as a result of the healed site of the piercing that had been there.
~ 6 ear piercings ~ I have 6 earring holes in the right side. For a year or two, I had them set up with these pride-colour earrings
~ Piercing of my “rook”/”crux” ~ on my left ear, this was actually not as painful as I expected and has stayed the same for years and years now.
~ Nose piercing ~ although I now wear a tiny faux-diamond stud, I used to wear sleeper rings for my nose piercing
~ Angel wings & “a” ~ on my left hip, in memory of my 1st miscarried baby, angel. I decided to get the little angel wings tattooed as part of my healing and grieving process after losing the pregnancy. I plan to get tattoos in the same area for my other lost babies as well.
~ “K” star ~ on left shoulder/arm, as it started out and what it turned into (designed by yours truly)
~ Woman-power sunburst ~ on my lower back (1st pic was when it was still new and healing). I also designed this one and I would say it’s my favourite tat.
~ Rainbow butterflies ~ A ring of butterflies around my ankle in pride colours – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. I’ve contemplated perhaps getting them entwined in a vine to bring them all together, but now with the chronic pain syndrome, I doubt I’ll ever be able to get that done. 
