Piercing the Cloud

Am sick at home today and messing around, so I decided to make a little pierced cloud.  I think it came out nice.  That’s a Anatometal fixed bead ring, if memory serves me, which I wore for a while in my navel piercing.

I used it as my avatar in the BodyArtForms forums.  Appropriate, since they are retailers of Anatometal body jewelry.  Anatometal is a premium body jewelry company which makes awesome jewelry–soooo finely done and polished!  I own quite a few of their pieces.

I just joined the BodyArtForms forums, and the first response I got was from a moderator–”don’t revive old threads.”  I guess they wanted me to start a whole new thread to test my avatar, dunno.  Not a very warm welcome, but I guess I can overlook it.  I’ve run afoul of forum “unwritten rules” before, and I bet you have too.

Take a look at the Anatometal site. And here’s a link to the BAF discussion forums.

Questions?

Resources: Forums

Discussion forums are a great place to look for answers to your piercing questions and talk to others. Look at the website of your favorite body jewelry retailer for forums.

But Cloud, you said back when you were Dazed and Confused to listen to your piercers, not your friends.

Sure, always try to ask your piercer directly.  Your piercer is your expert resource and should expect a certain amount of follow up.  Call your piercer up.  Go in for a checkup.  (Be sure and tip for a face-to-face consultation if this is the custom in your part of the world.)

Sometimes your piercer lives too far away, or you can’t get hold of him; sometimes the advice is simply bad.  (There are still loads of piercers out there recommending Bactine.)  These sites also have FAQs sections, articles, and don’t forget the jewelry catalogs. Get a second opinion. Find a forum where people will help you out.  Ones to try:

Tribalectic

Steel Navel

Tonguestud

Thank you to Rekahop on Flickr for the pic.

Resource Spotlight: Tribalectic

Get your questions answered here!

I have a special place in my heart for Tribalectic, a website that styles itself “The Definitive Source for Everything Pierced.”

Back when I first started looking for help and answers to questions, I spotted an ad in a tattoo magazine.  I forget exactly what it said, but what caught my eye was something like, “join Tribalectic’s community and talk to other pierced people.”  So I joined up, and it’s been my home-away-from-home ever since.

Tribalectic is a full service online retailer of quality body jewelry, but what I’d particularly like to highlight here are the forums. I’ve learned so much over the years by participating in the forums, and have been privileged to help others with what I’ve learned and to make many friends from all over the world.  The look and features of the site have recently been updated from the old “Bat Cave,” with a bunch of social-networking features added, but to me the forum is still the heart and soul of “Tribe”– it’s still one of the best places around to get in touch with your peers and learn about piercing.  You can find me there (Cloud) talking to folks and answering questions.  If you are a professional piercer, there’s also a forum just for you! Check it out:

http://www.tribalectic.com/Drupal/forum

Of course, there’s also the jewelry catalog, galleries of piercing photos, individual blogs, chat room, free email, newsletter, articles, and a host of other stuff.  In particular, one of the great things about ordering jewelry from Tribalectic is that it comes to you pre-sterilized (except for organic jewelry and other things which can’t be autoclaved.)  So check it out!  Here’s the link to the main page:

http://www.tribalectic.com/Drupal/