a little bit of shiny helps the needle go in

[anotheranon]

Study: Decorated needles calm patients. This might explain why even though I still get apprehensive about injections, I can get downright giddy when I'm in a piercing studio: if there's jewelry chasing the needle, I do just fine :P

Dr. Charles from Scienceblogs.com has his own ideas for decorations, but IMHO none of them hold a candle to a steel captive bead ring (especially not Rumsfeld)...

Comments

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Makes sense though, that your reaction is different in a piercing studio ... the jewellery is the tangible, shiny-things reward.

This, and I've been in piercing studios that were cleaner than some doctor's offices :P

In all seriousness, I had a horror of needles all the way through high school, and to this day I cannot have an injection if I can see the needle go in. Perhaps piercing is different for me because it's not intramuscular (and hence is a different "flavor" of pain) and because it feels more voluntary (though admittedly the yearly flu shot and 9 years of Depo were technically injections I didn't necessarily need - there were alternatives).

But I do hear you re: painful healing up: my cartilage fussed for 2 years before finally settling in, and is the one piercing I have that had I known how difficult it would be, I would not have done.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Backtracking: I must thank you for this exchange because it made me realize that I hadn't worn earrings for nearly three weeks, so immediately put a pair in ... and, yes, those dear little, hard-won holes had already started to shrink. Everything is now all stretched back out where it should be now (thanks to wearing the thickest posts I own for a continuous 72 hours). The things we do ... :p