about piercings

prior to leaving the shelt'ring walls of home back in singas, i wanted to get a nose-ring to commemorate the occasion. and i thought i'd look damn design-ah with my black-rim specs and black clothes and cool nose-ring.

now, i'm not a person who yearns for pain, nor a believer that pain is something that makes things 'real'. whatever. pain is bad when it comes in the physical form of injection needles, headaches, pen-knife cuts, etc. it's good, however, when it gets rewarded with pleasure, like seeing the blood on the piano keys at the end of rachmaninov's technically demanding second piano concerto, or something. maybe S&M. but i digress.

piercings. i was 15 when i finally decided to get my ears pierced for the first time. my mom wasn't the traditional kind so i never had the privilege of having ear-rings without remembering the pain as a toddler. it was at a sterile goldsmith shop somewhere at thomson plaza that i sat in trepidation, awaiting that force that would drive the studs into my virgin ear-lobes. amazingly, it was over before i knew it. i have a high threshold for pain, no? but til today, i still only have 1 set of ear-piercings to show for my amazing threshold.

at 15 onwards, most girls would be heading for multiple piercings on their ear cartilege, tongues, lips, navel or eyebrow. many of my friends sported at least 2 of the above simultaneously. and still others had their nipples pierced. and also where the sun don't shine. she said it finally felt worthwhile running for the bus!

what held me back from more piercings was that i was a wuss afraid of stories that had circulated by then, that some freak piercings on the ear cartilege damaged the nerves and led to deafness, or blindness. as a person whose lifelihood depended upon hearing and sight, i steered clear of more piercings on any part of the ear. but on the nose! ah, only a nose-ring would do. not a nose-stud. and definitely not a gold nose-stud, or else i will definitely be mistaken for an ah-neh with my dark complexion!

checking out cool places to perform the deed, i came across this newly set-up (and thus quite sterile-looking) place at queensway shopping centre. but i chickened out the price put me off. at $11 for a blunt pierce using the gun (blunt, hence going to hurt a hell of a LOT more), and $45 for a sharp-pierce (done using a much sharper tool, so there's less pain), i just wasn't ready to part with the cash for the pain-free encounter.

so i came to melbs without my cool nose-ring. slowly i came to terms with my nose-ringless existence, reasoning that it was more hygienic that way, without having to bother about a foreign object in my nose everytime i wipe my snot. my nose gets runny in cold weather. and i did not have to worry about the nose-ring accidentally hooking onto my sweaters/tshirts everytime i changed. and if i ever fell asleep on my face, i would not find a ring imprinted on the side of my nose when i awoke. and i could indulge in squeezing the white/blackheads pore refining without as much trouble.

but guess what? as fate would have it, in one of the main streets of the city, just 100m away from my university, there is a shop specialising in body piercings. might just go in there one day and do it!