00:01When there's previous scarring, especially in a navel piercing, it can be a little bit
00:05difficult to remark and re-pierce. So I do have to go a little bit slower usually when I'm going
00:11through or around scar tissue. I'm Sincere and I'm getting a belly button piercing done today.
00:19Growing up, my mom was really strict. She did not like tattoos, she did not like piercing,
00:24so I started kind of rebelling. I do have quite a few piercings on my body, mostly my ears. My
00:29best friend did my belly button when we were in high school. As I got older, I took my ring
00:34out
00:34and it ended up closing, so I am missing that piercing, so I'm really excited to get it done
00:39again. I'm pretty sure it'd be easy to re-pierce, but yeah, it's definitely a scar. Just having that
00:43extra glam would definitely make me happier. I'm Lucy Dahl and I'm a piercer at Aesthetic Ambition
00:48in Marina Del Rey, California. I started my apprenticeship in 2015 as soon as I graduated
00:53college. I have been working professionally at Aesthetic Ambition since we opened in 2018.
00:59I've always been a fan of body modification. I couldn't love it more.
01:05Hi! Do you want me to take your temperature really quick? Yeah, of course. Perfect. So I'm Lucy,
01:09I'm going to be your piercer today. We're going to be doing your belly button, right? Yes. Awesome.
01:13I really like this one right here. The oval one? Yes. You got it. All right, you ready? I'm ready.
01:18All right, let's get started. Okay. Honestly, belly button piercings have been popular since
01:24the 90s, since the Britney Spears revolution. They really haven't gone out of style. They're
01:29a very popular piercing. I always get a little nervous whenever I get a piercing,
01:34but I mostly just say, go for it. Otherwise, I'll never get it done. My dream outcome is to just
01:39take care of it. Just hope that it stays and remains beautiful. For prepping the skin for the first
01:46time, I like to use alcohol that cleans the skin of any impurities or dirt or anything, skin oils,
01:53things like that. Belly button piercings are marked while standing so that I can make sure
01:59that the piercing is marked straight up and down. Her old piercing scar was a little bit to the left,
02:08so I marked to compensate for that. When we have a scar from a previous piercing, especially with belly
02:13button piercings, they leave pretty significant scarring, and that fistula of the scar is pretty
02:18long and significant there. Unfortunately, we can't usually pierce through it because the skin
02:23will have to heal a brand new fistula, which can be difficult through scar tissue. We recommend
02:29piercing either behind it or around it. Most of the time, though, they are off-center, so it's pretty
02:34easy to get around the old scar. I like to mark the ridge of the belly button to know when
02:39she does lay
02:39down how that shifts as her body shifts. In order to do a successful belly button piercing, one does
02:46need to have specific anatomy. It's fairly common to have this anatomy, but we do need to check every
02:52time, so usually you want a pretty pronounced ridge on the top of the belly button so that we can
02:58pierce
02:58through something. If it's too flat or there's no ridge available, then a lot of the times it can lead
03:04to rejection.
03:07Cool. Perfect. Go ahead and lay down for me. Okay.
03:17After marking with a sterile marker, I use iodine on top of that to further prep the tissue
03:24and to prep any area that my gloves are going to touch. I do use sterile gloves for this procedure
03:32as well so that sterile touches sterile and that makes sure that Sincere is best protected from any
03:39sort of potential infection in the future. I like to talk my clients through the piercing. I like to make
03:47sure that they're feeling okay through every step. I find it personally very uncomfortable in any sort of
03:52medical procedure when I'm not told what's happening, so I like to tell my clients everything that's
03:57happening throughout the procedure so they know what's going on, they know what they're feeling,
04:01they know what they're going to expect, and they know what they're going to feel next.
04:11I do have Sincere take a nice deep breath in. As soon as she exhales, that's when the piercing happens.
04:37So for body piercing, we only use hypodermic tri-bevel needles. That makes it easy for piercing,
04:43easy on the client, easy on the piercer. They're the most comfortable and sharp needles available for us.
04:49They do create a crescent moon shape in the tissue, which allows us to slide the jewelry through
04:54without too much tissue manipulation, and they are ideal for that situation.
05:28It's a very
05:29fast navels are very fast i can get a client in and out of here in under five minutes
05:42once we are through i transfer the jewelry through
05:46get it into the piercing attach the top
05:54once the jewelry is in place i clean off the excess iodine and marker and she is set to go
06:05all right go ahead and turn around it's so cute and it's straight
06:11i love it look so good yes it's so pretty thank you so much
06:20so my initial reaction is that i was super happy and excited and i'm really happy that you can't
06:25see my previous scar too i learned from lucy that you can't pierce the same area which i was a
06:31little
06:31bummed but it makes sense of course you don't want to redamage the skin so she taught me that you
06:36can
06:36pierce behind the scar and it looked just as great it didn't actually feel that bad going under the
06:42scar tissue i kind of felt like i didn't even feel the scar at all actually when i first felt
06:46the
06:47needle i did get nervous of course but i knew i was in good hands and when she told me
06:52to breathe in
06:53and breathe out it was just a slight pinch but it actually wasn't that bad at all sincere was great
06:58she was super comfortable she was really easy to work with she wasn't super nervous or anything like
07:06that totally calm she was a great client to heal her belly button piercing sincere needs to use a
07:13sterile saline solution about one to two times a day i recommend doing so after your shower or any
07:18sort of water activity or sweating or something like that so we can remove any non-sterile water from
07:24the area other than that honestly just leaving it alone and being kind to it not putting excess pressure
07:29on it and it'll heal totally fine going to professional for the first time was great lucy was very
07:35professional she walked me step by step and she was very clean especially during these times so i
07:40felt really safe so when it comes to piercing yourself i mean we've all kind of had the inkling
07:46to do it we've all been kind of tempted by fate in that way i don't recommend it it is
07:51very unsafe
07:53it's very easy to get an infection that way it's very easy to get a crooked piercing that way
07:58and the person performing the piercing just doesn't have the level of training required
08:02unfortunately i know it's fun but it won't be fun three months down the road i do think it's
08:08important to go to a professional i wouldn't recommend having your best friend do it i am
08:13definitely going to be extra careful with my belly button i want this one to last and i want it
08:17to
08:17hear properly so belly button piercings are soft tissue so they can be fairly easy to heal there's a
08:22lot of blood flow there but it is a high movement area so usually around six months is what we
08:27recommend
08:27on average but it is important to check in with your piercer around that time to make sure it is
08:32fully healed at my studio a naval piercing costs thirty dollars for the service that does not include
08:38the jewelry i have super basic jewelry available for about forty dollars and that's just a silver
08:43curve barbell or an anodized curve barbell with no gemstones on it something like what sincere chose
08:48today usually goes for about 95. i'm really excited to show it off when i go to the beach show
08:53my friends
08:53that i have the piercing back i do plan on showing my best friend my piercing she's not in the
09:00piercing
09:00phase anymore so i'm sure she won't feel any type of way about it i do feel relieved i'm happy
09:05to have
09:06it back it's beautiful and it was quick it was easy and i'm super excited i am very overall happy
09:12with
09:12the results and i can't wait to go back to blue sea again thank you for watching refinery 29 to
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