Got my bellybutton pierced at Next! in Vancouver that claims they, “haven’t had more than 1 infection per piercer!” Oh, then what’s this?
This photo was taken the same day, a week after I got the piercing, when I went into Next! and had them take a look at it. The girl shrugs and tells me it’s not infected, but to get some antibiotics just in case.
First of all, she wouldn’t be telling me to get antibiotics if she didn’t think it was infected and secondly, you can’t get antibiotics without a prescription.
So, I went to the clinic and instead of a course of antibiotics, the doctor says, “that needs to come out right away.”
…she was also retired and volunteering at the clinic and had “never dealt with an infected piercing before.” Great.
Worst pain of my life. She had her assistant hold me down as she used a pair of pliers to twist the ball off. Of course she has no idea which way to turn it and the pliers kept slipping so it took way longer than it should’ve.
Afterwards, I was in shock and was crying uncontrollably and I had to call my mom to come and get me since I couldn’t walk without getting wobble legs.
In about an hour I had regained control of myself and decided to sterilize the jewellery and put it back in for fear of sealing the infection into my stomach.
Over the next week, I did many sea salt soaks a day, drawing the infection out. I even used a cream that literally sucked the pus out, it was awesome.
ps, needless to say, I won’t be going back to Next! anymore due to their terrible customer service and risking my health just so they can claim their clients don’t get infections.
Whilst this really sucked for the owner, it’s not their fault at all, it’s the fault of a poor sterilization technique employed by the piercing studio.
