Dichroic Reflections

to, or not to

Decision to make this morning. Coming out of the gym shower after rowing, I noticed my navel piercing is missing the top little silver ball that holds it in place. I have a couple of options. I can go buy a new one at lunch, because the place where I got it pierced isn't too far from here. I can be very careful with it and wait until I get home, hoping I didn't lose the little lapis topper I bought for it but haven't worn for a long time since deciding I liked the silver ball better.

Or I can just take it out and let it close. There are a lot of good reason to do that: for one, it never really healed all that well. For another, I'm so short-waisted that several of my pants and skirts (even slightly low-waisted ones) come up over it and irritate it. My abs have never been in good enough condition for me to want to display it publicly, and Rudder's not crazy about it.

The only good reasons I can think of to have a piercing (because, after all a non-medically necessary intrusive object in your body is not a default state) is because it means something to you or because you like the way it looks. Therefore, the appropriate action would be to examine those reasons and decide if either apply. It doesn't have a special specific meaning to me - that is, I didn't get it to commemorate some triumph or milestone in my life. In more general terms, the main thing it means is thatI can think of myself as the sort of person who would have a body piercing instead of the sort who wouldn't - meaning, it lets me believe a little more daring and rebellion into my self-image. (Yes, I do know just how common piercings are and how stupid that is, especially as compared to some less common daring things I've done.) As for liking the way it looks - I don't know. The problem is that I don't like the way my stomach looks in general. The picture links above is with everything sucked in, a waistband strategically arranged, a few pounds less on me - and even then, you're not seeing the side view. Then again, the piercing only shows from the front anyway. And it doesn't show at all with a shirt in front of it!

Hmm. So far the preponderance of reasons seem to be in favor of taking it out. But I just somehow don't want to, which I suppose is also a good reason.

LATER: Writing this out did help; once I looked at all the reasons for and against, I realized I just don't want to take out my piercing, whatever the reasons say. So I went out at lunch and bought an opal ball set in prongs, and a plain steel one in case the opal breaks or I decide I don't like it as much. Coincidentally, the guy who sold them to be had big flat dichroic cabochons - over an inch across set in his stretched earlobes. Too bad they didn't have dichroic ends for my little barbell. I asked and they said someone had tried but couldn't successfully combine the glass and the metal - pretty stupid answer (on the part of the would-be manufacturers, not the person I was talking to) considerably they could have just set a glass ball in prongs, as with the opal I bought. Anyway, I think it's close enough. Opal, the original dichroic, now set in a Dichroic not too near you.

Posted by dichroic at May 12, 2006 11:32 AM