Ah, so it's a burn. Does it count as scarification or is it different?
I wanted to wait for the nipple piercings until I was back in the US with my boyfriend, but then we talked about it a bunch since I last posted about it, and we concluded that there were more benefits for doing it here: time to heal while away from him (so no temptation to have him play with them) and without a job that would force me to go out a lot (not that I would mind if I got a job).
So I went and had it done, and it was painful (I have a low pain threshold), but it wasn't too bad.
I didn't faint while the guy did it or right afterwards, but on my way home I had to stop 3 times, each time because I was about to faint. I had to sit down and drink/eat something sweet. Thankfully I had eaten a big meal beforehand, and I had brought some soda with me.
Once I was home, lying on my back with no bra was the most comfortable position. Any moving would hurt, not the nipple though, but the breast. It was tender, and I realise a lot of people won't relate to that, but the feeling was the one you get when your breasts are tied up at the base, and they feel so tender and heavy with blood.
Standing up was by far the worst, I actually walked hunched over instead, with my breasts dangling down, and it seems like it shouldn't have but it felt better. But the first day I just stayed in bed as much as possible.
The second day I went out for groceries, but without a bra as putting one on was too painful. The first two nights I had to sleep on my back, the third one I woke up on my front (I normally sleep on my front). I bought nursing pads to wear with a bra to sleep in from now on.
Now it's not painful in the least, I'm just making sure it doesn't get infected.
I went for barbells, and they're 16mm long I believe (20 if you include the balls on both ends). Salt soaks aren't what the piercers recommend here, not that they said anything against it but they didn't mention it, so I haven't done any. However I did buy saline when I got my eyebrow piercing, as they say to wash the jewlery with a Q-tip and either antibacterial lotion (for the first two weeks) or saline (from then on).
They told me to deal with the nipple piercings in the same way as with the eyebrow one, so I'm at the antibacterial lotion stage. (It's call biseptine if anyone is curious what it is).
I had blood and crusts at first but now I have neither, and the barbell moves back and forth smoothly when I clean it. I know that nipple piercings take up to two years for the whole "tunnel" to be completely healed, but I think it's healing very nicely so far.
@PinkDragon, as someone who has tattoos and a brand, which technique would you say was more painful? Which would you say took longer?