'It ripped right out of my body': 4 things I wish I knew before getting my nipple pierced.

When I decided to finally get my nipple pierced, it was a power move.

I did it to empower myself. I was about a year out from my first relationship, which was abusive in many ways, and left me with my fair share of trauma.

In the time following that relationship, I’d delved into a dedicated project of falling head over heels in love with myself. It was a really beautiful time for me to recuperate and reestablish my self-confidence and femininity.

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And what better way to reclaim my self-love, and my body again, than by getting a sexy piercing in celebration?

After plenty of research, and being well-educated in my options, I did it. I bit the bullet and got my right nipple pierced — and it all started out fine. Until it wasn’t.

But here are some details I wish I knew about before getting a steel bar through my right nip.

What to know before getting a nipple piercing.

The shape of your nipple makes a difference.

The shape of your nipple makes a difference in this equation.

When it came to choosing which nipple to pierce… how do I say this? I chose the one that looked the weirdest.

I’ve questioned since puberty if I have weird looking nipples… there’s not much definition between my areolas and nipples. Simply, my nipple-area looks very different from Kate Winslet’s in Titanic, any set of boobs on every HBO show, and most breasts in porn videos.

I thought I would like my right nip a better with a sexy metal bar through it. The thing is, my lack of defined nipple made it harder to pierce at the end of the day. Truthfully? I should have pierced the more defined nipple.

The piercing, which was professionally done (no question about that) went through more of the nipple/areola area than I thought it would.

They will take far longer to heal than you’d anticipate.

I am no newbie when it comes to piercings. At the time I got my nipple piercing, I already had seven in my body: five in my earlobes, one in the orbital cartilage of my ear, and one rook piercing. The rook is the thickest cartilage that exists in the ear.

All seven of these piercings are still in my body, and have all successfully closed. I’m a veteran of this sh*t. But wowza, I was not prepared for the nipple ring.

Want to hear a depressing statistic? Nipple piercings take on average nine to 12 months to fully heal. The average lobe piercing takes six weeks to heal.

When I chose to finally take out my nipple piercing for good, I’d had it in for three years. And not one of those days was this thing not infected. At best, it was raw and hurt. At worst? It was excruciating, could not be touched, was leaking puss, or was crusty, or was bleeding.

That was three years of cleaning it just about every day! And it never healed. And frankly, I’m pretty sure my body was rejecting the piercing and pushing it out of my body. I’m stubborn so I stuck it out for the long haul, but even a woman as hard-headed as me has her limits.

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Those fancy, decorative nipple rings? Forget it.

You know the ones I’m talking about, those sexy nipple shields and dainty little dangly jewels that hang from the bar. We imagine how seductive and sultry they would look. In the mirror, in the middle of action, all that good stuff.

Well, here’s a reality check:

Nipple guards? They wouldn’t fit on my misshapen nipple. And as for the dangly jewel ones? After a great night of sex early into my dating relationship with my husband, I woke up in the early hours of the morning in excruciating pain. The chains from the piercing had dug into my pierced area and chaffed it raw. It was bleeding.

Very sexy.

Oh, and remember above, where we discussed the extended healing time? Well, it’s recommended that you not change your standard bar piercing to a decorative piercing until it’s fully closed and healed. So each time you do change it, you’re setting your healing progress back weeks or even months.

It’s also generally not recommended by professionals to even wear decorative nipple piercings because they are very likely to irritate your piercing in general.

Think before you stick a needle in it, a horror story.

I ultimately chose to take out my piercing after one catastrophic nipple event. So, here is a horror story – disclaimer for those who are squeamish, it’s a lot.

Three years into having my nipple piercing and one year into dating my now-husband, in the absolute height of passion, my husband went to rip my bra off of my body.

It was all fun and games until my bra strap caught my nipple piercing and the thing damn near ripped right out of my body. You can probably imagine the scream and tears and blood that followed.

From that incident onward, we had reached truly hazardous territory. I couldn’t live this way anymore, it had to come out.

To be fair, I really enjoyed the idea of having a nipple piercing. It felt empowering and sexy and adventurous. But my body was just not meant to have such a piercing in it, and that might be the reality for you, as well.

This article originally appeared on Medium and was republished and edited here with full permission. For more from Gillian Sisley, you can find her on Twitter. 

Feature Image: Canva/Mamamia.