[img]396|left|Alex Campbell||no_popup[/img]I got pierced. Until today, I had one hole in each ear, a look I’ve maintained for the past nine years or so. Conservative. Ordinary. Mainstream. A little boring.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with different piercings. In my mid-twenties, I had two holes in each ear, and then added a hole in my upper ear. My ears didn’t like that so much; they got red and swollen. Out came the extra piercings.
In my quest for attention and an alternative look, I got my eyebrow pierced in my late twenties. I had a cute little silver ring in my eyebrow for six years. I was a rebel. I was the first person at my college to get an eyebrow piercing, and I thought I was hot stuff. I wasn’t so hot whenever I got my piercing caught in my clothing. Removing a sweater over one’s head only to have it get stuck mid-face is not fun or attractive. Two things happened that made me remove my eyebrow ring in my early thirties. One was that my eyebrow rejected the ring. The skin on my eyebrow started growing over the piercing so that more and more of the ring showed, forcing it out of my face. The other thing was that I was accepted into a program to teach English in Japan. I thought I’d better put my best conservative face forward and remove my piercing; it was coming out anyway.
I stayed pierce-free in a radical way for nine years. But I couldn’t stay non-radical. I discovered a love of tattoos. Imagine, I could be a rebel at all times! I’m more rebellious in the summer, but in the winter, my clothes cover my tats. My hair is in an angled bob, highlighted blond, and I have a diamond in each ear. A couple of months ago, I was at an art show. I was dressed up, and a woman I had just met found out my entire back was tattooed. She said, “You would never know.” I like that. Keeps ‘em guessing.
Time to Reverse Roles?
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was on Facebook, and the chat window popped up. Who should be chatting me up but Eric, a former preschool student of mine who is now sixteen years old and six-foot-something. With facial hair.
Eric wanted to get his eyebrow pierced, and his mom told him to talk to someone who had had it done. I had the eyebrow ring when I was Eric’s teacher, so who better to ask? I steered him away from that idea, and encouraged him to get his ears pierced. I also steered him away from plugs (and if you don’t know what plugs are, look it up). “Start small,” I told him. He said okay, and ended the conversation with, “So I can’t get my eyebrow pierced?” “No, Eric, you can’t.”
I did some research and found a place, recommended to me by the wife of my tattoo artist. While looking at the place’s website, I saw a photo gallery, and the nose piercings looked really cute. Now, I had thought about getting a nose stud for years, but I always shied away from it, because I have allergies. Year-round. But if Eric was getting pierced, I wanted to get pierced too (I thought, doing a role reversal of student and teacher)! Besides, I’d done something every decade, so I was due, now that I was in my forties. I decided to be a grownup about it and ask the piercer what he or she thought about nose piercing and allergies.
We went to the place, filled out the forms, and got ready. I talked to the woman who was doing the piercing, and she said that it might take a little longer to heal, and I couldn’t use my allergy nasal spray, but it shouldn’t really be a problem. I said I’d think about it while Eric was getting his ears done.
I had about five minutes to weigh my options. Which was more important to me, to not suffer with a drippy nose from allergies, or to look cute? The nose knows. I went in there, selected a little white gem, and got a needle shot through my nose (“Take a deep breath when I tell you to, and then exhale…”). Cute won.
When we were done, we got back in the minivan with Mom and gave each other a high-five. Student and teacher bonding was never more cool. And now I have just a touch of bling; keeps ‘em guessing.
Ms. Campbell may be contacted at campbellalexandra@hotmail.com
