Belly Ring

I have a pierced navel, and actually I see many women who compete with piercings and tattoos. I have no tattoos, unless you count the small gray dot on my right butt cheek where my little sister stabbed me with a pencil when we were kids. At least my husband says it's still there, I take his word for it.

I have several piercings, my ears I pierced myself (sick, sick, sick, I know), the first two (one on each side) were with a self piercing hoop- I doubt they sell those nasty monsters any longer! You pry them open, snap 'em on and "gently" squeeze a couple times a day. In two weeks voila, pierced ears!


I guess I was a bit impatient and mine were pierced in two, painful days.


Then I decided to do a third hole in one ear, so that I did with a needle and a potato when I was a kid, about 12 years old I think. Dumb idea. That's how my athletic career really started, as soon as I got that needle jammed in there I ran and ran and ran around the neighborhood until I fell on the floor exhausted and pretty much forgot about the pain. I think all three ear piercings are somewhat crooked.  You cannot really tell unless I wear a nice dangly earring and I usually wear plain diamond posts my mother gave me before she died.

Fast forward many years and I am a grown woman. I decide to get a couple of piercings, done by a professional. As usual, I do my research and decide on Body Exotic on San Carlos Street and even chose my artist, I needed one who specialized in what I wanted.

If you have your ears pierced you probably went to a kiosk in the mall and they used a piercing gun, it was fast and almost painless. Well this is not how a piercing  artist pierces anything. They use clamps and metal rods.

Enough said there. My husband was in the waiting room with a  friend of mine, they heard me wail in pain, and it went on for eternity. It was worse than childbirth I think. Daniel asked if I was OK, and I just looked at him and said I was fine, there was no turning back, he best get on with the other one so I can go have a drink. He nodded and advised against any alcohol afterward. Great.

David said he just looked at my friend and wondered if he should go check on me, he knew that I still had another piercing left. I guess the sudden quiet changed his mind and then I started in again.

Many years later, I decide to go get my navel pierced, and saw Daniel again. He started to explain how it could be painful and I stopped him telling him that nothing could be as painful as what I have already endured, go on and get it done.

I have a favorite ring I wear in my navel, it is a sterling silver dumbbell, on a cubic zirconia crystal ring. Just like everything else in my life, it has a great story.

I got my original from Frances Frost of GymGems she makes beautiful jewelry for weight training enthusiasts and marathoners.  Here is a close up of my belly ring.

I purchased one without the crystals about three years ago, and one day I lost it! I emailed Fran and she said that the unique TummyToy clasp prevents that, it must have gotten damaged. She would give me half off a new one, and I may be interested in the new one with crystals.

Yes, I loved it and ordered one, you can see me wearing it in all my pictures. 

Recently two of the crystals came out and I purchased more to fix it, but they were too big. I emailed Fran and she contacted Melissa Tyler, owner of TummyToys, maker of the ring portion of my belly ring.

Melissa said she would fix it if I sent it to her. I packaged it up and sent it off. Just a couple days later I got a call from Melissa, she said "well this ring certainly has seen a lot of love!"..I laughed and explained that I wear it everyday, and I am on my stomach on a weight bench a lot.

She said the ring was crushed, she really couldn't repair it but she would give me credit for the old one, rebuild my jewelry, clean it all up and send it back. For a mere $22.00.

What a deal! I told her that was more than generous and I of course wanted her to take care of it immediately. I paid over PayPal and got my new belly ring back the next week.

Both of these wonderful women stand behind their jewelry and I encourage you to go to their sites, select something and wear it proudly.

And if you are ever in San Jose, California and want a body piercing, make an appointment to see Daniel at Body Exotic, he does great work!