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Microdermal Implants
By Andrew | January 26, 2008
Ever since I heard about microdermals over a year ago I found the idea intriguing. Whenever I’d thought about getting any piercings I never figured they’d look right on me so I just hadn’t bothered with them. Microdermals, on the other hand, can be placed pretty much anywhere so I didn’t have to worry about how, say, a labret would look on me. Conceptually I also love the idea of something that sits internal to the skin that tissue actually grows through and anchors into place.
Last Thursday night I had just finished nursing a red wine hangover and I was thinking about them again so I got up from my desk and walked the 3 blocks to Church of Steel. I knew from a recent modblog(nws) post that they did them there and the shop has a decent name so I figured why not.
I talked to one of the piercers, Evan, and asked for three microdermals in my wrist. (Since I sleep like a Vietnam vet with PTSD I figured that the wrist would be the least likely place for them to get knocked around.) The interesting thing about the bodymod community is how fast things move. A year ago these things were still mostly experimental and to a certain extent they still are, and the idea that I can just walk down the street and get something like this is astounding to me.
Anyway, after doing all the paperwork I sat in the piercing room while Evan prepped my wrist and lined everything else up. The basic procedure is that the insertion hole is first punched with a small dermal punch, a regular piercing needle it used to elevate the skin and create the pocket and the jewelry, held with hemostats, is coaxed into place.
To be honest the only real painful part of the whole experience is the brief sting of the dermal punch, everything else is a walk in the park. There were a couple of odd sensations as the jewelry was maneuvered into place but nothing I’d really classify as pain. The last 48 hours has been completely uneventful too. There was a small amount of blood the following morning, that got cleaned up with a quick saline soak but other than that there’s been no pain, so swelling, no discomfort, no anything, just three steel disks sticking out of my wrist. The only time I’ve even really noticed them were when I smacked one of them while getting my mail last night and that was a brief 30 seconds of pain and an “oh shit” feeling but no noticeable lasting damage. I’m actually amazed at how much my wrist doesn’t hurt.
After 4 weeks or so I can switch out the ends on them to something a bit more elegant, and I’m really interested to see how the skin has grown around the shaft that sticks up out of my skin at that point. For now though I’m really happy with them and I think healing is going to be completely uneventful.
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