Overcoming the needle

My daughter is petrified of needles. Scared. It's not an act, people. Lindsay fell apart in the middle of the mall getting 2nd and 3rd holes in her ears. A major meltdown as the lady came at her with the piercing gun. Lots of crying and sobbing and snot.

She was 15.

So when she told me she wanted to get her belly pierced I was uneasy for 2 reasons:

1) It was her belly button. Something that, until it became pierced, would remain unseen by the general public unless she was swimming. I wanted to keep what modesty she still has in tact.
2) It would require a needle.

She begged. She even had a friend that wanted to pay for it for her birthday. She was DETERMINED to overcome the needle fear that grips her. But that didn't address #1 which was truly my bigger issue. She's 17. She needs a parent's permission. It wasn't going to happen with either me OR her father.

So I compromised.

I told her she could pierce her nose as long as the jewelry was small and tasteful. No bull rings. She really could not understand why I would give permission to pierce her nose and not her belly button. It was simple in my mind....everyone already sees her nose.

I also told her she would be paying for it herself. She thought about it...mulled it over...really took some time to contemplate her decision....and 1.3 seconds later asked me where she could get it done.

I asked a friend from work who I knew had some piercings and tattoos if she knew of a reputable CLEAN place I could take Lindsay. She promptly responded and before I knew it we were driving downtown to put a hole in my daughter's nose. Well, an extra hole. She already had 2.

She was fairly calm...until the guy that was to do the piercing looked at her and said she looked a little nervous and anxious. She lost it. Oy! We hadn't even got to the room yet! This man needs a medal because he gently put down his pen and the paperwork....then took about 25 minutes and just talked through the whole "fear" of needles that Lindsay had. He was calm and reassuring. And she soaked up every word he had to say like a little sponge. Yes, he was *that* good!

So she grabbed up all her new-found bravery and marched right in and hopped up on the table. I know the picture doesn't really show it, but she was all kinds of calm.



And I would love to show you the actual piercing, but I promised I wouldn't post it for public consumption lest some idiot teenager saw it and decided it looked like a piece of cake and pierced themselves. She was brave, I tell ya...because I was sweating and I wasn't getting a needle shoved through my nose.



It was pretty sore and a bit swollen for a few days. But she was very happy with the overall experience and decided that everything the store owner told her made sense for anything she had a fear of.





I wonder if he would be available to talk to her before her next final exam?