A Little Body Jewellery Collection

Something you might not know about me is that I have 4 piercings- two in my ears, one in my lip and one a little further south. I've had my left nipple pierced for just over 4 years; I’d wanted it done for a while and took the plunge a few weeks before my 18^th birthday. The piercing parlour was clean and gave good advice about aftercare, but looking back I wouldn't recommend them as they agreed to pierce an intimate area even though I told them I had no ID. I think nipple piercings are really attractive, but for me the healing was a drag and almost put me off piercings completely- it took a good few months of sleeping in a bra because of the soreness, not letting anyone touch it and being careful not to accidentally knock it. Nips take on average 9 months to heal, but it was only towards the 12 month mark that mine finally healed completely.
After the initial pain of the needle (one which took me by surprise and made me shout words that I didn't even know I had in me), it was sensitive and sore for longer than I had expected, but I haven’t had any problems with it since and I'm so glad that I had it done. While I occasionally contemplate removing my lip stud, I can’t see myself taking my nip piercing out until I need to- not only, in my opinion, does it look great but it’s also nice to have something that isn't on show and that only a handful of people will see.

Most of the body jewellery I own is very simple, but there are a few pieces which are particularly colourful or interesting that I thought were definitely worth sharing. With nipple jewellery you can be a bit more creative than with other parts of the body, and it’s always fun to see someone’s reaction when they come across something they weren't expecting.BCR steel rings are possibly the most boring items of body jewellery, but they're sometimes necessary as they're the least likely to catch on hair or clothing. I tend to prefer rings over bars, even though I do like a change sometimes, but there aren't really a lot of options when it comes to rings other than changing the little balls that close them. To jazz mine up I've gone for blue, turquoise and green jewelled balls as that's the colour family I like the most and, even though they're simple, I think they're really pretty colours.This shield is quite interesting, with its semi-floral design in clear and blue crystals. It does look really nice on and is a more feminine version of a plain cut-out silver shield, but the design lets it down slightly- the hole is quite small and when the bar is threaded through the two loops at the back it sits a way behind the shield, so it was quite optimistic of the designer to expect anyone’s nip to actually stay in place unless they kept still and were perpetually....cold. Even though you can't really tell, the shield is made from plastic which makes it a bit more comfortable than it would be in metal as its more lightweight. The bar from this shield is the one that I wear the most, it's quite big at 3cm long, but I'm not very keen on those short ones that just look like two silver balls floating on either side of the nip.I think this bow and arrow is so cute! One day I might actually buy something in a colour other than blue but I think the little crystals in this one bring it to life a bit. This one it's not quite as dainty as it looks so it doesn't come out too often as its a little bit heavy. The bar is a bit shorter than the other, and I'm thinking of getting a couple of more interesting balls to go on the end rather than a little ball and a cone. The thing with metal screw on balls is that most have the design on the top and the hole on the bottom, so when they're on a bar you can only see the design from either side rather than if you’re looking at it straight on. Tongue bars for some reason seem to have the funkiest designed balls, especially in acrylic, and I really like the look of these Two Tone Glow In the Dark Balls from Urban Piercing Shop to add to my collection.You'll either think this is really sweet or really tacky, I've got a feeling you might go for tacky but obviously I thought it was sweet! I'm sure I don't need to explain why there’s a gap where the O should be, I don't know who designs these things but that gap is a lot smaller than it looks, let me tell you! To be fair it does come in three bar lengths but the end of the L really encroaches into the bar area so I'm glad I got the biggest size. I think the font adds a tiny bit of class to this one, with some sort of chunky 'Impact' style font it might look a bit like it belongs in the jewellery section of the Argos catalogue, but its a little more classy and the letters are sterling silver instead of the normal steel. This is probably my least worn, as it has edges that can catch, and the memory of getting it caught and tangled once in a knitted jumper still makes me shiver a bit! Even so, I'm pleased to have it in my collection to pull out as a surprise every now and then.

Do you have any unusual piercings or interesting pieces of body jewellery?